Innovating With New Product Lines

Just Because (But Make it Mini)

Back in 2018, my creative planner and I were challenged to create a new card line—Just Because Minis. These cards were inspired by the trend of people leaving encouraging sticky notes and other small notes for others to find in places like lunch boxes, mirrors, subways, and more.

Over the course of a few months, my design partner and I led brainstorms across the company with paper engineers, illustrators, lettering artists, designers, writers, and editors to ideate and explore. We dug deep into research and consumer need and charted a proposal of 88 cards that would offer at least a few perfect finds for anyone who browsed the collection. We also made the first tiny pop-up cards for Hallmark, creating concepts that could give a dramatic surprise within just a few inches of paper.

This line continues to be updated for every season and occasion and has remained a profitable addition to Hallmark’s vast greeting card portfolio.

Cracking the Age 18-30 Market

One of my favorite projects during my time at Hallmark was relaunching Good Mail, Hallmark’s “next generation” market aimed at ages 18-30. Like most greeting card companies, Hallmark struggles to attract younger consumers, so we were asked to dive into research and figure out what we could do as a product team to attract these tricky shoppers.

I led a series of company-wide brainstorms across disciplines (both creative and business), partnered with our Insight & Analytics team and Trends team, and talked to some Employee Resource Groups to get an idea for where to start with our work. From there I led research, writing projects, illustration projects, reached out to freelancers and influencers, and generally sought as many voices as we could.

Humor Meets Pop-Ups

In 2022 we were tasked with figuring out what a mashup of Shoebox (Hallmark’s edgy humor line) and Paper Wonder formats would look like. We incorporated a mix of top selling concepts (to ensure sales and keep existing consumers) and new ideas (to attract new shoppers).

As Editorial Director for this line, one of the first things I dug into was whether we should include holiday-specific or recipient-specific words. Though the launch was for Father’s Day, we ultimately decided to keep most of them more general, leaning into icons and themes that dads would find funniest but keeping the word “dad” and “Father’s Day” out of it so that the same card could be bought for any parent or any holiday.

Thinking Outside the Box (Cards)

When I joined the Christmas Boxed Cards team, I was asked to find a way to disrupt the category and attract the elusive “younger shoppers” to a category that tends to be primarily ages 50+. Younger shoppers tend to have less disposable income and don’t really see cards as obligatory. Therefore, they rarely need 20+ cards of the same design to send to everyone they know.

To solve this, I proposed the Pick-a-Pack—bundles of 5 cards for $5 that would be well within our shopper’s budget and offer the choices they were after. By eliminating the need for a box, we saved most of the cost of the average boxed card sku, and by using a simple paper band to hold them we stayed environmentally friendly (another big sticking point with younger shoppers).

Groundbreaking Personalization

Led the team in the early exploration of the Sign & Send concept, which allows shoppers to use their own handwritten message on a card while still sending the card directly to the recipient. Worked alongside our research teams, tech teams, business partners, manufacturing partners, and creative partners to determine what the challenges were, what the opportunities were, and what shoppers wanted. Created a series of personalizable cards that could have photos added, words changed, and more, as well as cards where the handwritten message was the only personalized element.

Leveraging Licensed Product Partnerships

Disney

Hallmark is one of the few places that is allowed to redraw Disney characters, so I helped lead innovation around leveraging this unique ability more often in profitable ways.
Harry Potter

When I started in 2014, there were no Harry Potter cards anywhere in the line which I identified as a huge gap. By the time I left, there were dozens of bestselling Harry Potter cards.
Nintendo

Hallmark had an existing license with Nintendo for their ornaments but hadn’t ever expanded to cards. I again noted the gap and made the case for expanding to cards. Since, there have been several bestsellers.
Expanding Partnerships

Because Hallmark had a huge existing portfolio of licenses, it was often hard to add any. However, I made the case for pursuing several newer licenses that were trendy and but had lasting value moving forward.