Over the years, Hallmark has become a well-known brand—due, in part, to its numerous heartwarming TV commercials that present the firm’s greeting cards as a way to express one’s love and affection for family, friends and colleagues. Now, Hallmark has opted to fortify its broadcast ad efforts with streaming media advertising that will debut on the Internet on Oct. 15 as part of an initial test that extends until Dec. 31. In that span, the spot will be available for viewing on selected Web sites, such as marthastewart.com and women.com.
Santa Monica-based Flicker Media—a turnkey Internet commercial production firm formed late last year—created the streamed piece, known as a Flicker, for Hallmark. The company worked in conjunction with Starcom IP, Chicago, the interactive arm of Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, which handles Hallmark’s ad account.
It was back in March of this year that Flicker Media introduced the Flicker, billed by the company as a new concept in Internet advertising; the targeted streaming ad-delivery system was six months in development. Flickers are based upon Real Network technology; they entice end-users to watch commercials positioned as online content, and feature hyperlinks to the advertised products/services. In other words, after a consumer has viewed the about-to-break Hallmark work, he could click on it and be brought to a Hallmark site that would presumably offer product and information on stores that carry the brand.
Visitors to one of the specific Web sites will be able to click on a teaser graphic with an accompanying tag line within a RealNetwork window that allows them to play the short—around :20—spot. At the end of each Flicker, visitors are encouraged to click a link that will take them to the sponsor’s Web site, where they will be greeted with a landing page designed by Flicker Media.
New Form
Since its inception, Flicker Media has worked on projects for the skateboarding magazine Beyond Extreme, Speedo and Diesel, among other clients. One of its first Flicker campaigns, for Speedo, was helmed by freelance director Rich Underwood. Titled "Power Stroke," it shows an Olympic swimmer doing the butterfly stroke and contains a hyperlink to Speedo, which promotes its swimwear attire.
"This approach fuses advertising with entertainment, and teases users to watch," says Flicker Media president/founder Jonah Hillman. "[The Flickers are] spots positioned as content, although these are the most interesting commercials. We’re not restricted by the FCC or by time limits, so we can create content for specific user groups."
In some respects, the Flicker is similar in concept to BMW’s recent widely publicized Internet-based short film campaign out of Fallon Minneapolis, produced by bicoastal Anonymous Content. Feature directors such as Guy Ritchie and John Frankenheimer helmed the pieces, and each one highlighted a BMW model, although there was no hard sell. Hillman believes that the Flicker’s shorter time span is a viable option for Web surfers, who typically want instant gratification, and may not be interested in taking the time to watch a film, or to wait for a long download. "The Flicker was created in response to the speed at which the Internet moves," states Hillman.
One of the firm’s most recent assignments, for the Los Angeles Opera, demonstrates the Flicker’s ability to precisely target an intended audience. The opera piece, said Hillman, was aimed at well-educated, 40- to 50-year-olds in the higher income bracket, who are also performing arts enthusiasts.
Flicker Media assembled the spot from existing clips of Los Angeles Opera performance footage. "What the client was most interested in," explains Hillman, "was users who are, number one, interested in the performing arts, and number two, locally based. So we created [the spot] so that the flicker pops up on Web sites catering to fans of the performing arts, such as www. guide4arts. com, but will only appear on the site’s Los Angeles channel. Flickers are a way of constructing very lean campaigns that are very cost efficient and deliver messages to only the target market."
Previously, Hillman—a 1995 New York University Film School graduate—spent several years running his own small production company, the now defunct Maverix Entertainment. Through Maverix he directed and produced primarily documentaries and corporate projects, as well as a couple of music videos and regional low-budget spots. Concurrently, he freelanced in the Southern California production community. His experience there includes a stint as a "permalance" production coordinator at Santa Monica-based commercial house Plum Productions for director Bob Rice.
Hillman closed Maverix in ’00 to open Flicker Media, he explains, because he was having a hard time getting big projects. So he turned his attention to the Internet, a developing medium that he viewed as ripe with possibilities.
"I saw only banner ads online, and I’d read about how ineffective they are," Hillman notes. "So I set out to create high-quality streaming advertising. I realized that with the state of streaming video, I could implement advertising that had much greater impact, and work on bigger campaigns that had more of a reach."
Besides Hillman, Flicker Media’s staff now comprises a lead designer and programmer, a media planning/ buying team and development manager Vered Cohen. The company works with a number of freelance designers and programmers in addition to its five employees. The boutique offers Internet audio/video production, editorial, proprietary encoding and programming techniques, media planning and buying, and tools for ad serving, tracking and results analysis.
After Flicker Media had begun to reach out to ad agencies, it received a call from Starcom IP account executive Jason Taylor, recalls Hillman. Taylor was researching streaming media for an Internet ad campaign for Hallmark. He gave Flicker Media information about the product—an online photo assembly and scrap-booking service—and the main target audience: high-tech mothers.
Since the Hallmark Flicker wasn’t online at press time, Hillman was not at liberty to disclose details about the piece, including its director. (A spokesperson from Leo Burnett USA referred inquiries to a spokesperson at Hallmark, who had not returned calls at press time.)
But Hillman did relate that the Flicker initiative for Hallmark called for 1.5 million impressions—meaning that the file inviting users to click on it will pop-up 1.5 million times. The impressions, he indicated, are divided among the Web sites, with 70 percent slated for branded women’s sites like marthastewart. com, and the remainder psycho-graphically targeted to scrapbook aficionados.
Contingent upon the level of success for this streamed media campaign, Hillman says, Hallmark plans to launch a much bigger Web-based campaign next year. To date, Hallmark is the largest advertiser to use Flickers, and Hillman is confident that the format will gain significant popularity among agencies and clients in the near future.
Hillman noted that advertisers and agencies are already showing interest. He reported that his company has been preparing campaign proposals for such agencies as FCB San Francisco, Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Torrance, Calif., and TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles. "With ten percent of the budget of a TV commercial production, a Flicker campaign reaches ten times as many consumers, all of whom are targeted. Response rates often reach fourteen percent click-throughs, which is fifty times greater than the Internet advertising average. I think of the Flicker as the ultimate recessionary product."
