Hallmark Media Pumps Up Its 2023 Upfront Appeal with "Experience" Events

By Hallmark Media InSites Archives
Cover image for  article: Hallmark Media Pumps Up Its 2023 Upfront Appeal with "Experience" Events

Hallmark Media is in full Upfront mode this season, making in-person and virtual house calls on advertising agencies to spur more advance spending for the 2023-24 television season. What's different in Hallmark's playbook this year from the past few is staging a series of unique pre-presentation events last month.

These events, nicknamed "Hallmark Experiences," were invitation-only, with invites going to individuals working at different ad agencies or key advertisers. Between 30 and 50 people attended each event, conducted at different places around the New York metropolitan area. Each invited person had a choice of events to be at, from a wellness evening featuring top Peloton instructor Ally Love (host of the new Netflix competition series Dance 100) to a private tour of a popular pizza establishment to a baking class at Magnolia Bakery to fine dining at the two-Michelin-star-rated restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns (pictured at top) in Westchester County.

"This is something brand new, innovative and very creative," explained Ed Georger (pictured), Hallmark Media's Executive Vice President, Ad Sales and Digital Media. "We wanted to connect personally with our partners and bring all of [our] brand's qualities -- joy and love and friendship -- and immerse them in the brand."

Each undertaking was linked to a specific aspect of Hallmark's content: For example, the wellness evening evoked the importance of well-being, the baking class stressed how sweet life and living can be, and the Westchester retreat demonstrated the value of families gathering together. "It's hard to spend any quality time with people when there are 150 of them in a room," Georger said. "In a setting with 30 or 50 people, you get an opportunity to reacquaint yourself with people and have both a social and professional conversation. It's getting together and tying the experience into the brand -- the kind of immersive experience viewers get when they watch [our] channels."

The events have generated strong positive feedback from attendees, with the mission to have a cross-section of agency and advertiser personnel at each location accomplished. Georger suspects the response has had an impact on the formal Upfront presentations Hallmark has conducted so far, and that it will continue do so on the presentations taking place over the rest of this spring.

Hallmark Media's Upfront meetings this year emphasize a few key messages. One is a growing fan base for the original content on Hallmark Channel and sister net Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. Another is that despite the growing competition of megacontent services and other channels reaching viewers through smart TV products and multichannel bundles, Hallmark's viewership continues to move upward. For the ninth year in a row, Georger pointed out, Hallmark Channel was the top-rated cable network for the fourth quarter of a calendar year.

"Viewers continue to come back because they know what they're going to get and we deliver for them," he said. "That's the overarching message, yet we realize that viewer habits are changing, and linear TV is in a changing atmosphere. Despite the fact that there's more competition, we continue to dominate in that area. Plus, we're continually investing in original content."

Indeed, Hallmark Channel claims the distinction of being the most-watched network on entertainment cable for the year 2022. Further, in Q4 2022 Hallmark Channel became the most-watched entertainment cable network among Households, Total Viewers, Women and Persons 18+, Women 25-54 (with no qualifiers) and Women 18-49. The network has remained No. 1 among Women 18+ in Q4 for nine consecutive years.

Looking ahead through the 2023-24 season, Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries will premiere at least 100 original movies, 40-plus running over the 2023 holiday season. Hallmark Movies & Mysteries' presentation of made-for-TV films developed under the Mahogany banner will continue into 2024. As for original scripted series, two of the three originals now playing on Hallmark Channel -- newbie The Way Home and long-running When Calls the Heart-- will return with new seasons next year. The odds for a second season of Ride, Hallmark Channel's drama about a rodeo family dynasty that launched late last month, look promising.

At the Upfront presentations, company officials are encouraging participants to share their thoughts about their general TV spending strategies. "We want to hear from them what their challenges are, where their businesses are going, in hopes that we can find custom solutions from them," Georger said.

With those concerns top of mind, expect Hallmark Media in the weeks ahead to work on growth opportunities involving content generation and distribution through smart TV products and bundle platforms, along with brand extensions such as the availability of Hallmark Channel movies on NBCUniversal's streaming venture Peacock and the further development of basic channel Hallmark Drama and on-demand service Hallmark Movies Now. "Peacock's hub is an innovative way to get our content in front of new viewers and be in control of the way we deliver that content and the advertisers involved with it," Georger concluded.

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