37-39_Spring Seasons.qxp_Grid 03/07/2024 15:06 Page 37
FOCUS ON…Spring Seasons
SPRING LOADED Despite the early timing of Easter this year, resulting in something of a squish between Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, Spring Seasons sales seem to have held up pretty well for most retailers – and boding well, next year Valentine’s Day is on a Friday and Easter is in late April. With the launch of the 2025 offerings, PG looks at their changing patterns and what other different events are coming to the fore. As Mother’s Day is the top selling seasonal event after Christmas, it would traditionally be where any article about Spring Seasons would begin, however there’s one publisher that bucks this trend. Despite the general consensus that mums have way more than twice as much spent on them as dads, at licensed card specialist Danilo it’s Father’s Day that brings in the sales. “In relation to the brands we do, we find they lend themselves more to Father’s Day than Mother’s Day,” said licensing director Dan Grant. “Sales in 2024 have been strong across all our seasonal ranges. Each of the four main events performed well but, while all these events are crucial to our business, Father's Day always performs the best for us, underscoring its importance in our seasonal sales strategy.” Danilo has also been tracking the shifts in Spring Seasons designs, with Dan explaining they notice how licensed characters and themes are being incorporated. “Customers increasingly seek personalised and contemporary designs that resonate with their unique relationships and experiences,” he said. “From a variety of different types of mum and dad captions such as ‘mum and dad rolled into one’, to incorporating more designs from and to the pet, there has been an increase in the number of captions available.” Dan added that GlobalData’s info reflects broader societal trends, where Mother's Day has traditionally received more emphasis so, to balance this, Danilo believes marketing efforts should highlight the unique
Left: A great palette boosted Cinnamon Aitch FD sales. Below: Luxury from Five Dollar Shake.
contributions of fathers and the importance of celebrating them. “Creating campaigns that emphasise personal stories and experiences can help raise the profile of Father's Day, encouraging more people to show their appreciation for dads,” he commented. And UK Greetings has picked up on the growing love for dads with over 100 new designs being launched for Father’s Day 2025 covering classic, contemporary, humour and cute looks, including expanding on the successful partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society. While some publishers have been rolling back on Spring Seasons, it’s a growing market for Cath Tate Cards where director Rosie Tate has seen a “marked increase” over the last few years and “sales nearly double for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this year” so the company is busy adding
a lot more options to its 2025 offer, including non-humour. She added: “We’re sure the brilliantly inventive shop displays and store fronts created by our independent retailers have greatly contributed to this success!” Design direction has helped Cinnamon Aitch’s stronger Father’s Day sales with the colour palette working particularly well this year, although director Sara Burford admitted it’s still relatively small in comparison to the other Spring Seasons. “That’s not because there’s less love for our dads, but because they embrace the sentiment of a greeting card less, and the love is shown in different ways,” Sara believes. “This year’s Spring Seasons have been strong with sales up on recent years. We suspect this is largely due to the fact we reintroduced hand-finished ranges for Valentine’s, Mother’s Day and Easter, something we’ve not offered since Covid. “Mother’s Day without a doubt is the best Spring Season but Valentine’s has definitely picked up for us and Easter has also increased. There are less publishers producing beautiful, hand-finished cards, especially those made in the UK, so this may also be increasing traffic in our direction when customers want something extra special for their mum or loved ones.” Luxurious but cute works particularly well for Five Dollar Shake where Mother’s Day sales remain ever strong, although sales manager John Stevens noted: “The early date for this year was hugely challenging for retail. “We see growth in our extra-special large Valentine’s Day cards, especially Far left: A Tour de France licensed Father’s Day card from Danilo. Middle: Spring Seasons is an expanding area at Cath Tate. Left: There are over 100 new Father’s Day cards from UKG. PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 37