• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 26, 2007

The Hallmark Channel is on an ad sales tear, adding an executive to help continue the momentum. Randi Felton has joined as senior director, ad sales research, after a three-year stint at Turner.

Felton, who will report to executive vice president-ad sales Bill Abbott, will help support the sales operation's new business development and client retention efforts. She will provide research insight into the performance and value for advertisers of both the flagship channel and the Hallmark Movie Channel. In addition, Felton will develop the networks' sales estimates for inventory pricing.

"Randi's great experience, coupled with her ratings and research savvy, will be an asset to our team," said Abbott. "This is a particularly exciting and volatile time in the industry, and with a strong team in place, we are well-suited to stay aggressive and competitive." Given the changes in data streams, DVR viewing and emerging technologies, he predicts that Felton will "keep sales climbing and clients happy."

The new research executive will support the national ad sales team with research data, presentations and competitive analysis, serving as the channels' liaison to research vendors.

Most recently, Felton was research manager at Turner, where she assisted with sales strategy development and crafted client presentations. Before that, she worked at MTV Networks in the research group.

She joins a sales group that delivered a 20% increase in revenues versus a year ago (up to $46 million) in the recently completed first quarter. Scatter pricing was running at a 50% increase over upfront rates in 1Q, helping drive performance, said parent company Crown Media.

Strong scatter pricing would suggest that Hallmark is poised for a strong performance in the emerging upfront. Advertisers may not want to gamble on the scatter market again, and may find themselves having to pay such significant premiums.

Felton replaces Kim Caruso, who left after two years to join gaming-network GSN as executive director of ad sales research.