THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!

Special Project

Special Project
From the 10th Annual Shorty Awards

Countdown to Christmas 2017

Entered in Entertainment, Integrated Campaign

Objectives

Reinvigorate our audience of W25-54 that Hallmark Channel is back with a packed schedule of movies this Christmas.

Position Hallmark Channel as the prime destination for Christmas to view quality programming content with family and friends.

Strategy and Execution

A comprehensive social media year-long campaign that covered the following:

Social Content Strategy: A comprehensive content roll-out strategy that provided a steady drumbeat of assets to fans including video promos, animated key art, on-location videos, exclusive "Reindeer Games" videos with talent couples quizzing each other about Christmas trivia, GIFs, etc. across social channels. We studied analytics and audience behavior throughout to optimize content roll-out.

Starting Early: Reminded fans through countdown posts early in the year and shared PR exclusive articles on social channels about 2017 Countdown to Christmas line up starting in April.

Live-event support: Coverage of live events such as Museum of Christmas and screening of Christmas at Holly Lodge at the Grove on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Custom Snapchat filters were created for each event.

Museum of Christmas: Created a one week Christmas pop-up store experience for fans to activate and engage with Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas in New York. Influencer outreach with local lifestyle and mommy bloggers to encourage foot traffic by having them post on their influential social profiles.

Talent Support: Worked with talent in the original movies to do several fun social activations such as Facebook Live promoted events with talent to allow fans to interact with them, Instagram takeovers, dedicated posts on talent's social channels sharing BTS to get fans excited and provide a behind-the-scenes look, countdown shout-outs and live-tweeting with talent for all original premieres to drive tune-in.

Giveaways: Created a multi-pronged promotional approach to give away a set of 35 Hallmark Keepsake ornaments and a Balsam Hill Christmas tree each week for the entire stunt duration. Signed posters/books from the films used as prizes for RT to win giveways on Twitter and Comment contests on Facebook posts.

Christmas Fantasy Game: Created a social strategy to support the Christmas Fantasy game to remind fans to play and win upto $20,000 using trivia questions from the films/images etc.

Pinterest: A strong Pinterest strategy with beautiful Christmas images, recipes, memes with Christmas sayings on the Countdown to Christmas Board. Also, created a "I AM..during Christmas" sweepstakes based on the original movie premieres which secured 985 entries and 16k views and is our most successful contest to-date (21% more than any contest on Pinterest).

Social Interactions: Holiday social media experiences such as custom "Season Your Selfie" festive profile pic filters, custom branded Countdown to Christmas filter, "Fan Favorite Top 10" list of romantic couples from Christmas films, Thanksgiving and 12 Days of Christmas targeted stunts resonated well with our audience and had a lot of engagement.

Community Engagement: Engage with fans daily and answered questions regarding premiere times and other information they were seeking, and to support their enthusiasm and love for Hallmark Channel.

Influencer Outreach: Worked with bloggers, Twitter and Instagram Influencers to reach our target demographic to bring awareness and drive tune in. Influencers wrote editorials, executed RT to win contests, posted in Instagram stories, and live tweeted for every premiere.

Results

•Countdown to Christmas Campaign secured +133% more than the total 2016 campaign impressions.

•The Most Wonderful Campaign secured +183% Social Impressions from 2016.

•Instagram topped 1 million engagements during the Christmas season for the first time ever.

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Crown Media Family Networks

Links

Entry Credits