National Thinking of You Week, 15-21 June 2015

National Thinking of You Week is an exciting new initiative by the Australian Greeting Card Association to remind Australians of the power and value of greeting cards.

In an age of instant and transient communications, National Thinking of You Week is intended to promote the impact, importance and lasting value of written greetings to express feelings, share emotions, and connect with those we care most about.

The aim is to create a 'wave of love, caring and happiness' across the nation during the third week of June by encouraging people to purchase and send greeting cards to their friends, family, and loved ones. In addition, this will help support the retailers of greeting cards by driving traffic and sales; not only during the week but throughout the post-promotional period.

Members of the Australian Greeting Card Association have created a special range of products including point-of-sale material, which will be available for national and independent retailers to order through their suppliers.

The National Thinking of You Week Tool Kit is below and has been designed to help promote the campaign within local communities. Retailers are encouraged to organise events and special promotions to help engage with the community, attract customers, and drive sales.

The Australian Greeting Card Association will be supporting retailers through a Public Relations campaign, as well as providing editorial and advertorial support with metropolitan and regional media contacts.

National Thinking of You Week Tool Kit

Ideas, Events & Activities

The creation of National Thinking of You Week creates opportunities for you to get involved in your community in many ways which can drive engagement, promote the benefits of greeting cards, attract customer traffic to your store and, of course, drive sales.

The possibilities are almost endless…here are just some ideas to get you started:

• Partner with local businesses to run an activity day in your shopping strip

• Invite local schools or kindergartens to get the children involved, with a card stall and ‘Thinking of You’ activities including writing greeting cards to their friends.

• Organise a visit to local aged care facilities or retirement villages for a ‘Thinking of You’ morning tea where residents can purchase cards, write them to a friend, and give them to you for posting.

• Get local children involved in a greeting card design competition where the best design wins a selection of cards

• Approach your charity of choice or local not-for-profit group to see if you can offer a special deal with them as the beneficiary, to give your customers another compelling reason to buy cards

• Ask your customers to tell you about their favourite card and post the results on your noticeboard or on social media – a great way to highlight how people treasure and keep greeting cards

Promotion and In-Store POS

We have created a special range of support materials which are available to order right now. In addition to the editable poster to download and print as you need them, there is also a range of fantastic, professionally designed POS which you can order to suit your particular store and activities.

The options include:

• Promotion material including flyer and event poster that you can print out for display in your window or for letterbox drops or street distribution

• POS product kit – including tierage highlighters, flag and A2 poster, to help you dress your store to promote the week and draw customers in

NOTE: These are available through your Greeting Card supplier – please contact them directly to order your supplies.

Click here to download the editable National Thinking of You Week Poster