Hallmark has spent more than a century perfecting heartfelt connection, and for the Signature line they invited us to add an extra lens: behavioral science. Most launches thrive on intuition alone; here we had the rare chance to let neuroscience guide every strategic move—an experiment we couldn’t resist.

Consumer-Insights handed us a psychographic map of women who crave originality, notice micro-textures, and collect compliments the way sneakerheads collect drops. If a product didn’t flatter their aesthetic identity, they scrolled past in half a second.

As Creative Lead, I translated psychological markers—“high need for individuation,” “visual-detail orientation,” “public-self focus”—as the seed for look-alike audiences on Instagram and Pinterest, then served fashion-grade content that paired cards with velvet clutches and rose-gold bangles. Click-throughs jumped; more important, saves grew, an early sign that the card was being filed under style inspiration, not stationery.

Signature cards already spoke that language—foiled leopard prints, hand-stitched ribbon, gem appliqués—now the women we wanted had begun to notice.

Next, we borrowed Fashion Week’s biggest megaphone without paying runway rates. A call to Lifetime turned Signature into the surprise challenge on Project Runway; five million viewers watched designers translate cardstock motifs into couture.

The social crescendo came three weeks later on a cobblestone block in SoHo. We opened the Hallmark Signature pop-up with no cash register and no price tags.

The currency was social: post a photo, tag #SignatureStyle, walk out with the card.
By closing day the boutique had minted 42,000 tagged posts. Every guest left as a micro-influencer—reach money can’t buy.

We kept a live dashboard pumping nightly EquiTrend pulses, Marketing Tracker reads, and social scrapes into the morning stand-up. When skull motifs spiked Monday, skull-embellished cards headlined Tuesday. The campaign behaved less like advertising, more like street-testing a micro fashion line.

Results

• 640 million earned impressions

• 1.9 million measurable consumer actions

• Double-digit lift in brand perception

Takeaway: fuse behavioral science with social currency and even a 5×7 card can command runway status—especially when “payment” is just a tap, a tag, and an emoji-packed caption.

Team

Andrew McClellan
| Executive Creative Director

Clarissa Kupfer
| Designer

Jenna Carter
| Social Director

Sona Wuchenich
| Media Planner

Sade Jimoh
| Media Analyst

Aaron Ashworth
| Director of Photography

Diego Chavez
| Camerman

Luke Hollyer
| Cameraman, Audio Engineer

Mandy Levings
| Managing Account Director

Liz Hawks
| Account Director

Allie Wilmes
| Assistant Account Director

Sarah Murray
| Account Executive

Hallmark Signature Pop-Up Shop at NYC Fashion Week

“I have my own little edgy style to me, so I was finally able to find a card that was from me!"