Berlin, July 18th 2019 – The postcard is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year – and despite its great age, it’s as hip as ever. Even ever-advancing digitization can not change this: postcard writing is still in vogue. In a representative survey of MyPostcard, the app with the biggest number of postcards in the world, more than half of those polled said they regularly send postcards. What used to be collected in a box and cherished like a treasure, along with love letters and other memories, and has since been confined to the depths of the cell phone memory, is now increasingly being pinned to the fridge instead. MyPostcard pulls the good old postcard into the 21st century as a postcard app. In the current study, the app asks together with the opinion research institute YouGov, how relevant the medium of postcards is today.
The Whatsapp Message of the 19thCentury
The beginning of the postcard dates back to the 18th century. Precisely 150 years ago, it finally made its debut as a so-called “correspondence card” in Austria and revolutionised the previously known form of communication. As a cheap alternative to the letter, it was intended for short messages – almost like a WhatsApp message of the 19th century. There was no room for motifs back then. However, like so many, its fate destined to change. What began with small personal drawings or sketches eventually prevailed, with the development of print in the 20th century, in the form of lithographs and photographs on the postcard. The modern postcard, as we know it today, was born.
An Emotional Luxury Product in A6
It’s had its ups and downs, and for decades, in the face of digital transformation, it has been predicted to die out. However, true to the motto “the ones pronounced dead live longer” the postcard defies all new developments, colourful social media posts and fast messenger messages. The figures from the latest, representative survey by MyPostcard and YouGov prove this: Around 57 percent of Germans continue to send postcards. The postcard medium still has a high nostalgia value and conveys emotions that a Messenger message will never be able to. And who doesn’t get excited to see such a cool way of greeting come through the mail box? Postcards are something unique; they will never be sent erroneously – each recipient has an exclusive status for the writer. So the postcard is sent only to a selected family or circle of friends and as such is something of an “emotional luxury”. With this small, square piece of paper, people have always shown their loved ones how much they think of them, congratulating them on birthdays and baptisms and sending their long-awaited Christmas wishes to every corner of the world.
Vacation – The Postcard Season
In addition to birthday and Christmas greeting cards, which are currently ranked number 2 and 3 for postcard writers, it is still on vacation where most people pick up a pen. According to the survey, 38% of Germans send their greetings to those at home in the form of handwritten or printed postcards. Whether a tourist motif bought from the souvenir shop on the beach or personalized greetings supplemented with your vacation photos – 86% of Germans look forward to a postcard in the mailbox, whether they regularly send cards or not.
The data used is based on a representative online survey conducted by YouGov Germany, commissioned by MyPostcard. A total of 2,064 people participated in the June 2019 survey. The results were weighted and are representative of the German population over 18 years old.
About MyPostcard
MyPostcard (the postcard of tomorrow) sends personal pictures from users’ phones and computers as real, printed postcards everywhere in the world, all hassle free – we worry about shipping, printing, and posting. Our app can be downloaded in ten languages and provides more than 10,000 designs, the most designs offered worldwide. Oliver Kray, a designer, Serial-Entrepreneur, and CEO, founded MyPostcard, which is based in Berlin, has an office in New York, and currently employs 25 people.
For more information and questions:
Maria Gomelskaia
MyPostcard.com GmbH
Hohenzollerndamm 3
10717 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 – 403 64 54 25
maria@mypostcard.com
www.mypostcard.com
Henriette Herfeldt
Wilde & Partner
Franziskanerstraße 14
81669 München
Phone: +49 (0)89 -17 91 90 -21
Fax: +49 (0)89 -17 91 90 – 99
henriette.herfeldt@wilde.de
www.wilde.de
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