In angle to be household name, Thrivent makes Hallmark holiday movie cameo

The 1.2 million viewers who tuned into the premiere of a certain Hallmark holiday movie earlier this month likely couldn’t miss the Minnesota connection.

Thrivent, a Minneapolis-based financial services company and bank, was a plot point in “Tidings for the Season,” which debuted Nov. 16 on the cable network known for its seasonal feel-good films. The Fortune 500 firm appeared in multiple scenes as the sponsor of a holiday gift-wrapping charity, one of the outcomes of Thrivent’s $50 million national marketing budget.

TV advertisements and even a couple of seconds of product placements in shows are nothing new, particularly during the lucrative holiday retail season. But Thrivent’s integration into entertainment and partnership with Hallmark is a clear signal of the company’s desire for growth and thoughtful approach to reach it.

Unlike other financial services giants around the country — including a few competitors based in Minneapolis, like Ameriprise Financial and U.S. Bancorp — Thrivent is a nonprofit that originally served only Lutherans. It now is open to all Christians, with its 2.4 million members acting as shareholders in a fraternal benefit organization rather than it being a publicly traded entity.

But that unique history means Thrivent’s not exactly a household name for any of its many offerings, including financial planning, investing, insurance and more.

Enter Hallmark, a network with Christian origins that serves a large demographic Thrivent wants to attract.

“We’re very much looking to modernize and create unique ways to tell our story,” said Lana Slygh, Thrivent’s vice president of brand and integrated marketing.

So to balance, Thrivent looked to Hallmark, which has been the most-watched entertainment cable network among women 18 and older for 11 consecutive years, according to Nielsen TV ratings data.

“Oftentimes, there’s low levels of trust in financial services,” Slygh said. “By partnering with Hallmark, we’re immediately at a different level of consideration than just saying, ‘Here is our ad, immediately grant us your trust. ’”

In the past, Thrivent has taken a more regional approach to advertising, Slygh said. But the company’s financial growth — which a dividend payout that has doubled since 2021 and reached a record $441 million this year illustrates — convinced leadership it was time for a broader push.

But while Thrivent’s $50 million marketing commitment grew 56% from last year, it’s a fraction of larger financial institutions’ budgets. For example, U.S. Bank dedicated $619 million to marketing and business development in 2024, according to its annual report, more than 12 times Thrivent’s total.

Two other competitors Slygh named, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, spent $4.97 billion and $1.96 billion, respectively, on marketing last year, according to company financial documents.

“If you were to put on a TV campaign or a Facebook campaign or something, you’re just drowned out online by these bigger guys,” he said. “So I think they’re probably saying, ‘Hey, at least let’s get a little walled garden here.’”

Slygh said Thrivent is still in the early stages of driving national brand awareness. The initial goal is unaided awareness, or the ability for consumers to recall Thrivent’s name without any prodding.

Emphasizing the company’s values of generosity and community impact is how Thrivent aims to achieve that, Slygh said. Playing the corporate sponsor of charity gift wrapping in a Hallmark movie is a start.

“For many brands, it takes years to build,” Slygh said of that household recognition. “These are not measures and metrics that go up and down easily.”

Thrivent’s competitors have one more advantage beyond capital, too: brick and mortar. Thrivent doesn’t have physical branches for customers to frequent. Instead, clients go to the offices of their local Thrivent financial advisers for in-person consultations.

“We need to spend more,” Slygh said. “We need to make every dollar we spend work harder, and we need to break through the sea of sameness with a message that is distinct.”

Anne Carlson, 79, of Minnetonka, has been a Thrivent member for 50 years and also enjoys watching Hallmark holiday movies.

But she can’t say the same for the advertising during, or within, them.

“This is the message that I don’t want to hear,” she said, “that Christmas is all about buying all these things.”

For her, the annual surge can push the true meaning of the holidays — friends, family, community and faith — to the wayside. Carlson often feels like advertisers have “kidnapped Christmas,” though she gave Thrivent’s Hallmark collaboration a pass because of her familiarity with the brand.

And Thrivent isn’t alone in its Hallmark role. Illinois medtech company Abbott Laboratories will feature in Friday’s “The More the Merrier” to promote its heart health community program alongside NFL player Damar Hamlin.

Jamele Watkins, a German studies professor at the University of Minnesota and self-proclaimed Hallmark expert, said these types of collaborations usually seem out of place. But it doesn’t disrupt her movie-watching experience.

It also doesn’t convince her to patronize whatever company pops onto her screen. She said targeted social media campaigns are more effective on her. But since Hallmark archives its films on its own streaming service and replays them on cable multiple times for multiple years, she can see the long-term strategy.

“Knowing that your product will have that longevity is probably really attractive for companies,” Watkins said. ”... So if it does go to a streaming platform, that’s fine. Your product is still there."