Hallmark Channel Leads ‘Turkey Five’ Retail TV Ad Surge

Chances are you watched some television between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday this year, which likely means you also encountered retail ads.

In light of physical retailers’ various challenges over the last 20 months, this year’s holiday shopping season is a chance to make up for lost time, and sales. And brands have taken to TV to get consumers in the gift-buying mood.

According to data from iSpot.tv, retail brands spent nearly $132 million on national TV ads during the “Turkey Five” (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) — a 9% increase over last year’s figures and a 19% jump from 2019. Walmart’s led the way by far this year, with over $21.5 million put toward TV spots during the five-day stretch (over $6 million more than Amazon). In all, 21 different retail brands spent at least $1 million on TV in the window.

Walmart was also the most-seen retailer during the timeframe, with nearly 2 billion TV ad impressions, which was over 600 million more than Target’s total. Macy’s also topped 1 billion impressions with a mix of Black Friday and Cyber Monday promos.

While retailers were all over TV to catch shoppers’ eyeballs, they also put an emphasis on holiday programming in an effort to catch the most likely buyers. For instance, Hallmark Channel and its raft of holiday specials, accounted for over 11% of all retail impressions over the five days (most of any network). It was followed by the big four broadcast networks, which aired the Thanksgiving Day Parade and numerous football games over the holiday. Hallmark Movies & Mysteries also got in on the act, with 4.2% of all retail impressions (sixth among all networks).

While the NFL delivered the most impressions (9.2%) courtesy of its typically large audiences — especially on Thanksgiving Day — Hallmark specials like An Unexpected Christmas (1.0% of retail impressions) and Christmas CEO (0.9%) were major sources of impressions as well for retail brands, from a programming perspective. Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship also served up plenty, accounting for 0.9% of retail impressions as well.