Stickers can tell a lot about a person. Maybe more so than their social media page.
There is a recent trend with sticker collecting, and people putting them all over their stuff for others to see. Most commonly, sticker-covered water bottles, laptops, and car decals.
Amy Brown, a freshman at BYU-Idaho, was sitting on campus with friend. Each with a laptop decorated with stickers.
“Mine are really weird they’re mostly of celebrities that I like, or funny things,” said Brown. “They’re mostly there just for me… if people like them then that’s cool, but I like to look at them, so I think they’re cool.”
One is a red Texas decal, because she is originally from Texas. Several others are famous people from movies and TV shows, and a quote from her favorite Taylor Swift song. Each expressing a little bit more about herself.
Businesses have picked up on the popularity of stickers and many use them to promote their businesses. This gives happy and devoted customers the opportunity to express their love for such business by pasting the company logo on their stuff.
“Primarily we’re printing to other small businesses especially towards labeling and that type of work," Jesse Freitaf, the marketing director for the company Sticker Giant, said. "Then you have people who are just being creative. You have young students out there who, whether it’s a start up idea or a designer, just starting to design, use Adobe tools or other avenues they use to create art, and they have a really nice piece of art they want to use as stickers.”
Sticker Giant is a custom sticker printing company out of Longmont, Colorado. Freitaf says many of their newer customers are small businesses or startup businesses that want stickers to give out to people to help market their brand.
Sticker Giant is also responsible for coming up with National Sticker Day. In 2016 they made Jan. 13 National Sticker Day to make stickers even more fun. It also helps in marketing. They are currently selling 1,400 orders every week, with the help of easier ordering options, people being more creative, and this growing sticker trend.
Headliner Video is one of these companies that got involved in sticker marketing. It's a website and app that allows users to create fun, unique videos or audiograms.
“We started to think of ways and things we could give back to our users, thanking them for using us, and a lot of them are supporting us on social media,” said Baily Drake, the growth marketer for Headliner video said. “We don’t watermark the videos, which is a huge driver for most startups in the early age. We were wondering, what’s a way we can thank them for sharing the word of Headliner willingly, but also kind of watermark their life…. it’s something they would enjoy and be a reminder of us.”
She also mentioned that with the stickers they sent out they added a handwritten note asking the client to post on social media where you stick your sticker and tag Headliner Video. This created a low-cost marketing move that appeals to the users and is beneficial to spread awareness for the company.
It's not just businesses spreading awareness with stickers, but also nonprofit organizations, campaigns, entertainment companies, and artistic individuals. They’re all creating stickers for people to enjoy.
To listen to more about this sticker trend, the stories behind them and successful marketing tactics using stickers, Sticker Giant hosts a podcast called “Sticker on The Mic.” Find it here at stickergiant.com.