Fresh Flowers, Fluffy Teddy, Sweet Chocolates, and all the Love & Sparkle…
It’s a yes from brands!!!
Valentine’s Day has held great importance in the history of special occasions, and brands certainly have made the most of this special day by running successful campaigns in the past.
In the last few years, the need for intriguing and unique content ideas around the concept of love in the month of February has increased immensely. Different brands run varied campaigns on their social media channels, using contests, stories around love, and influencer marketing in exchange for exciting prizes.
Here’s how some of the brands have leveraged the day of love in 2021 and converted the positive vibes into positive PR to improve their brand identity:
❤️ The Body Shop’s #SendingAKiss Contest
The contest required Instagram users to share a selfie of blowing a kiss to their friends and tagging them in the parent post. The winner would get a gift pack of their newly launched fruit-scented lip balms for them and their “Galentine’s”.
It elevated their Instagram presence to a larger and more relevant audience – females of all age groups. Clever move, The Body Shop!
❤️ Metro Shoes’ #FoundMyPair
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Metro Shoes launched #FoundMyPair, a campaign in collaboration with Humans of Bombay. #FoundMyPair was intended for recent graduates who would share their college romance tale with the world to motivate the future generation. Metro shoes would then select the most heartwarming stories to share on their social media handle, and one fortunate story would get shortlisted for a special feature on the Humans of Bombay Instagram page. #FoundMyPair was an opportunity to connect better with the recent college grads, and feature accounts targeted audience.
Therefore, the brand utilized Valentine’s Day/Week to draw in the youth and make a solid case around how they tracked down their perfect match that also passed the test of time.
❤️ Dunkin Donuts’ Dunkin Love Contest
Dunkin’s popularity is not only its juicy burgers or even coffee but also its extraordinary user-generated content (UGC). They see how steadfast and enthusiastic their target audience is and utilize that for their potential benefit on numerous occasions.
For instance, on Valentine’s Day, the brand used their social media channels by getting clients to participate in a “Dunkin’ Love” Instagram contest, by going on Facebook Live and using Snapchat Geofilters at specific Dunkin’ outlets. Therefore, leveraging UGC on different channels on the much-anticipated day.
❤️ Paree Girl’s #PyaarKaPeriod
With the help of Indian actor and model Prince Narula, Paree Girl reached out to its target audience with a unique idea for a contest. Women had to share different ways in which their partners would treat them with a photograph attached to a beautiful memory.
Since the brand catered to women between the ages of 14 to 40, the contest leveraged Instagram’s algorithm and user-generated content to reach a wider audience. While doing this, the brand also leveraged Prince Narula’s following on Instagram since the actor posted as part of one of the entries.
❤️ Burger King’s #DateTheWhopper
Adding humor to the campaign, a plot twist, and lots of double-meaning phrases, Burger King launched a fun campaign with Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking fame Simi Taparia questioning the youth, for how long will they compromise? Be it your love for a human being or food, it comes with certain compromises, and if not managed well, the relationship becomes toxic.
Using the same logic, Simi asks the youth to break up, but with their older version of a sukha (dry) and tasteless burger, and join the Burger King army.
❤️ Nykaa Fashion’s #AddToHeart
While traditionally, the holiday celebrates the love between two opposite sexes who are romantically involved, Nykaa tried to change the dialogue with its #AddToHeart campaign. With five unique and unexpectedly ending stories, Nykaa made a short film with Shreya Dhanwanthary reigniting the thought behind the day.
Over the past few years, more brands have come up with campaigns that were inclusive of all kinds of companionships, thus reaching out to an even wider audience.
How brands should make the most of the day
Now that we have gone through some of the most iconic Valentine’s Day content, here’s how your brand can make the most of the day and the other days that follow it:
💘 Plan your content
This one ought to be obvious. If you need your campaign to target your audience, plan it the right way by having content ready at least 45 days in advance to reap the benefits. Then, when the time comes, distribute content during the most active time frames of the day for each platform, and try to stir it up a little – your audience will get exhausted if you keep giving them 15 posts a day at inappropriate times.
💘 Make relatable content
The right way to make engaging content is knowing your audience and having the option to recognize their preferences and needs. Understanding the buyer’s persona is an incredible initial step to understanding the various socioeconomics and characteristics of brand campaigns that make the most of your social media presence.
Utilize your experiences to truly address your audience through the content you distribute. Recall that they are only human and give them what attracts them the most towards your brand.
💘 Add humor
We all love funny posts. Involving humor in your content is an incredible way to catch your target audience’s eye and, possibly, have your Valentine’s Day content be re-shared across social media. Utilize occasions as an amazing way to showcase your brand’s POV. Valentine’s Day is a heartfelt occasion, yet many call it rather messy. Furthermore, add satirical content of images to cheer the mood!
💘 Make it universally viable
Valentine’s Day campaigns need to be occasional, yes, but they also must include a pinch of humor to tickle the funny bone. The qualities that drive the occasion – heartfelt love, companionship, appreciation for the other – are fairly all-inclusive but pouring your designs with ounces of reds and pinks will not help.
This will assist your content with staying pertinent even after Valentine’s craze is over, making it evergreen. It will assist you in addressing the part of your audience that does not like the occasion.
💘 Add hashtags
The most obvious is, of course, #ValentinesDay2022. To increase your reach, utilize it well. All things considered, the principal reason for hashtags is to expand the discoverability of content, and you wouldn’t need your posts to get lost among the large numbers of updates utilizing the basic #valentinesday hashtag.
It’s simpler to rank in the hashtag program for less well-known hashtags such as:
#️⃣ happyvalentinesday (9 million posts)
#️⃣ valentinesdaycards (75.3 thousand posts)
#️⃣ valentinesdayideas (63.4 thousand posts)
#️⃣ valentinesdayflowers (63.8 thousand posts)
#️⃣ valentinesdayspecial (109 thousand posts)
💘 Manage engagement
Your occupation isn’t done once the content is distributed – some may contend that this is only the beginning of the most difficult part. Ensure you keep a check over the conversations around your brand and the posts – focus on the positive ones and apply your best customer-friendly guidelines to resolve any inquiries, concerns, or negative assessments.
Try not to misjudge the force of kind and opportune social media reactions – millennials regard social media as a significant touchpoint for the brands they love and expect proficient help on customer care channels and social media at the same point.
Measure results
Leverage the social media, strong content, visuals, rewards, and user-generated content across your marketing channels, deliver more love to your brand loyal army and also tap into the segment of new customers through word of mouth, social media, referrals, and more.
Valentine’s Day is definitely about love but it is not only related to couples, there is a huge space to cater as customers love their friends, family, pets, and also themselves. Brands have immense opportunities to leverage the power of love and human emotions to connect with the customers, no matter what so ever their relationship status is.
Once you apply social listening skills to your brand campaigns, infer the results using different tools and tactics accessible to you to understand what went wrong, what fared well, and where you could improve during the next holiday.
Tags: Branding Strategy, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Branding, Valentine's Day by Brands, Valentine's Day Strategies