Ad Campaign of the Week: American Greetings Ad Appeals to E-card Senders

The greeting card industry has taken a bit of a hit in recent years thanks to the ability to send e-cards and other quick messages online. And young people especially aren’t known for being apt to buy greeting cards for every occasion. But American Greetings is trying to change that with a series of ads focused on the message behind those cards. The latest ad features women struggling with infertility, including challenges like attending baby showers and events for others. But a nice card at the end of the ad drives home the message for the greeting card brand. So how many consumers might be impacted by this type of advertising? We asked 1,000 respondents about their greeting card buying habits and then tested the ad to see if it made any impact.

Greeting Cards

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest online survey, 12% of respondents said that they purchase greeting cards a few times per month. 21% buy cards a few times every three months. 44% said they buy greeting cards a few times a year. 11% buy cards less frequently than once a year. And 13% said they are not greeting card consumers at all.Of those who purchase greeting cards at least on occasion, 59% said they’ve purchased cards from the American Greetings brand. And 51% purchase American Greetings cards regularly. Only Hallmark was more popular than American Greetings, both in terms of regular customers and past customers. Additionally, only 18% of respondents said they’ve seen television commercials or video ads for greeting cards within the past week.

American Greetings Ad

Overall, 24% of respondents said they would be certain or practically certain about choosing American Greetings the next time they purchase greeting cards. And 35% said it would be very probable. Of those who viewed the latest American Greetings ad, 28% said they would be practically certain about choosing American Greetings for their next card purchase. And 37% said that it would be very probable. In addition, 71% of those who viewed the ad said they’ve sent e-cards at some point. And of those respondents, 33% said they would be practically certain about choosing American Greetings for their next card purchase. And 38% said it would be very probable.

Brand Attributes

In general, consumers seem to associate the American Greetings brand with words like quality, great, classic, nice and variety. And those who viewed the ad were also likely to associate the brand with words like thoughtful, caring, touching and meaningful.

Key Takeaways

This thoughtful line of advertising from American Greetings does seem to have the potential to impact both consumer opinions and their buying habits. The ad calls attention to how thoughtful a tangible card can make a gesture, which is something that differentiates greeting cards from their online counterparts. That said, the ad made an even larger impact among consumers who have sent e-cards, suggesting that promoting the ad online could be a decent strategy. But it could also be a good idea for American Greetings to air the ad during programming that is popular with young and tech savvy people as another avenue for reaching those who were especially touched by the ad. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Aisle 4 by Random Retail under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on July 12 via AYTM’s online survey panel.