Keeping up with this month’s theme of highlighting holiday-related communities, I’m excited to share with you the Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Club! From the Hallmark website, “The KOC is where collectors and fans just like you celebrate their passion for Keepsake Ornaments while creating and sharing memories. Discover more of what you love—sneak peeks, stories from the artists, exclusive ornaments and rewards—by joining KOC today.”
These are some true ornament lovers. An annual membership costs $49.99 and requires a Hallmark account AND a KOC account. Since I am not a paid member of this group, I did my best to review the community from a limited perspective:
What I love
The membership fee. Not enough communities do this, IMHO. It’s smart to have a fee like this to cover administrative costs. After all, there are 7K members in this group! Plus, the fee itself is set at a level that will attract only the most dedicated ornament fans, which will end up benefiting the overall community in many ways.
Stories from the artists. Since I’m not actually in the Club, I can’t view these myself, but Hallmark’s website says this is a perk of Club membership, and I consider that the ultimate inside scoop to hear directly from the artist!
The engagement. If the old Club page is any indication of today’s activity, it looks like it would be rich with images AND video.
My wish list
My internet sleuthing shows me that the Club moved over to Facebook Groups in 2019, and I wish I knew why. I found the old Club page and it looks like they had a good thing going there.
Since one of the membership benefits is exclusive sneak peeks, I wonder if the Club members also get one of the first opportunities to buy newly released ornaments. If not, that would be quite an incentive!
What do YOU think of the Keepsake Ornament Club? If you’re a member, I’d love to hear about your experience!
Join Me In a Brand New Community!
Join me at the intersection of community professionals + event planners in the new Event Makers Community (on Slack)! I look forward to seeing you there!