Focus on Kids’ Cards

Youth action

Birthdays are big when you’re little and kids’ cards reflect this with the abundance of designs marking the age. With gender neutral and added value also extremely relevant trends, PG taps into the vibes in this important greeting card genre.

Above: Birthday parties being back after Covid has boosted sales of children’s cards. Left: Age matters to little ones, as AA Milne’s poetry shows. Below left: Kali Stileman’s German distributor takes designs without numbers. Below right: The age and characters match in Hole in my Pocket’s Zoo Numbers range. Bottom: Numbers matter at Raspberry Blossom.

Winnie The Pooh creator AA Milne had it right back in 1927 with his children’s poem The End in the Now We Are Six anthology, where the bear of very little brain, Piglet, and Christopher Robin are dancing about as the verse describes how age matters to youngsters.

On the greeting card front, though, this does seem to be a peculiarly British phenomenon with countries such as Germany really not getting the whole thing about having a design featuring an age. “I think we sell more children’s cards with numbers than without,” kids’ card specialist Kali Stileman said, “ours are really popular - but we have a German distributor who takes them without numbers!”

At Raspberry Blossom, co-owner Rebecca Green agreed: “We have distributors around the world who will take our children’s collections but steer away from the ones with an age incorporated into the design. This applies for adult ages too.

“With UK retailers we find it mixed, that’s why I’m always mindful to include designs that don’t have ages on. It may be solely preference-based but can be a slight issue if you can’t remember the age of the child!” With 12 children’s ranges, Rachel Ellen Designs has sold a huge amount of age cards since the business started 25 years ago, and sales director Paul Roberts explained: “They've been much more popular than open birthday and it’s one of the things for which we’re best known.

Almost all our children’s ranges include age cards. Our independent retailers love the age cards and always want to offer up to age six where they can. More recently, we’re getting asked to expand our age card range beyond age seven and up to the teenage years.”

Danilo licensing director Dan Grant added: “We find age cards are still hugely popular, especially in the preschool and younger kids’ market. While older kids age cards don’t have as much success, gaming brands like Xbox allow us to create on-trend age cards for them as long as they fall within the target age for the brand.” Of his designed and made in Scotland ranges, Hole in my Pocket founder Allistair Burt added: “It’s funny, we do actually sell quite a few age cards to our other European customers though generally only ages one to three. In the UK those for ages one to five are the main focus, though we do receive requests for all ages up to 10 and recently had to modify one of our kids’ age

cards for a customer desperately looking for an unusual line of ages 70 and 80 cards.”

For UK Greetings, age cards continue to be really popular, although Ben Whittington, the publisher’s creative director, humour, character and licensing, acknowledges that there was a dip in the sector throughout the lockdowns: “But then I guess there weren’t any kids’ parties happening whereas now they’re certainly back on the agenda - I seem to be taking one of my kids to a party almost every other week!” Numbers are big at Bexy Boo too, where owner Bex Hassett is finalising her brand-new children’s range with 10 age cards from one to five for both boys and girls based on her Henries-nominated This Card Is For You Because… collection. It’s only Bex’s second set of designs specifically with youngsters in mind: “My other children’s collection, The Amelie Zoodles’ is named after my daughter Amelie, and was predominately designed by her when she about 10 - unfortunately for me, she’s now at university so I’ve had to come up with my second children's range on my own!”

Having launched Cheeky Chops in January this year, Rosie Made A Thing already has plans for a linked age range. As founder Rosie Harrison explained: “We noticed a bit of a gap in the teen card market so wanted to offer something aimed at making them smile. I use this term loosely as I have a couple of teenage boys at home and they find nothing I say funny so this was quite a challenge. However, we’ve been so pleased that our teen cards are right up there at the top of our sales.”

Ricicle Cards’ founder David Nichols-Rice commented: “I’ve noticed age cards have done particularly well in Britain but not necessarily in my next biggest market, the USA. I’ve also noticed first birthday cards fly out, and fifth birthdays are slower - do we stop keeping track of kids ages as they get older I wonder?” Another point that David considers when designing his cards is around gender neutrality: “I've heard a lot of chatter about gender-neutral designs. I completely agree - pink and blue shouldn't be associated with gender in 2022 so I've kept this in mind. My kids’ age cards have a gender-neutral colour palette and lots of customers have praised them for this.” The upcoming Stormy Knight collection with children’s illustrator Grace Habib has the same ethos, with cute critters in submarines, hot

Left: Ricicle Cards’ small numbers do well. Far left: Cute cards from Bexy Boo. Below: Bright non-gendered designs from Heyyy Cards. Below middle: Cheeky Chops humour is Rosie Made A Thing’s style.

Man(tons) and boy!

Children’s cards are a staple on the greetings retail front with almost every card stockists including at least a few among its offer. However, at Mantons Cards, in Port Erin on the Isle of Man, they take it a stage further, with a dedicated children’s area and a sizeable card fixture anchoring the selection of toys and children’s gifts. “It’s always great to get a card with your age on - at least while you’re young!” summed up Chris Beards, who co-owns the popular store with his wife Debbie. On the subject matter front for children’s cards, Chris said: “The classics are still popular - dinosaurs, princesses, etc,” but he highlighted how “football cards have increased in popularity, especially for girls.” Its children’s card selection is just one reason why Mantons is something of a destination card shop on the island. “We continue to stock a large range of children’s cards, all of which are exclusive to us on the Isle of Man. Our selection is so large we have pretty much everything covered but we’re always happy to look at new ranges or companies that don't currently supply us.” When asked to highlight which publishers score on the kids’ card front, Chris cited “Rachel Ellen Designs and Jonny Javelin” as the shop’s “bestsellers” in this area.

Finger on the pulse

With 60 licensing agreements for properties targeted at kids, Danilo has its finger on the pulse of what programmes and brands are chiming in this area from baby through to teens.

“As you can imagine, greeting cards for kids is a big part of what we do!” stated Dan Grant, licensing director of Danilo who navigates the minefield of what is piquing the interest of the youth of today. “The biggest part of our kids’ card business is preschool and younger kids, where evergreen brands such as Peppa Pig, PAW Patrol and Thomas & Friends drive the majority of sales. However, in recent times, we’ve seen new preschool brands entering the market with the likes of Hey Duggee, Baby Shark and CoComelon. More recently we have launched Bluey cards into the market due to the big impact this brand has had on consumers in a very short space of time.” Looking outside of preschool, Dan cited growth “in genres such as gaming and anime. The demand for gaming titles has led to us to create a number of kids’ cards ranges across brands such as Xbox, Minecraft and Super Mario, plus new titles like Fall Guys are on their way. Anime is also a trend that continues to grow, especially in the UK, and we’ve published cards for Hatsune Miku, Naruto Shippuden, My Hero Academia and Dragonball and plan to further expand the range with additional brands in the future.” The different ways of how the younger population is now viewing content also has a significant bearing on the brands Danilo backs, especially with the growth of streaming platforms. So, what does Dan deem will be the next biggest thing? “Unfortunately, there’s no crystal ball, it is just a case of working hard to understand the marketplace, listening to retailers, licensors and consumers and keeping a close eye on upcoming trends,” he said.

Top right: Hands up from Dan Grant with the Bluey costume character and team mates on the Danilo stand at PG Live in June. Above: Xbox is among Danilo’s licensed gaming brands. Right: Anime, such as Hatsune Miku, is proving popular for Danilo.

air balloons and hotdog cars in a genderneutral zingy colour palette covering ages one to five and general birthdays.

And, having lots of friends with young children, the publisher’s director Sarah Jackson said: “Age cards remain as popular as ever with preschoolers - every age feels like a significant milestone during the early years and it's great to be able to send a card that celebrates that.”

Left: Stormy Knight offers Grace Habib’s cute characters. Far left: Paper Salad is known for neon. Below: Stripey Cats’ Wobbly Eyed designs are popular. Bottom: UKG’s Ben Whittington’s son with a slide and reveal gaming design from UKG.

At Heyyy Cards, coowner Yvette Clarkson sought feedback from retailers before developing its kids’ range: “We were asked repeatedly for children’s age cards which were gender neutral, reducing the space a retailer needs to dedicate by not having a boy and girl option. There seems to be a shift towards bright, neon, fun designs which can suit all genders.” Having just earned the Best Children’s Range in The Henries Awards for the fifth year running, Paper Salad is pretty hot on the genre and owners Karen Wilson and Claire Williams have seen an increased interest in age-specific cards particularly from Europe. “In Holland especially, there’s a high demand for the numbers,” they confirmed.

The Paper Salad duo also design younger ages “with non-gender specific icons” and their signature bright neon colours work naturally for children’s cards - Paper Salad definitely believes “the brighter the better” whatever their gender!

At Hallmark, the gender-neutral theme has been expanded, as the company’s head of brand marketing Jess Lovelace explained: “Of paramount importance is ensuring inclusivity and diversity in kids’ cards. Authentic representation of the child is vital so, whether we’re featuring characters with different skin tones or ensuring that icons, themes, colours and words on cards avoid gender stereotypes, it’s addressed as a key part of the product development process.”

While various publishers champion dinosaurs, space, mermaids and sea creatures as current popular design themes, along with animals in general, one trend gaining particular traction is cards with added value.

Kali Stileman’s double Henries-nominated Mouthie designs each have a laser cut-out mouth which adds a bit of fun, while Stripey Cats founder Jonathan Crosby is looking at including a

game or activity: “Our Wobbly Eyed animal cards get framed and put up in the child’s room which is great - it’s nice to know they’re not being thrown away.”

Stormy Knight is working on expanding its Bloom seedsticks collection for children as planting seeds would be a great activity, while at PG Live 2023 Raspberry Blossom is set to relaunch its 2015 Crafties range with a sticker sheet.

For UKG, gaming continues to be a prevalent trend, and Ben Whittington commented: “My son has just turned seven and he and his friends are super into Nintendo Switch - it was perfect timing as we recently launched an awesome gaming-inspired innovation design that has a slide and reveal mechanism on the screen that he loved!”

The sustainability element is really important at Danilo right across the business, including the product design. Dan Grant, the publisher’s licensing directo,r told PG: “As part of our strategy we’re creating designs that aim to increase the longevity of the product, and allow the end user to gain a second life from it. In our children’s designs, we often incorporate colouring-in and other activities into the inside page of the card, for brands such as Peppa Pig, PAW Patrol, and My-Little Pony.” Hallmark understands activities can add a lot of value so each of its licensed kids’ designs features an activity, such as word searches and spot-the-differences, and Jess Lovelace added: “Higher-value price codes include stickers for that added personalisation. Our writing team finds a way to tie the activity into the editorial - we like to tell a story across the pages.

“With sustainability being more important than ever, not only are all Hallmark cards recyclable, but we also offer a variety of cards that have paper-based keepsake elements and interactive fun. Children can wear paper badges, make a 3D model of a beloved character, take part in a nature trail activity or even write about their special day in their birthday journal.”

Rachel Ellen’s Paul Roberts makes the point that, while there may be some price sensitivity in children’s cards, adding extra elements also adds value. He said: “Children's cards ultimately have a price cap. We've had great success with our Jigsaw cards over the years which do have a higher price point, but the novelty of the puzzle gives the card a gift-like quality.”

Predominantly known for cheeky humour, Redback also produces some rather marvellous kids’ cards which take longevity to the nth degree its award-winning Shine range include reversible, removable sequin patches which catch the light and draw the eye, and can be used afterwards to brighten clothes, shoes, bags and even furniture. And md Chris Stanley revealed that more in this vein is in the pipeline with its new Moji range that is launching in January. “It features adorable, plushie patches that can be removed and reused to add cuteness to kids’ furniture and bags. The menagerie of smiling foodstuffs and animal characters is inspired by the soft toy trend which is more prevalent than ever in the kids’ toys market,” said Chris, adding, “While adults rely mostly on sight as our primary way of processing information, children rely much more on touch - what better way to tap into their sweet, sensorily understood worldview than through delightfully fluffy cards!”

Left: Space fun from Hallmark. Below left: Colouring-in activities from Danilo. Below right: Redback’s latest sweet and sensory Moji range. Bottom: Rachel Ellen’s successful Jigsaw cards.