Thinking of You Week 2021 will be celebrated across the UK on 20th to 26th of September this year.
GCA members across the country are reminding everyone to ‘send a card and deliver a smile’. As GCA member, and formal NHS Clinical Neuropsychologist, Dr Emma Lawrence says “It isn’t just the recipient that benefits psychologically from receiving a card, but the sender too”. See here for Emma’s post on the Psychology of Sending Greetings Cards.
More retailers than ever have shared their plans for 2021: Clintons, Cardzone, Sainsburys, B&M, Asda, Tesco, House of Cards and Co-op are just some of the retailers planning in-store activity to encourage customers to send a card!
Royal Mail are planning a number of exciting initiatives, including a postmark which will be used on stamped mail send during Thinking of You Week. Royal Mail have also made a film, sharing the power of receiving a card, which will be unveiled on social media during Thinking of You Week.
The US Postal Service are doing the same – and have set a target of ‘cancelling’ 1 billion pieces of mail with their Thinking of You Week post mark! See the link to view their film.
And PGBuzz are sharing activities across their networks.
Two GCA initiatives for us all to use: Shmuncki Verse, kindly agreed to write a poem specially for Thinking of You Week 2021, reminding us all of the importance of connecting through cards. And Lanther Black produced a short film for the GCA (above) that we can all share on social media.
GCA Poem for ToYW 2021 – available for all members to use!
Business owner, Helen Walters, and the GCA’s Amanda Fergusson, came up with the idea at Harrogate. Helen said, “Thinking of You Week is a lovely reminder to connect, and a card is such a lovely way to do that. I’ve been inspired by Amanda to write this poem for Thinking of You Week – as a little reminder to do just that, so pop a thoughtful word in the post this week – it’s very likely going to make someone’s day!”
This poem is free to use for all GCA members to share and support their own activity, it can be downloaded below.
Other Activity in the pipeline
Publishers Paper Salad and The Art File are building on relationships established in previous years , GF Smith are working on an interesting new initiative (more news on this to follow!), Dandelion Stationery have produced some fab stickers and are supporting their retailers’ activity.
See our Thinking of You Week News feed, and PGBuzz for more industry activity
The GCA will again be working to raise the profile of this event, and our industry, through the media, so do share your Thinking of You Week News and designs with us. We can then feature your business on the Thinking of You Week News, or in our Thinking of You Week Gallery, along with a link to your website or a retailer; to get involved contact us.
How to Get involved for 2021 Thinking of You Week
Maybe team up with your customers, suppliers or a charity to encourage card sending. Perhaps donate some cards to a local school – encouraging the next generation of card senders. We know that receiving cards make people want to send a card; Thinking of You Week is about encouraging everyone to reach out to loved ones, neighbours, old friends or work mates just to say Thinking of You!
Please get involved by emailing admin@gca.cards with details of your Thinking of You Week plans.
If you have a story of consumer interest please send it, with photos, and we’ll add it to our News section. Also send in jpegs of Thinking of You cards that we can feature in our Gallery. See how to feature in our News or Gallery for more information.
Visit our Thinking of You Week site for inspiration and ideas. Think about others in your supply chain who you could connect with to create a bigger event.
See PGBuzz for more news and inspiration on Thinking of You Week 2021!
Thinking of You Week is a Worldwide Event!
This event has now spread around the globe with Australia and the USA both adopting the UK livery, designed by Paper Salad in January 2020 (yes we had the rainbow first!). Visit our dedicated website to learn more about this occasion and see below for how to Get Involved in 2021 Thinking of You Week.
Inspiration from Thinking of You Week 2020!
Do you need some inspiration for 2021? Well look back to our Thinking of You Week News, and the PGBuzz news links below, for some events and activities from previous years.
2020, a year of isolation and lockdown due to COVID-19, saw our biggest ever Thinking of You Week, with GCA members from across the country raising the flag for our industry and sharing the joy of card sending.
Summer 2020 saw the initial reopening of retail (albeit temporarily as it turned out) enabling many retailers to get behind the initiative, supported by publishers such as Cherry Orchard, who ran a competition for the best Thinking of You Week window display. Independents across the country got involved, along with leading card retailers such as Card Factory, Cardzone, Clintons, Paperchase, Asda. Sainsbury’s had freestanding displays in over 200 branches across the country. House of Cards, PostMark and Mooch Gifts and Home were among other groups who got involved.
Using the POS material available in the ToYW toolkit others teamed up with local charities or schools.
Manchester greeting card and gift company Belly Button donated cards to its local hospital Manchester University NHS foundation trust and offered retailers some additional support during what was a very challenging year, see here for more details.
Cards for Good Causes set up a dedicated Thinking of You Area on their website and also ran a prize giveaway competition, click here for details.
Nottingham-based publisher The Art File celebrated by encouraging the sending of cards within the local community tying up with local care home and the children’s ward at the local hospital, see here for more.
Social media created a amount of engagement in 2020, as everyone in the industry joined up with a build up to what became a huge week of events across the country with many people receiving cards from loved ones.
Media interest helped the event to spread outside the industry with GCA member Lucy Driver, from Lucy Driver Illustration, being approached by one of her suppliers who wanted to get involved.
We had press interest from a wide range of media – including ITV 6 o’clock news!
To see all the activities from previous year’s head to Thinking of You Week News.
To see the film Lanther Black made for the GCA to celebrate Thinking of You Week 2020 click here.
And visit GCA members’ Thinking of You Week Gallery to find gorgeous Thinking of You cards.
More inspiration!
Visit our Thinking of You Week site for inspiration and ideas. Think about others in your supply chain who you could connect with to create a bigger event.
Read PG Buzz articles that share more ideas from the card community
https://www.pgbuzz.net/earlybird-designs-spearheads-connectwithcards-campaign/
https://www.pgbuzz.net/card-factory-sainsburys-asda-paperchase-join-cardzone-in-committing-to-thinking-of-you-week-initiatives/
https://www.pgbuzz.net/pr-campaign-for-thinking-of-you-week-goes-into-overdrive/
https://www.pgbuzz.net/greeting-card-industry-pr-bonanza-for-new-film-and-itv-news-coverage/d
Download the GCA tool kit to use for your marketing to promote Thinking of You Week 2021 – and support the sales of your cards and the whole industry!
Downloads
