The New York Times explains how Hallmark’s new lifestyle book is helping to reach female consumers, deepen its relationship with retailers and offer advertisers value-added exposure for their own brands.
Hallmark Magazine is only in its third issue, but it has already attracted blue-chip advertisers like Kodak and Lindt chocolate. At a time when many magazines are struggling, Hallmark Magazine, published by the greeting card company, is enjoying success largely because it is making its retail assets available for advertising on a regular basis.
Advertisers who buy space in the magazine can put their logos on Hallmark flowers, gifts and cards, including online greeting cards. They can have in-store events at Hallmark’s 4,000 Gold Crown stores and at Hallmark card displays in the aisles of mass retailers like Walgreen’s and Wal-Mart Stores.
“We’ve got these huge retail assets,” said Carol Campbell Boggs, the magazine’s publisher. “And our business model is to leverage those assets.”
This story spotlights another problem for today’s ad agencies. So many agencies are positioning themselves as integrated shops capable of delivering all things to clients.
Clients absolutely buy into the need for integrated marketing. But nearly zero buy into the notion of letting a single agency handle all the integration. In fact, the clients are primarily overseeing the integration, handing out the assignments to the best/favorite supplier of whatever media/vehicle they’re seeking to execute.
Is any major “integrated” agency handling the total integrated efforts of any client? Or are these full-service shops full of shit? Just wondering.