GRANDMA GRAMS

GRANDMA GRAMS When I first read a story about how a company had been set up to receive e-mails and pictures, print them up and then snail mail them to people (www.sunnygram.com) I was astounded that people would be so lazy that they could not snail mail the e-mails themselves. Then I did some research and the idea is really quite clever. The company is targeting senior citizens who do not use e-mail. Their children and grandchildren are used to communicating through e-mails and don’t use snail mail. This is a perfect way to compile e-mails and pictures and easily get them to Grandma. Plus the grandchild can scan their “refrigerator pictures” and send them to Grandma for her to hang up. Sunnygram gives the subscriber a dedicated e-mail address. The subscriber can share that e-mail address with as many family members and friends as they want to. The company retains all the e-mails and pictures and creates a colorful newsletter that they mail to Grandma. Each newsletter can contain an unlimited amount of e-mails, but there is a limit of 20 photos per newsletter. How often does the newsletter go out? That depends on what service you subscribe to. A daily subscription is $29.95/month; weekly subscription is $18.95/month; twice a month mailings are $12.95/month and a monthly subscription is $9.95/month. When one considers the cost of mailing a letter and printing photos, this is really a cost effective way to communicate. Matt Ahart, co-founder of Sunnygram said, “It’s sad but true that people are a little lazy. This service makes sending letters to your grandparents as convenient as writing an e-mail.” Since there is no limit on the amount of e-mails in a single newsletter, this service could also be an interesting way for someone to chronicle their own life. One could sign up for the once a month newsletter, send e-mails and pictures to that address and then once a month receive a newsletter about their own life. They could save these newsletters and then when E! True Hollywood story did their bio, there would be a neat stack of newsletters as background reference! It would also be a clever and inexpensive way for a company to produce a newsletter. Once they received their monthly edition, they could photocopy it and send to clients. Sunnygram might just be targeting seniors, but I think there could be many more applications for this service. I am going to sign up for a one month free trial and see how it works. I will keep you all posted—by snail mail!