Hallmark Media
Hallmark has taken a somewhat opposite approach from AMC and A+E for its go-to-market strategy. While its competitors have fled to digital where they compete with Amazon, TikTok and YouTube, the go-to for holiday movies is reiterating itself as a last bastion of cable, according to Ed Georger, executive VP of ad sales and digital media for Hallmark Media.
“There’s a perception that there’s not as many places where a buyer can find reach [in TV]—I’m talking about real, big numbers that may not exist as often as they used to,” said Georger. The executive compared Hallmark to live sports, which has remained the primary driver of demand for linear TV for advertisers as well as the upfront model in general.
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The average viewership across Hallmark Channel’s “Countdown to Christmas” slate of holiday programming during primetime hours from Oct. 20 to Dec. 25, 2023 was 1.19 million, according to Nielsen. The channel hit a viewership high for the fourth quarter on Nov. 26 (a double feature of “Our Christmas Mural” and “A Biltmore Christmas”) at 2.35 million average viewers.
While the numbers don’t hit the heights of marquee NFL games, they are comparable to the NBA, which averaged 1.62 million viewers during the 2023-2024 season through late February, according to Sports Business Journal.
“It’s an uphill battle for a lot of [the cable networks] that don’t have their own streaming … Linear TV is old, and Hallmark has a winning formula: it’s wholesome, it’s clean, it draws an audience. Perhaps as some audiences age up, then it will make more sense for Hallmark to invest in streaming,” a sixth media buyer said.
Although Hallmark also has a presence on FAST channels, as well as platform-specific partnerships that include airing content on Peacock, Georger said Hallmark’s linear channels remain its emphasis for now, though he did hint that changes to Hallmark’s distribution strategy may change the approach in future years.
Even in discussions of modern TV buying practices, Georger offered a Hallmark twist to express the company’s strengths. “The way people buy—automation, programmatic, data-driven solutions—they’re all important, but I think along the way you give up a little bit of knowing exactly where your ads are being placed.”
Rather than focus on automated deals that other media companies are flocking to in order to increase the number of advertisers able to access inventory (although Hallmark does utilize for some of its digital sales, Georger said), “I'd rather sit down and understand their business and find a creative solution,” said Georger.
To be sure, the executive did say that Hallmark’s clientele is still expanding. While Georger said insurance, pharma and consumer packaged goods are typically categories that invest heavily in Hallmark’s content, other categories such as automotive and entertainment brands have been increasingly tapping into Hallmark’s ability to aggregate larger audiences in cable. “Even DTC startups embrace what Hallmark stands for and want to be associated with high ratings in a relevant contextual environment with the brand safety that drives their business,” said Georger.
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However, as advertisers continue to shift spending beyond the upfront to a more incremental approach, which often favors programmatic transactions, Hallmark and other linear-centric sellers may have a hard battle ahead.
For agencies with clients that over-index on middle-America consumers, “we fight hard to keep Hallmark on their media plan—they’re good partners,” said the fourth buyer. “In a world of consolidation, in a world of agencies having less staffing, and from an operational efficiency, is it easier to just go with the big companies that have content and tools that also reach the same audiences? So [cable networks] are secondary.”