10 · 07
One look at Hallmark's website and its pretty clear that after 100 years of being in business, it's not sure what to help us say anymore. Among the nostalgic paper cards we've all come to expect on those occaions, there are ringtones, iphone apps, sports teams branded cards, and e-cards that send themselves. In a time when all things paper are striving for a digital personality, that which conveys emotion hasn't figured out the right digital medium and is therefore trying them all. Hallmark, you've done a great service to people for over 100 years. Its clear times are changing, but some things are best kept in their original format.
At the Rise of Social Commerce conference the Hallmark representative, precisely as you'd imagine her, midwestern, wholesome, friendly, motherly yet kinda hot, confessed that they were in throes trying to figure it out. Its not an easy task. With the Gen Y & millennials sharing every aspect of their lives in almost real time, do they need help saying anything at all? Can a card written today and received 3-4 days later really compete with something that can be read almost instantaneously and shared among everyone you know. Yes, of course it can Hallmark.
For over 100 years, guys have struggled to write how they felt in a card and relied on the clever quip you wrote to break the ice of what we were about to say. We'd write out what we wanted to say on a piece of paper 3-4 times to make sure we got it just right. Then carefully write it into the card using our best handwriting. Before sealing it shut in the envelope we'd read it one more time, unless it was that kind of note, then we'd quickly seal it shut forgetting what we wrote. Depending on our own age, the next step was in the delivery. Regardless of whether we were pedaling down the street, or driving across town, it was always the longest trip ever. You never listened to music, you just imagined what her facial expression would be as she read it and then what you'd have to say, or more importantly the move you'd make. Has, or the better question is, can Facebook or instant messaging really change that? Do kids SMS each other or have millennials evolved to the point where they can have the conversations without the assistance of the Hallmark card?
Hallmark, rather than investing in ringtones... I mean the only people that buy ringtones are precisely the ones that would in fact never ever have a "Hallmark ringtone." Its time to launch a viral video campaign on Facebook aimed at women to help them remember what it was like before instant messaging (in all its forms) and digital public forums to get a Hallmark card and share that moment with someone... Perhaps the campaign is, do you remember the first time you got (gave) a Hallmark card from someone special?
I do.