• BrandChannel, Monday, June 15, 2009 10:45 AM

Hallmark, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2010, is keeping up with the times not only by selling e-cards but also by leveraging its hallowed brand name outside its core business, Barry Silverstein reports.

One long-term spin-off has been the "Hallmark Hall of Fame," which originated in 1951 and has earned 79 Emmys and attracts 10 to 20 million viewing households for each program. "It continues to work its magic on our image to a degree I cannot fully explain," says Hallmark chairman Donald J. Hall. "I am not aware of any such vehicle, in or out of television, available to any other company, with such a positive impact."

The show was just the first of many electronic ventures for Hallmark, and its brand name is prominent in other media including Hallmark Magazine, a paid subscription publication that publishes recipes and projects and has a rate base of 700,000. It also achieves visibility through a chain of Hallmark Gold Crown retail stores in the U.S. and Canada and Hallmark-branded shops in other countries.

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