With people more comfortable going into stores, television advertising for many major retailers was way up during the holiday season.

According to an analysis by Samba TV, Walmart, the top advertiser in the fourth quarter, increased its number of TV impressions by 20% from a year ago. 

Target’s impressions were 35%, Kohl’s grew 25% and Macy’s were up 34%, according to Samba TV.

Traditional retailers represented four of the top 10 advertisers during the fourth quarter. In addition to Walmart in the top slot, Target was No. 6, Kohl’s was No. 7 and Macy’s was eighth. 

Also: Ho Ho Ho! Holiday Programming Paid Off for Hallmark, NBC, Freeform

Walmart, Target and Macy’s did not rank in the top 10 during the third quarter.

Also breaking into the top five was Amazon. Amazon did not rank in the top five in the fourth quarter of 2020 despite the high volume of online shopping during the first COVID christmas, Samba TV noted. 

Some retailers focused on the Hispanic market. Target generated the most impressions advertising on Telemundo, followed by Univision. For Walmart, Univision and UniMás were the No. 2 and No. 3 networks in terms of impressions.

Looking just at the peak holiday season, between Black Friday and Christmas, retailers pulled out the stops when it came to TV advertising, Walmart, Target, Kohl’s and Macy’s all served more than 1.5 billion impressions, as did Amazon. 

Samba TV said Kohl’s did the best job in achieving reach while limiting frequency. The average household exposed to Kohl’s ad during the holidays saw 22 of them. Households that saw ads for Walmart saw 42 of them and households that saw Target ads saw 32 of them. Those retailers were more likely to reach oversaturation and annoy potential shoppers, Samba TV said.

“With the viewership landscape more fractured than it’s ever been, it’s never been more imperative for marketers to utilize a holistic view across both linear and streaming,” Samba TV VP of measurement Cole Strain said. “By leveraging Samba TV’s independent, first-party data set culled from 40-plus million devices marketers can truly understand their audience reach and true ROI.” ■

Evine Live, the shopping channel formerly known as ShopHQ, said it has named retail industry veteran Penny Burnett senior vice president and chief marketing officer.

Burnett, who has more than 20 years of merchandising and retail experience, will begin her new job on April 20. Burnett most recently served as vice president of merchandising for Global Brands Group (a member of the Fung Group) for five years where she directly managed the merchandising strategy for new acquisitions and oversaw merchandising for the Kids’ and Young Men’s businesses. Prior to that, she was the vice president of sales and merchandising for Guggenheim Partners on the Lionel brand and held key merchandising roles at both Macy’s and Target Corp. She will be relocating to Evine’s headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minn.

As part of her employment agreement, Burnett will receive an initial base salary of $345,000 annually and will receive restricted stock and options to purchase shares of Evine’s common stock under its 2011 Omnibus Incentive Plan worth about $155,250. She will also be eligible to participate in the company’s employee benefit programs offered to other senior executives. In addition, when Burnett relocates to the Eden Prairie area, she will be eligible to participate in Evine’s executive relocation program.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will team with Macy's to run the classic holiday movie Miracle On 34th Street all day Nov. 20 outside of Macy's famed Herald Square New York City store, the network said Thursday.

The movie, which helped launch the Macy's Thaksgiving Day parade into a national event, will be screened for fans outside Macy's Herald Square next Thursday beginning at 8:15 a.m., with the final presentation scheduled for 8 p.m. During the 6:15 screening, TCM host Robert Osborne and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade executive producer Amy Kule will be on hand to deliver a special holiday greeting on behalf of TCM and Macy's, said the network..

"We can't wait to celebrate our second year of Miracle on 34th Street screenings with Macy's in Herald Square," said Jennifer Dorian, general manager of Turner Classic Movies in a statement. "This very special event combines one of the most cherished Christmas movies of all time with the magic of New York City during the holidays. At TCM, it's our mission to share the greatest movies of all time with new audiences, and this is a treat for the whole family.”