There are many times of the year that your marketing needs to be on point, and Valentine’s Day is one of them. Valentine’s Day was once a day based on pure love and admiration, where the lovestruck would work hard to show their other half how valued they are. Now, in a world full of consumerism, it’s a day that’s almost seen as a race to buy the best gift. Don’t think this is true? Well, almost £1 billion was spent on Valentine’s gifts in the UK in 2017, and $18.9 billion was spent in retail. Powerful, right?
What does it take to create a loveable brand? Take a trip down memory lane with us as we discover which brands thought outside the box and stole our hearts…
eHarmony: How kids see Valentine’s Day
As mentioned previously, Valentine’s day has somewhat lost its true meaning. Popular dating site, eHarmony, took this to their advantage and created a video campaign which went right back to the basics. Ironically, dating sites are a huge reason as to why romance isn’t how it used to be, so it was really interesting to see eHarmony give a big thumbs up to traditional dating methods. This, of course, sparked conversation and got people thinking about how times have changed. Mix this with interviewing children for the ultimate awe factor, eHarmony pulled on all our heartstrings and reminded us just how simple love can be.
Deadpool: February release date
Some dread February, and can’t wait for the mushy love-filled month to be over. As more and more people wish to ditch Valentine’s Day each year, the marketing team for hit film ‘Deadpool’ decided to manipulate this with a few tricks up their sleeves. Deadpool is a humorous superhero played by Ryan Reynolds, and the release date for the film happened to be through the month of February. Cinema listings are usually full of romance films at this time of year, but to target the Valentines-ditchers, a series of Deadpool posters were re-modelled to fit the cliche niche. From the creators of lines like “you look like a testicle with teeth”, here’s Deadpool: the romance…
Of course, these posters ended up being shared globally on social media, resulting in a general buzz about the film.
Snickers: You’re forgetful when you’re hungry
From the creators of the famous ‘you’re not you when you’re hungry’ commercials, the team at Snickers weren’t going to miss the chance to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Through the help of large billboards, the famous catchphrase was used once again, this time targetting those who may have forgotten that Valentine’s Day was approaching. There’s a lot of jokes circulating around buying last-minute Valentine’s Gifts, but the team at Snickers had us all covered; the word ‘forgetful’ was actually made up with tearaway cards which passersby could take. Yes – these cards had branding, yes – people were desperate to own one, and yes – this unique approach was extremely successful for the team at Snickers and will be a talking point for years to come.
Netflix: Binge for love
Netflix love toying with memes made about them, whether it be through ‘netflix and chill’ or the latest series everyone is going mad about. In Valentine’s 2016, however, they decided to focus on the power of binge-watching, suggesting that it’s actually good for you. Especially if you are trying to swoon your crush with your knowledge on their favourite show. With a parody of the famous ‘500 miles’ used to promote binge-watching, the Netflix campaign ended up being ‘soooo #relatable’ for the modern age daters who watched a lad binge-watch Orange Is The New Black in the name of love. Adorable.
MeUndies: #Matchmeundies
There’s a lot of competition amongst lingerie brands over Valentines Day, typically aimed at women to make them feel as though they need to purchase something new in order to feel sexy. MeUndies, however, took a cute and humorous approach in order to increase the sales of their more comfortable, fun underwear. This fresh new approach to the world of lingerie on Valentine’s Day was extremely successful, and incorporating the hashtag #matchmeundies got people engaging. Not only was a hashtag used, but MeUndies cleverly used a dog for the cuteness factor, increasing likeability for the brand. Who says you need a lover to match in undies when you have a perfectly capable dog?
Coles
Australian retail brand Coles decided to let their audience do the talking in Valentine’s 2016. Although not selling any product in particular, this fun and interactive Facebook campaign allowed users to vote with a particular reaction depending on whether they preferred a rose bouquet, strawberry bouquet, or bacon bouquet. This campaign was really clever, considering each option would appeal to a different audience. As more and more people liked and commented, the post went viral and is now likely to spring up every Valentine’s Day.
With a huge 1.9 million views so far, the rose bouquet won the poll with over 22k likes. Following from this was the strawberry bouquet with over 18k likes and then in the last place, the bacon bouquet with over 13k likes. Which would you choose?
The Body Shop: Galentines
The female empowerment movement gets stronger each year, and rightly so. With ‘galentines’ being a popular favourite amongst best friends every Valentines Day, cosmetic and beauty brand The Body Shop decided to target the females with their Valentine’s campaign.
The main goal of this campaign was to boost up the following count on their Instagram, by creating a competition which involved posting a selfie and #SendingAKiss to their friends. The prize would be a range of their lipstick products.
Not only did this prove that their products were worth winning, but it also encouraged users to buy their lipstick in order to increase the chances of winning the competition. Of course, they had a brand new Valentines-inspired product launch around this time, and this competition would have helped to boost sales.
Which Valentine’s campaign has stolen your heart?
Wow, we’re getting all flustered from just seeing how creative these campaigns were! The power that a successful content marketing campaign can have is phenomenal. All marketing stunts were so unique, yet had the same successful goal of reaching a large audience. Have you got a favourite?
From all of us at Bulldog – Happy Valentine’s Day 💙