On The Edge Manchester On The Edge Manchester - John Bower: Digital innovation at Hallmark cards

transcript

John Bower

On The Edge Manchester Conference

John BowerHead of Digital Innovation

A Brief HistoryOf Hallmark

A Brief History of Hallmark

In 1910, a teenage entrepreneur called

Joyce Clyde Hall (J.C. Hall) stepped off

a train in Kansas City, Missouri, with two

shoeboxes of postcards under his arm.

Hall quickly made a name for himself

with the picture postcards he sold.

Rollie Hall joined his brother in business,

and the company was named Hall

Brothers.

On Jan. 11, 1915, a fire destroyed their

office and inventory. Unfazed, they took

the only salvageable item – their safe –

and set up shop again.

Noticing a decline in postcard sales they

recognized a need for more privacy in

communication. They started offering

cards mailed in envelopes.

Having learned a hard lesson about

dependence upon third-party stock they

decided to print their own cards, and in

late 1915 they invested in a printing

press.

With the success of the Hall Brothers

greeting cards, J.C. and his brother

continued to innovate.

Their first foray into other product lines

came in 1917 when the Hall brothers

"invented" modern gift wrap.

When they ran out of solid-coloured gift

dressing, during the busy Christmas

season, they improvised by selling

French envelope liners as a replacement.

This proved so popular they decided to

start printing their own gift wrap.

In 1928, the company began marketing

its brand by using the Hallmark name on

the back of every card. JC Hall was

intrigued with the similarity between his

name and with the term for markings on

gold jewellery.

This was the same year that Hallmark

ran it’s first advertisement in Ladies’

Home Journal.

In 1932 Hallmark signed it’s first licensing agreement, with Walt Disney.

Disney and Hall became fast friends and there has been a close relationship between the companies to this day.

In the same year Hallmark created display stands that allowed customers to see all cards quickly and easily in stores.

In the 80’s Hallmark continued expanding and bought various companies in the process including Crayola.

The Hallmark Channel was launched on cable and satellite television, which showed family friendly movies and also produced Hallmark funded films.

With the rise of the World Wide Web, Hallmark saw the need for an e-commerce platform for finished goods, and a requirement for personalized cards and gifts.

With new technology around every corner, the future of the company is hard to predict, but we’re constantly poised and ready to lead and innovate. Whether it’s internet video streaming, social networking, or mobile applications.

As big as we’ve become, and as iconic as our brand is today, we’re still privately held, still based in Kansas City, and still led by the Hall family.

About Me

• Born in West London

• Moved to the South Coast

• Dad owned a PC Hardware

• Mum was a Biology teacher

• Learned programming from

an early age

About Me

• Started building websites in the early/mid 90s

• Worked at a digital agency in London at 17 years old (1997)

• Co-founded a digital agency in Worthing,West Sussex in 1999

About Me

• At 21 decided to focus on 3D Computer Graphics and Animation research

• Developed an algorithm for real-time muscle deformation

• Gained a Masters degree from NCCA Bournemouth University

About Me

• Met Vicky in 2001.

• Moved to Saltaire,

West Yorkshire in 2009.

• Married in 2014.

About Me

• Did contract Flash/Web

development for regional

Digital Agencies.

• Started my own

freelance company.

About Me

• Took a job at Hallmark

UK & Ireland as the

Web Developer in their

e-comm team in 2012.

• Became Digital

Innovation Specialist in

DigitalInnovation

Digital Innovation at Hallmark

• To provide tools and applications that make workflow more efficient.

• To give advice and support on website architecture and emergent web technology.

• To understand the capabilities of hardware and infrastructure, from severs to handheld devices.

• To future-proof the company.

What is Digital Innovation?

• To be a nerd.

Internet Users by Device

Devices (%)

Laptop

Desktop

Smartphone

Tablet

Source Ofcom Research 2014

Internet Users by Device

• 900,000,000Tablet

• 870,000,000Laptop

• 660,000,000Smartphone

• 510,000,000Desktop

• 60,000,000Other

• 3,000,000,000Total

Source Ofcom Research 2014

Interesting Technology

Media CentersSmart Glasses Smart Watches

Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality

Web VR

Node.js HTML 5

NoSQL DB’s Angular JS

3D Printing

Interesting Technology

• Mobile Application development is only worth doing if it’s cross-platform.

• To do so requires web technologies such as JavaScript and CSS.

• Cross-platform Mobile Apps must be built responsively.

• Building Mobile Apps is exactly the same process as building web applications.

Smart Wear

“SMART WEARABLES MARKET TO GENERATE $53BN HARDWARE REVENUES BY 2019”

juniperresearch.com – 9th September 2014

Smart Wear

• Screens are small, if there is one.

• Not connected directly to the Internet. Have to

go through another device.

• Only way to force a message to appear on the

watch is through a text message to the host

device, or via native application.

Virtual Reality

• Virtual Reality is not restricted to games

consoles and PC’s.

• Mobile devices will soon be powerful enough

to interface with VR headsets.

• The restricted vision will prevent people

moving too far from a single spot though.

Web VR

• Using coding technologies (WebGL and Javascript) to display 3D content through a web browser.

• Uses two Virtual 3D cameras to create scenes for each eye.

• Interfaces with VR headsets.

• Allowing the user to navigate through content with full web page capabilities in the background.

Web VR

AugmentedReality

Augmented Reality

Summary

• The future of the internet will be more immersive.

• Reality and digital information will blend together.

• There will still be a need for pages of information, but home entertainment will drive the development of more interactive 3D content.

Summary

• Designing websites may soon require people

with experience in 3D modelling and game

development.

• Designing themes for watches may be a good

way to promote a product.

• Glasses like Hololens would allow for virtual

billboards and other visual overlays using AR.

Contact

Email: John.bower@hallmark.com

Twitter: @beclamide

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/johnmbower

Roundtable Question

With the impending release of wearable devices and augmented reality, is traditional web design on the verge of extinction? Is responsive design the

least of our worries?

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On The Edge Manchester On The Edge Manchester - John Bower: Digital innovation at Hallmark cards

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