How Canadian Creatives Crafted Cards That Buy Time for Delayed Holiday Presents
One of the many exciting aspects of the holiday season is the arrival of packages. Be they from friends, family, or a secret Santa halfway across the continent, it’s a great feeling to open the mail and see something waiting with your name on it. However, the waiting process… one could say it’s far less enjoyable! Agonising might be the right word to describe the days slowly ticking by as a package is randomly stuck in the mail, and it’s a feeling which only intensifies when that package happens to be needed for a very specific deadline.
Unfortunately for people living on the island of St. John’s, Newfoundland, this seems to happen with a great degree of frequency. Subsequently, appropriate excuses have been invented! Given that Dieppe, New Brunswick (located roughly 1,500 km away) is the final mainland destination for any package heading to the island, it’s only fair that any and all delays get blamed on the town. Keeping with this, in 2021, creative agency Target opted to capitalise on this pain point by turning the destination into a verb. Partnering with the St. John’s Board of trade, the two released the (award-winning) ‘Don’t Get Dieppe’d’ campaign, which served as a friendly reminder to the city’s residents to shop locally, rather than risking the need for any excuses at all.
Continuing the initiative, the holiday season seemed like a perfect time to remind St. John’s citizens of this lesson. Collaborating with local chain Hallmark, Target put out the ‘Stallmark Collection’, a set of greeting cards perfect for all scenarios when one is without a gift to give. Available for purchase through the St. John’s Board of Trade, at the city’s local Hallmark retailer (while quantities last), and with sharable digital copies available for free online, each card was designed by local artists - featuring fun local insights and illustrations, as well as a reminder to the gift giver that they should have bought from a local business.
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Target creative director TJ Arch to learn more about how this campaign came to life.
LBB> This campaign marks the continuation of the Target/St. John’s Board of Trade partnership. How did this relationship come to pass, and what’s come of it?
TJ> Target has been a member of the St. John’s Board of Trade for years because we’re a company that’s part of the St. John’s business community. During the pandemic, many small businesses really struggled to keep their doors open, so when the St. John’s Board of Trade was looking for an agency to help with their ‘Shop Local’ campaign in 2021, we were legitimately compelled to become their partner. We launched with the initial ‘Don’t Get Dieppe’d’ campaign in 2021, and followed with the introduction of the ‘Dieppe Carollers’ that holiday season. For 2022, we’ve developed the ‘Stallmark Collection’.
LBB> What was the brief for this aspect of the ‘Shop Local’ campaign, and how did the idea of cards come to mind?
TJ> The brief wasn’t much more complicated than asking how to build off the success of ‘Don’t Get Dieppe’d’. And, since the St John’s Board of Trade is a not-for-profit, we needed to figure out how to do it in the most ruthlessly efficient way possible.
The holiday season is obviously the most important retail season, but we wanted to do something with longer legs. We realised that ‘getting Dieppe’d’ - i.e., stuff you ordered online getting stuck in the mail - is most obvious and most painful when you’re buying someone a gift that doesn’t get there in time. As such, greeting cards were a perfect opportunity for a year-round message to ‘shop local’. From Valentine’s Day to a baby shower, or a friend’s birthday to (of course) Christmas, when you’re buying a gift, think twice before heading to Amazon!
LBB> Given that it was award-winning across Canada, building off the success of ‘Don’t Get Dieppe’d’ was surely easier said than done. What has this success meant to Target, and how did it influence the way you continued the ‘Shop Local’ work?
TJ> It has been very encouraging to see a small-market, shop local campaign get traction at national and even international shows (especially since it’s a campaign built on an inside joke!). When you get hyper-local, the fear is that nobody outside your bubble will understand, but the reaction to the campaign has been incredible. Only 12 golds were awarded at Strategy this year, and one of those went to the St John’s Board of Trade. So, the campaign is keeping incredible company with some of Canada’s top brands.
But beyond the awards, we love doing work that matters on a local level. When you live and work on an island on the edge of the continent, you really get invested in the success of that island. The awards are awesome, but what is even more important is helping local businesses flourish.
LBB> The Stallmark name is quite clever. Were there other ideas in consideration, or was this always the first choice?
TJ> The Stallmark name came last! The idea was pretty fully-baked and we were deep into development on the card content when we realised we needed an overarching name for the collection. Naturally we wanted something that felt familiar for greeting cards, and there’s no bigger name than Hallmark. The twist, of course, is that when you buy our cards, you’re really buying time until the gift arrives. So ‘Stallmark’ was a perfect fit.
To this idea, the big bonus was that Hallmark has been such a great St. John’s Board of Trade member, partner, and local business. We shared the concept and the name with them, and they loved it. They’ve even given us valuable shelf space, and the ‘Stallmark Collection’ is currently available at the local Hallmark in St John’s.
LBB> Each card is designed by local artists. Who did you work with and what were you looking for?
TJ> Newfoundland is a hidden creative hotspot. We had a few favourite illustrators that instantly came to mind, and mainly did our outreach via Instagram. As an agency, we always look for opportunities to feature local talent - and for this shop local campaign that was especially true. We used seven local illustrators as well as doing a few of the designs in-house. We wanted a diversity of styles, so we just had them lean into their established looks. It was very collaborative, and very fun.
LBB> Please tell us more about the design process! What was making the cards like?
TJ> Each illustrator was briefed on the concept for the cards. Some were more prescriptive, and others were a collaboration with the illustrator to find the right visual. They were also given the campaign colour palette to help unify all the diverse illustration styles. We had a single round of revisions before sharing with our client, and besides a few minor tweaks and some debates over bare ‘Mummer’ butts, it was a seamless process.
LBB> The cards also feature local insights, as well as a reminder to the gift giver that they should have bought from a local business. What was the research process like, and how did you go about selecting insights to feature?
TJ> I’m really proud that the campaign’s creative credits are going to be long. We found some new copywriters on this one! Basically, we needed insights and inside jokes. So, we sent an all-agency email that explained the concept, gave a few examples, and asked for everyone to pitch in their best lines. We got submissions from every department, as well as some gold from family members of staff.
LBB> What challenges have you faced during this project? How did you overcome them?
TJ> We made this hard on ourselves. Making a few new ads isn’t easy, but it’s not nearly as labour-heavy as creating a line of 25 greeting cards - each with relevant and engaging jokes and custom illustrations. We dealt with extremely tight deadlines, we stretched budgets to their very limits, and we even learned that there’s a global envelope shortage. That, and we had to hand-fold over 2,000 cards. There are easier campaigns we could have made, but honestly, we were all so invested from the start. This one was worth the effort!
LBB> How have people reacted to the campaign? Are they enjoying the collection?
TJ> Absolutely! The cards have been circulated throughout the business community, and the anecdotal feedback has been incredible. They were even part of the table setting at the 2022 Business Resilience Awards. The response on social has also been great, and people are actually coming into Hallmark just to get their hands on our 'Stallmark' cards.
LBB> Do you have a favourite of the cards?
TJ> This question is my favourite part of the campaign. Every time a new audience has been exposed to the cards, it’s been so much fun to see who loves what. There is something for everyone.
My personal favourite changes each time I’m asked, but today I’m going to say ‘The Glue’. It’s one that surprised me. I liked it on paper, but it wasn’t until I saw the illustration that I loved it. It’s so sweet and charming, and then all the air is let out of the balloon when you open the card. But ask me again tomorrow!
LBB> Is there anything you’d like to say about the importance of supporting local businesses, ahead of the holiday season?
TJ> The CEO of the St John’s Board of Trade, AnnMarie Boudreau, has always been really clear that you’re not a bad person if you shop on Amazon. We live in a fast-paced world, and pretty much everyone is very price-sensitive these days. That’s why our campaign is light-hearted instead of heavy-handed. It’s about reminding people to find opportunities to shop local a little more often - especially when it’s gift giving season.
