More than 200 Christmas-themed TV movies were scheduled to debut this year, a number that has doubled over the years. This is a clear indication that TV networks have noticed that viewers want festivity and a few hours of feel-good content during this time of year.
On the most popular Christmas-time networks (i.e., Freeform, Hallmark, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Lifetime Movie Network, and Lifetime), there have been almost 200,000 ad airings during their primetime movie programs so far this month. There have also been over 150 billion total impressions delivered and over $400 million in estimated ad spend during these primetime movie programs, each representing an over 2000% increase from this same time last year. Advertisers clearly have done their holiday shopping and increased their TV advertising investments during these primetime movies.
Who are these holiday-loving brands?
Retail has made up the largest portion of the impressions (24%) during primetime Christmas movie programs on the holiday networks thus far, a +4% year-over-year increase. Thus far, the top brands with the highest portion of Retail category impressions are Target (15%), Walmart (9%), Macy’s (8%), Etsy (6%), and Kohl’s (6%) – all of which were also the top brands in 2020, with the exception of Kohl’s.
For additional holiday-related advertising data and insights, read recent posts from our new “Know What Works” blog series: Walmart’s Deals for Days Holiday Campaign Gains Traction and Chick-fil-A Shows Context is King; Wayfair Uses LTOs to Create Instant Engagement.
The Food and Beverage category has had the second-largest portion of impressions (14%), with almost 90 unique brands airing ads during these primetime Christmas movies. Campbell’s currently holds the largest portion of impressions (7%), a +2% increase from a year ago.
Interestingly, Santa’s favorite category, the Toys, Board Games, and Collectibles, has only held about 3% of the share of impressions so far. While this category did not have one of the largest portions of ad airings, Fisher-Price gets an honorable mention with an almost 30-million total impressions investment on holiday movie programming.
Do holiday movies work for brands?
After a stressful past couple of years, TV viewers are more eager than ever to watch de-stressing programs and celebrate the holidays. And with more Christmas movies available on these holiday-centric networks, there are more opportunities than ever before for advertisers to engage with viewers. Let’s take a closer look at a couple of examples.
We mentioned they deserved an honorable mention earlier, and so far this December, Fisher-Price has experienced a 34% increase in Search Engagement Rate (SER) during primetime movie programs on the holiday networks in comparison to the average primetime cable network airing. This means that a TV viewer who saw a Fisher-Price ad during a holiday movie program this month on a holiday network was 34% more likely to engage online with the brand, in comparison to the typical Fisher-Price airing during primetime cable this year. Regardless of the creative performance of the Fisher-Price spots, the airings during the holiday movie programs have been successful in engaging TV viewers.
Similarly, TV viewers were, on average, 39% more likely to search for Kohl’s in the minutes immediately following a Kohl’s TV ad airing during a primetime holiday movie on the holiday networks versus the average primetime cable program. Kohl’s currently is running a strong holiday campaign, including standard spots like Holiday Cheer and custom integrations featuring Olivia Holt.
As we recently wrote about, Christmas-themed spots work (see A Gift to Open Early: Xmas-themed Ads Drive 27% Increase in Brand Searches). EDO research has shown that Christmas-themed creatives outperform non-holiday creatives by approximately 27% in driving consumer searches for the brand or product being advertised. Additionally, custom integrations can be a home run for a brand (download Case Study: Etsy sees 38% increase in Search Engagement from its Lifetime holiday movie custom integrations).
To know what works for your brand, and how creatives or media can be optimized for your campaign, contact us today.