Hallmark is supporting ITV for the third year running as part of the annual Text Santa charity appeal. Having originally worked with ITV’s Daybreak on the Art Stars contest back in 2011, the card and gift specialist will now host a second year of the ‘Sketch Santa’ competition which launched today (7th October 2013) on Daybreak.
Sketch Santa invites youngsters across the UK, aged 6 to 16, to design their very own Christmas card. The winner’s drawing will then be brought to life by Hallmark and sold throughout the UK as part of a unique charity card six pack for Text Santa later this year.
For 2013, the competition will be supported by teen pop band Little Mix who will be featured on all six of the cards, including one that also highlights the winner’s design. Entrants will be asked to create a portrait piece of artwork, on A4 paper, which includes Santa and also captures what Christmas means to them.
The competition will close on 14th October at which point a panel of judges, including Tamysn Johnston Hughes the PR and Social Marketing Manager for Hallmark, will assess the entries for creativity, originality and their suitability for a card design. The winner will be announced later this year, live on national TV.
Speaking about the competition, Tamsyn said: “We’re delighted to be working with ITV again as part of its Text Santa fundraising appeal. Sketch Santa has previously been met with an influx of entries by children of all ages and we’re confident this year will be the same, particularly with the confirmation of Little Mix’s involvement. The girls are a perfect fit for the campaign and should inspire lots of youngsters to get creative this Christmas, putting cards in the spotlight for a new generation. Once again, Text Santa as a whole is raising money for some extremely worthwhile causes, and we’re thrilled to be involved again for 2013.”
Sold as an official product for ITV’s Text Santa appeal 2013, the special card packs will be available nationwide from www.hallmark.co.uk and selected Hallmark stores this winter. Each pack sold will see a portion of the proceeds donated to the Text Santa appeal; which in turn supports six worthy charities based in the UK. For 2013, the six chosen charities set to benefit from funds raised include: Age UK, Barnardo’s, Beat Bullying, British Heart Foundation, CLIC Sargent and Help the Hospices.
Little Mix’s, Perrie Edwards said: “We love the idea of getting creative for Christmas and what better reason to get involved in a bit of festive fun than to help the Text Santa appeal? We had such a good time creating our cards for this special pack and now we’re really looking forward to seeing what the Daybreak viewers come up with as their contribution!”
Daybreak’s Head of Features, Vivek Sharma added; “Following the success of Sketch Santa on ITV’s Daybreak over the past few years, we are excited to be opening the competition up to budding artists again for Christmas 2013. Having chart topping girl band, Little Mix on board shows just what a fantastic opportunity this is. Forming part of ITV’s Text Santa charity appeal, Sketch Santa gives young viewers the chance to get their artwork on a Christmas card with Little Mix, which will be sold on the High Street, and support the great charities highlighted through ITV’s Text Santa appeal.”
Full details of the competition, entry forms and guidelines will be held on www.itv.com/daybreak. Further information, and behind the scenes news, will also be shared on www.facebook.com/hallmarkuk.
