VideoFizz has landed a dream-come-true partnership with Hallmark Cards Inc.
The Kearney-based company is providing the back-end technology to enable Hallmark to roll out a new offering: video greeting cards.
“I really think this is going to change the way people view greeting cards,” VideoFizz founder Laura Steward said. “Everyone wants something physical. That’s never going to go away. But it doesn’t have to be one or the other. This is embracing the way that we can use today’s technology. … It’s the marrying of both worlds.”
VideoFizz collaborated with the Kansas City-based greeting card giant on the new offering, which uses Hallmark graphics and animations. To create the video card greeting, customers scan the QR code on a physical greeting card to add a name, select a song or attach videos and photos with a heartfelt message. There’s also an option to invite others to record video messages, and then the videos and photos are automatically stitched together to create a montage. Once the video is finalized, the recipient can scan the code to watch the video greeting. In addition to being available online, millions of video greeting cards will hit store shelves by Friday.
The new offering is part of Hallmark’s strategic plan to continue investing in new digital capabilities to make it easier for customers to connect with loved ones, Hallmark’s Global Innovation Director Krista Masilionis said via email. One recent example is Hallmark’s new Sign & Send service, which allows customers to add a handwritten message to a real Hallmark card and send it from their phone.
“We are always looking for partners who align with our caring brand. Knowing Laura created VideoFizz as a way to help people connect and send messages of joy, care, love and encouragement made her company an obvious choice for a partner on this exciting new innovation,” Masilionis said. “Working with VideoFizz gave us the agility we needed to get Hallmark Video Greeting Cards to market quickly and offer a great experience for our customers. … Technology is often seen as a replacement for greeting cards, but it doesn’t have to be. We are embracing technology and innovating alongside it because of its ability to deepen our connections and create meaningful moments that last a lifetime.”
During the pandemic, the adoption of technology changed dramatically, Steward said. More people became comfortable scanning QR codes to view restaurant menus or staying in touch with family and friends through Zoom and other video conference platforms.
“We were forced by the pandemic to iterate as a people,” Steward said. “ We really had to leapfrog into technology, and the most technology-averse people really had to learn their way, and once they could see that they could stay connected to people in a digital manner, it changed the value of our company.”
VideoFizz reaped record revenue growth last year, and 2021 will eclipse that record three times over, she said. The company also grew from two employees to nine. Landing a partnership with Hallmark is simply “icing on the cake.”
“We’re ecstatic,” Steward said. “Our business has morphed so much over the years into a B2B platform where we service real estate agents, multi-level marketing and business partners, but my passion project always around VideoFizz was connecting family and friends and making these meaningful moments. We could only do so much as our small company, and to partner with the largest brand in the world for that is the culmination of really the dream of what we had for this product when it was incepted. … We want to bring this to as many people as possible.”
