Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity for social marketers to create a holiday-themed campaign. Here are some of our favorites from this year:
- Times Square billboard becomes “Wall of Love”: digital billboard ad company Aerva asked consumers to tweet @AervaNYC with a picture of their sweetheart and a special Valentine’s Day message; once approved, it went up on a huge billboard in Times Square. Participants also received a photo of their message being displayed on the billboard as a digital keepsake, similar to how Aerva ran the HTC One smartphone campaign last holiday season; in a gallery on Aerva’s website users could vote for the best submission on the “Wall of Love.”
- Smart car sends celebrities to serenade that special someone: the two-seater Smart car is meant for couples, so music celebrities Neko Case and Ruben Studdard took off in Smart cars labeled “smart crooners” and braved their way through slushy streets to serenade some lucky NYC folk. Smart car’s nearly 10,000 Twitter followers just had to tweet their location (or their Valentine’s) to @smartcarUSA with #smartcrooners; the singers did as many impromptu serenades as they could through the day, responding to realtime tweeted requests.
- Valentine’s vs. House of Cards: here’s a great compilation of brand tweets capitalizing either on the holiday, the release of House of Cards hotly anticipated Season 2, or a combination of the two (and once again, Oreo is brilliant).
Best. #ValentinesDay. Ever. CC: @Netflix pic.twitter.com/uuhk1Zw4ad — Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 14, 2014
- TGI Fridays lures singles with chicken wings: looking to attract singles during the week of Valentine’s Day (Feb 10-14), Twitter users tweeted @tgifridays with hashtag #thankswingman for the chance to win a $15 gift card toward chicken wings (the first 500 to do so each won a card). According to AdWeek, the campaign “takes aim at singles going out on the town and looking for romance.”
- For basketball lovers, tweeted valentines: check out this compilation of cheesy but cute Valentine’s tweets from the big ten (college) basketball teams.
Enjoy a special Valentine’s Day card for all of our #B1GCats fans. We love you! pic.twitter.com/jZjMwsaj3Y — NU Men’s Basketball (@NUMensBball) February 14, 2014
Here are a few more fun Valentine’s-related tidbits from 2014, just in case you missed them:
- For the science geek in all of us: the Kinsey reporter app (the ‘only’ sex research app) hoped to turn the holiday into a “laboratory on sexual behavior,” collecting data on sexual activity, PDA’s, flirting and unwanted experiences to display geographically via interactive maps, timelines and charts.
- For next year, last-minute Valentine’s-themed Facebook contest ideas: an infographic full of ideas on engaging consumers around the holiday on social media, from a Timeline ‘fill-in-the-blank’ promotion to a ‘sweet treat recipe contest’ (yum).
How did your brand combine Valentine’s Day and social media? It’s never too early to start planning next year’s campaign…
