Whimsical wishes

Meanwhile, at Hallmark, the team is driven by cultural and creative trends, said Amy McAnarney, vice president and general manager, strategic accounts and business development. 

“We aim to create cards that get to the heart of what shoppers want to say, while authentically reflecting their lives and relationships,” McAnarney said. Hallmark’s cards include messages surrounding faith, family and the home that are relevant to customers from multiple cultures, McAnarney said. The company also creates cards that resonate with early adopters of trends, particularly African Americans and Hispanic Americans, who expect timely and topical content.

Younger generations look for cards that convey positive messages of generosity, kindness and inclusiveness, and McAnarney said Hallmark incorporates this type of content into its cards.

In addition, McAnarney said younger card purchasers and recipients are enthusiasts of pop culture. To that end, Hallmark has incorporated licensed content from hit TV shows, such as “Ted Lasso,” “Schitt’s Creek,” “The Office,” “Friends” and “Golden Girls.”

Hallmark recently brought the physical and digital gifting spheres together via a collaboration with Venmo. The partnership, announced in August 2023, allows customers to send money through Venmo and hand-write a message in a physical greeting card. 

“Gifting trends are constantly evolving, and we want to stay at the forefront of what consumers need to share thoughtful and unique gifts with the ones they love,” said Darren Abbott, Hallmark’s senior vice president of global product development and innovation.

[Read more: American Greetings debuts child-friendly Creatacard app]

Engineering included

When you open some cards, they are so intricately constructed that on first glance, they resemble skyscrapers—or mountains, or animals—more so than pieces of paper.

Up With Paper, founded in 1978 as PopShots, is the original American pop-up greeting card company. Monika Brandrup, who leads Up With Paper as executive vice president and creative director, said many customers purchase pop-up cards as gifts. And when the populace’s purse strings are tight, such as in an economic downturn, these types of cards still sell well.

“Often, when people buy greeting cards, they like to display them and enjoy them for a little bit, and then they usually put them away,” Brandrup said.

When Brandrup began working at Up With Paper in the early 1990s, the company put out about 20 new cards per year. The team was innovative with paper engineering, Brandrup said, but the card-creation process was far more tedious than it is in the 21st century with newer technologies. Up With Paper places about 500 to 600 SKUs on the market each year. 

As holiday and birthday cards pop-up cards remain popular, Brandrup said friendship and “just because” cards are trending more now. Many of Up With Paper’s cards are blank, and the business will include different message tags.

Hallmark also offers pop-up cards in its Hallmark Paper Wonder and Signature Paper Wonder lines. “Each intricately crafted card unfolds, pops, and expands to reveal a distinctive surprise,” McAnarney said.

[Read more: Designer Greetings talks about evolution and revolution in the card market]

John Wise and Wombi Rose co-founded pop-up card company Lovepop while attending Harvard Business School in 2014, after graduating from Webb Institute, where they studied naval architecture. The partners began creating cards inspired by kirigami paper art that they saw on a trip to Vietnam. Then in 2015, they joined the ABC show “Shark Tank” and brought on investor Kevin O’Leary as a shareholder. Wise, Rose and their team have since expanded, including in retail drug stores. 

Lovepop’s mission is “to create one billion magical moments,” the company said. “We make sure that every time, we are delivering that magical experience,” Wise said. “When the customer opens it, they get that moment of awe. And they get that moment of connection when they see the sculpture and understand the content and the message that was being conveyed by the sender.”

About five years ago, Lovepop began creating cards with licensed content from Disney, Wise said. In Lovepop offerings, pharmacy retailers will find pop-up Marvel and “Star Wars” content, which are properties of Disney, as well as licensed content from “Harry Potter,” “Friends” and more.

“One trend that we’ve seen in maybe the last five years is that customers are migrating out of the middle price points,” Wise said. “They either want it to be really special, or if it’s going to be just a flat, folded piece of paper, then they don’t want to spend a lot for it.”

Echoing Brandrup, Wise said: “The fact that these cards don’t get thrown away—they get held on to, they get cherished, and they get shared further—is something that makes them really, really special.”