2021 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Challenge & Objective

London Drugs is a Western Canadian retailer predominantly known for its pharmacy, but also carries a wide array of items including seasonal products like Valentine’s Day cards. In a highly competitive retail category, it was important for London Drugs to find an opportunity to differentiate themselves from larger multinational competitors.

Insights & Strategy

Every year, an estimated 40 million cards are exchanged in Canada for Valentine’s Day, making it a highly competitive holiday for large retailers. British Columbia, where the majority of London Drugs stores are located, prides itself as being one of the most ethnically diverse provinces in the country, and according to a Neilsen report has the second largest percentage of self-identifying LGBT households in Canada.
Yet Valentine’s Day cards typically represent hetero-normative relationships and do not reflect the diversity that exists in the community. The lack of representation in the card aisle has been brought to light in media across the world, from articles in TIME, the Independent and Slate calling on retailers to diversify, stating that “greeting cards are a microcosm for our culture. The selection on the drugstore shelves represents the moments we’ve more or less agreed as a society are worth remembering.”
This gap in the card aisle presented the brand with the perfect opportunity: demonstrate London Drugs’ shared values with its customers by creating a line of cards where everyone can feel the love. The objective of the initiative was three-fold: to increase market share for London Drugs during Valentine’s Day, increase positive brand sentiment, and increase overall long-term brand affinity.

Execution

The Cards for All initiative was a new program for London Drugs that launched on February 7, 2020. The collection was made up of 31 unique card designs, that were made for everyone to share love regardless of their sexual orientation, language, or makeup of their relationship. There were cards for LGBTQ+, as well as cards for platonic relationships like for a co-worker or adopted child. There were also designs in Chinese, Farsi, Punjabi, Salish, and Tagalog–the most common languages in Western Canada outside of English and French. Cards were even offered in Braille.
One of the challenges at the outset of the project was to make sure that London Drugs represented, rather than spoke for the communities they were addressing. It was critical to show up in an authentic and credible way, so the company worked with illustrators who were part of the community they designed the card for. Each card design was a visual expression tailored to that relationship, culture or form of love and was informed by the designer.
While it was important for each card to be as unique as the illustrators themselves, London Drugs also needed to clearly show the 31 cards as a collection. To address this, artists were given a consistent colour palette and font for the headline and the rest was up to them. What it ended up with was a collection of cards that each had their own story and authentically spoke to the community and artist, but overall felt in family.
The designers were also key influencers, sharing the initiative and the stories behind their designs on their social media channels, providing further credibility to interested audiences.

Credits

Creative Director: Morgan Tierney, Leia Rogers
Art Director: Jake Gauthier
Writer: Greg Kieltyka
Print Producer: April Haffenden, Claire Khan
Photographer: Eric Arnold
Strategist (Mandatory): Darren Yada
Studio Artist / Typographer: Jonathan Cesar, Jan Day, Steve Holme
Printer: Light Visions Ltd.
Account Services: Steph Hurl
Illustrators:
Jake Gauthier
Charmaine Cheng
Liana Mascagni
Shona Massey
Karla Monterrosa
Ty Dale
Carson Ting
Cristian Fowlie
Sandeep Johal
Paige Bowman
Wade Janzen
Nomi Chi
Izzy Gibson
James Mackenzie
Hiller Goodspeed
Cam Spires
Dosh Osholowu
Katie So
Pamela Rounis
Alice Clair
Samantha Smith
Mustaali Raj
Caerina Abrenica
Dariush Ghaderi
Zachary George
Alex Bakker