Valentine's Day marketing ideas, save it!

The heat of the Spring Festival and the Winter Olympics has not yet dissipated, and Valentine's Day is here again.

As a festival that is highly sought after by young people, the huge commercial value behind it cannot be ignored.

However, due to the dual influence of the Spring Festival and the Winter Olympics, major brands seem to be overwhelmed; on the other hand, in recent years more and more brands have joined the "festival creation" craze, and consumers have long been desensitized to various marketing routines that are "changing the soup but not the medicine"; this year's Valentine's Day marketing strategy is apparently deserted.

So, what should brands do if they want to stand out in this holiday marketing competition where homogeneous content is concentrated?

Here, through observing and studying Valentine's Day marketing cases in recent years, I have summarized several marketing ideas and would like to share them with you.

01

Marketing to the right crowd:

Develop marketing strategies based on the characteristics of different groups of people

In addition to the long-commonplace "price wars" and fancy promotions, brand festival marketing, creating a festive atmosphere and focusing on content creativity have become the focus as people's consumption behavior becomes more rational. However, marketing activities cannot focus only on this, but also need to target specific target groups so that the brand can leave a deep impression in the minds of consumers.

Compared with collective festivals such as the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, Valentine's Day targets a more specific group of people - couples and singles.

Couples play:

① Strengthen the sense of ceremony

The Little Prince once said: A sense of ritual is what makes a certain day different from other days, and a certain moment different from other moments. On Valentine's Day, the sense of ceremony is solemn and more meaningful for young lovers. On the operational level, brands need to set up diversified emotional touchpoints in Valentine's Day marketing to create romantic scenes for consumers and stimulate emotional resonance.

For example, Pepsi once launched a cola diamond ring on Valentine's Day. As long as fans share their unique proposal ideas on Twitter and use the hashtag #PepsiProposal#, they will have a chance to win the ring. The gimmick of "Valentine's Day proposal" was cleverly used to trigger "tap water" communication.

②Alternative Tucao "Spreading Dog Food"

During the epidemic, Twitter launched a series of Valentine's Day "complaint targets" outdoor advertisements in subway stations in New York and San Francisco to show the most real emotional world and bring users closer.

③ Counter-thinking: "persuasion to break up"

In addition to sweet love, you can also try something unconventional on Valentine's Day. This year, Tmall Supermarket and Douban’s breakup persuasion team worked hard to summarize 10,000 real breakup persuasion cases, and derived tips for reconciliation from these cases, and reversely launched a "Valentine's Day Reconciliation Report." 

Of course, in previous Valentine's Day marketing years, "persuading people to break up" is not an isolated case. In 2020, Burger King, which is good at making pranks, launched the "Breakup Box" event on Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day, Burger King set up a "breakup box" device in some stores in four cities, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. As long as consumers put items related to their ex into the box on site, they can get a Burger King signature burger for free. I have to say, Burger King is really too mean!

Single gameplay:

① “Pleasuring yourself”

According to Nielsen's "China Single Economy Report", 42% of single consumers consume for self-pleasure, and the resulting "single economy" has become a new force in Valentine's Day consumption. On Valentine's Day, which is based on the theme of "sweet love", more and more brands are using "singleness" as the campaign theme of this festival. Previously, Qingyan focused on the spiritual need of "It's nice to spend Valentine's Day alone", conveying the idea that "pleasing yourself" is the most important thing.

② “Strategies for finding a partner”

There are always various "urgings" during every festive season, and sweet holidays such as Valentine's Day are the hardest hit by the explosion of "urgings". Therefore, having insight into the pain points of the younger generation such as "getting out of being single", "being urged to get married" and "blind dates", many brands focus their marketing efforts on giving "tips" to singles. For example, Taiwan's e-commerce shopping website Shopee launched the advertising film "Singles' Valentine's Day", which satirized the social phenomenon of "being forced to be single on Valentine's Day" in a funny and dramatic way, winning the recognition of young audiences; Taobao launched the "Shopping Cart Online Blind Date" event on Valentine's Day, unlocking a new marketing posture for Valentine's Day; and many brands cleverly used posters to actively offer advice to singles in order to increase consumer favorability.

02

Create memory associations:

Let the brand enter the hearts of consumers

In the Internet age, consumers' attention is becoming increasingly scarce. Although taking advantage of festivals can gain consumers’ attention, it does not necessarily create memories. However, through some extremely impactful and story-telling scenes, it is possible to effectively trigger users' emotions, strengthen their memory of brand associations, and touch the hearts of consumers.

Generally speaking, posters are the most common way for brands to leverage Valentine's Day. For example, many well-known brands such as Durex, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola have won the favor of consumers through extremely creative posters on Valentine's Day.

Secondly, limited edition gift boxes are also a common tactic used by brands. Especially in the past two years, with the popularity of blind box marketing, brand Valentine's Day limited blind boxes have also become diverse.

Among them, the holiday co-branded gift box is one of the highlights of the brand. For example, Durex once teamed up with cartoonist Tango to customize the "All in" Valentine's Day IP gift box and launched "Sex Poker"; Lao Gan Ma official flagship store × Taobao launched the "Valentine's Day Limited Bottle"...

In addition, leveraging holiday elements to create social currency is also an important means of establishing brand memory associations.

In the early years, Starbucks’ “Give Me a Valentine’s Day” was a classic case. Around Valentine's Day, just go to any Starbucks store across the country and tell the clerk the hidden code: I want a cup of Valentine's Day, and you can unlock the exclusive Valentine's Day drink.

Last year on Valentine’s Day, Alipay’s “Are you there?” marketing campaign went viral. As long as users searched for “Are you there?” on Alipay, they would receive a love song covering a wide range of genres. Different people search at different times and hear different songs. With its unique creative ideas and attractive copywriting, Alipay has leveraged hundreds of billions of traffic to usher in a "good start to the year".

When consumers spontaneously participate in these marketing activities, the brand symbols have already been imprinted in their subconscious. Only when marketing connects with consumers' emotions and allows the brand to enter their hearts can we strengthen brand assets and achieve long-term emotional communication with consumers.

03

Output brand value:

Guide positive values

Kotler once said that the era of Marketing 4.0 is the era of value-based marketing. We have seen that more and more brands have begun to dig deeper into the connotation and meaning behind Valentine's Day, incorporating increasingly diverse, inclusive, and positive views on love, values, and life into their brand propositions, rather than just focusing on consumption and products.

For example, JONAS&VERUS's Valentine's Day copywriting series "Be Yourself" not only reveals the personality of young people, but also conveys the brand's concept of encouraging women to "strive to be themselves."

It is true that in recent years, "her economy" has become the code for traffic, and incorporating "her attitude" into Valentine's Day marketing is also a good choice, but superficial slogans and chicken soup will not work. As marketers, we should take a broader perspective, create in-depth creative content, and convey positive values. In my opinion, last year’s 520 PROYA’s “Dare to Love, Dare Not to Love” is a good reference.

at last

Under the impact of the Spring Festival and the Winter Olympics, Valentine's Day marketing has declined this year. But excluding these external factors, we also need to understand that in the ever-changing marketing environment, consumer needs and preferences change accordingly. Whether it is short-term holiday leverage or long-term marketing operations, if a brand wants to capture the new generation of consumers, it can only adopt marketing methods that fit consumer behavior and psychology and carry out continuous value infusion, and ultimately win consumer recognition and favor.

Author: MuMuMu

Source: MuMu