Eileen Gaffen, Hallmark spokesperson, tells RBR-TVBR the multiplatform rebranding effort includes television, PR, social media (including blog sites), e-mail, print, direct mail, video, search engine marketing. The TV buy includes prime, early morning, syndication and cable, and was purchased during the last TV upfront. Networks include NBC, CBS, ABC, OWN, Lifetime and Hallmark Channel. It’s a holiday effort, for the most part: “We’re launching every day products at seasonal time frames. The TV schedule is during Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Christmas,” she said.
Leo Burnett handled creative and Starcom executed media for the new campaign and tagline, “Life is a Special Occasion.” It challenges consumers to stop and enjoy life’s perfectly, imperfect, unplanned moments. The target audience is moms and grandmothers.
On 1/31, the TV ads debuted, featuring “not” statements, which are designed to get a person’s attention by saying something unexpected. For example, a commercial featuring Hallmark Recordable Storybooks says, “Bedtime is not for sleeping … it’s for being together even when you’re apart.”
“Our consumer told us that, although she looks forward to the big milestones of her life, what really makes life rich are the little ‘us’ moments,” explains Lisa Macpherson, Hallmark’s Chief Marketing Officer. “However, her life is so busy that she can’t always be in the moment. Hallmark’s goal is to provide the inspiration, ideas and solutions to help consumers take pause and recognize, linger and capture the moments they share with family and friends. This isn’t expected to happen every day … but it can happen any day.”
As the Life is a Special Occasion campaign unfolds, consumers will notice Hallmark is starting a new conversation and engaging with them more, using social media, e-mail, direct mail and more to talk with consumers about moments instead of milestones, focusing on the real rather than ideal, and inspiring moments that are spontaneous, not planned or obligatory. These types of moments can happen during a holiday or any day.
Hallmark recently attended the BlissDom Conference gathering of more than 700 influential women bloggers and introduced the new branding campaign through online and in-person activities. At Hallmark’s booth, attendees shared — via twitter or on video — what a perfectly, imperfect moment means to them. Their responses were compiled into an online mosaic, dubbed VisibleMash (via Fleishman-Hillard, Hallmark’s PR AOR), allowing attendees to view other bloggers’ responses and continue the conversation with their readers after the conference.
