The London Marathon may be over for another year, but it has fuelled the running bug in the UK with over 380,000 applying last year for just 39,000 places – and it’ll be similar numbers this year when the ballot opens on 30 April. With running such a popular pastime in the UK one new publisher is hoping to chase down retailers with her range of running-specific greeting cards.
Rachel Jobs started her company, Running Cards after having difficulty in finding suitable greeting cards for charity runners and running buffs. Up until now she has mainly sold them online through Etsy and eBay, but hopes to expand her retail footprint at PG Live this year. “When I ran the London Marathon a few years ago I received good luck and well done cards which was lovely, but they were very generic,” says Rachel. “In one case the sender had crossed out one word and replaced it with ‘running’. It made me realise that people really want to send cards related to running, but they don’t exist.”
Running is a massive growth sport and is one of the fastest growing sport at grass roots level. Events such as Parkrun are now huge and the London Marathon gets more entries year on year.
“My cards are fairly well known within the running community and races are now starting to ask me to create specific cards for them eg. Ealing Half Marathon and Endure24,” says Rachel. “I think my range is modern in its style as well as tapping into a growing interest area so I think it should appeal to a broad range of retailers. I get a lot of runners buying my cards for other running friends or friends new to running and they want to encourage them to keep at it.”
Perhaps not surprisingly the card getting the most attention on social media reads: ‘Have a great race. Try not to poo yourself’ a nod to a potentially embarrassing mid-race mishap. Other sentiments include: ‘You smashed it! Well done on your first 5K’ and ‘Less than one percent of the population have run a marathon. That makes you pretty special’ as well as the more comical: ‘Running is the answer. Whatever the question’ and ‘Run. Cake. Prosecco. Repeat. Not necessarily in that order.‘
Rachel had her two busiest months to date (March and April) as this is marathon season. “I get loads of people who say they go into specialist card shops looking for a marathon congratulations card and while there are cards for passing exams or driving tests but not this. I got frustrated by that too so I’m hoping the retailers at PG Live will agree!”
Visit Running Cards at PG Live on Stand 677.
