The holiday shopping season has officially started, and consumers perusing their favorite outlets will be able to pick up one item free: branded greeting cards.

To find out how to get your client’s message into consumers’ hands as they prepare for the holidays, read on.

This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.

Fast Facts

What
Advertisers’ messages are interwoven with holiday greetings and placed on cards that are distributed free to consumers.

Who
GoGorilla Media, headquartered in New York.

How it works
Advertisers provide free holiday cards to consumers. The cards incorporate the advertiser’s logo and other identifying information into the holiday greeting.

“They’re something people send out to their friends if it’s a brand they relate with,” says senior account manager Suzanne McNamara. GoGorilla calls the program Holiday GoCard.

The cards are available for consumers to pick up in venues like restaurants, health clubs, bookstores, cafes and bars, in addition to retail shops across the country.

The holiday cards are an extension of GoGorilla’s free postcard program. The greeting cards are placed for distribution in existing postcard racks. Countertop displays will be placed in locations targeted by the advertiser that don’t currently participate in the postcard giveaway. Consumers can pick up a single card or several.

Creative is usually provided by the advertiser.

“Basically the front of the card has an image, like Malibu had ‘Have a seriously easygoing holiday.’ Then they open up for what they want to say like ‘season’s greetings.’ On the back it looks like a postcard. It’s a self-mailer, so you don’t need an envelope. You close, tape, address and stamp it, and it’s ready to go. Or the advertiser can pre-pay the postage,” McNamara says.

The message can focus on branding or introduce a promotion, and advertisers can individualize their card design. For example, Virgin Mobile included a coupon.

Advertisers can buy the network or cherry pick locations, and typically they are national brands.

Markets
The program is available in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami and Washington, D.C.

New York venues range from SoHo and Chelsea to Wall Street, Tribeca and the Upper East Side.

How it is measured
Impressions are measured using the number of cards distributed via racks in retail locations. An estimated 17 people see each card, McNamara says.

What product categories do well
Food, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, entertainment, including television and movies, and automobiles are top categories.

Demographics
Groups can be targeted by content and by location. “Say, if you want to target children, you could do them in toy and children’s clothing stores. To target women, put them in nail and hair salons,” McNamara says.

Specialty programs place cards in bookstores, music stores and on college campuses.

Making the buy
Lead time is four weeks. Campaigns are based on the number of cards and locations and generally last one month. Prices range from $3,600 for 20,000, $7,000 for 40,000, $10,250 for 60,000, $14,250 for 100,000, $34,500 for 250,000 to $66,250 for 500,000.

A minimum buy is 20,000 cards.

Other factors that affect cost are special effects like scent or cut-outs and where the cards are distributed. A countertop display placed in specific markets that don’t already have card racks would be at additional cost.

Who’s already on cards
Virgin Mobile, Volkswagen, Malibu Rum and Smirnoff have used card campaigns.

What they’re saying
“For the holidays we did a great campaign ‘Christmahanakwanza’ with a clever jingle, and we had cards made up that people could take and send along. It’s all about getting to youth when they are in among other youth, their peers, and not in familial settings. Cards reach kids exclusively in unsupervised moments.” – Eric Ferch, planner for Minneapolis-based Fallon, which did a card campaign for Virgin Mobile

Web site info
Go Gorilla Media at www.gocard.com