New York -- Hallmark Channel said Tuesday that it would begin offering an “all-access pass” to its advertisers, which, for the first time, would allow them to create marketing programs any time of year that reached into Hallmark’s 4,200 card stores, as well as its online site.
“Just as Disney Channel is one large advertisement for all things Disney, we should be the Disney Channel for all things Hallmark,” CEO Henry Schleiff said.
The all-access pass will allow Hallmark’s sales team to create “fully integrated packages” of promotions for advertisers that will appear in Hallmark Gold Crown stores, appealing to the company’s 14 million Gold Crown rewards-program cardholders and the 170 million Web users who visit Hallmark.com each year.
The packages will be akin to those developed late each year in conjunction with Hallmark’s holiday movies, such as The Christmas Card and March of the Penguins this past December, according to Laura Masse, executive vice president of marketing for the channel.
For Kraft Foods, Hallmark created a set of six custom commercials that broke out of but related to the story line in Meet the Santas to promote its Ritz and Wheat Thins crackers. For Nestlé, the channel created a sweepstakes tied to its holiday movies, with entry placards and Nestlé’s name appearing at checkout counters in the Hallmark stores.
Online, short video clips that are part of a campaign could show up before a visitor to Hallmark.com orders an e-card, Masse said. And in the stores, shopping bags could be receptacles for promotional brochures, flyers and giveaways.
In the promotion of March of the Penguins, for instance, flyers promoted the Hallmark Channel premiere of the movie, its regular viewing schedule, and a plush toy with a dancing Santa and two penguins that flapped their flippers “in a jaunty jingle-bell jam” could be purchased in the store. The plush toy was promoted on air, as well, to drive viewers into the stores. And Gold Crown cardholders get points for discounts on cards and gifts at Hallmark stores.
The integration of marketing across Hallmark’s retail and online properties came over the past two months, after Schleiff conversed with Donald J. Hall Jr., president and chief executive of Hallmark Cards, in Kansas City. A discussion of a billboard in Los Angeles that promotes Hallmark shows, Schleiff said, led to the discussion of how stores can act as billboards for other Hallmark assets and vice-versa.
Neither Masse nor Schleiff, however, were ready to announce any signings of any deals with marketers that spanned the stores, the online site and the channel yet.
“What we have is an open door to explore all of these activities,” Schleiff said.
Meanwhile, Schleiff opened the door to presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) at the channel’s upfront ad-sales breakfast and presentation at Michael’s Restaurant in Manhattan Tuesday morning.
Having noted how her husband, former president Bill Clinton, appeared at TV Land’s upfront presentation last week, Schleiff asserted that Hallmark, an independently owned channel, does not have nearly the marketing budget of TV Land, a unit of Viacom. Viacom owns MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and a host of other cable channels.
At which point, he brought Hillary to the podium -- in the form of a cardboard cutout purchased in Manhattan for $75.
