Valentine’s Day is not only an adorable holiday, it is also a great time for marketing campaigns. For decades, companies have been coming up with great Valentine’s Day marketing ideas, some more memorable and successful than others.
It is the prime time of the year for chocolate, stuffed animals, jewelry and special dinners and companies never miss out on it.
Let’s look at some amazing Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns that brought companies a ton of engagement and sales.
1. Dunkin’ Donuts and their Valentine’s themed products
In 2015, Dunkin’ Donuts got the idea to create a Valentine’s Day marketing campaign. What they came up with were a themed drink and donuts.
The drink was their famous Iced Coffee sprinkled with red, white and pink toppings in the shape of hearts and two kinds of heart-shaped donuts: the Brownie Batter Donut and the Cookie Dough Donut.
They encouraged people to post photos of themselves enjoying the coffee and donuts and use the hashtag #IceDDCoffeeContest for a chance to win a $100 gift and a travel certificate.
In 2019, they brought the heart-shaped donuts back and came up with new flavors and sprinkles, including Boston Kreme and Jelly.
The new donut, Brownie Batter Double Filled Donut, had double the filling of a regular donut and was immediately a huge hit.
What they also did was take over a wedding chapel in Las Vegas and make it Dunkin’ themed, for all the couples with a sweet tooth. They gave Dunkin’ bouquets to the first 100 couples that got married there and even had their own wedding officiant.
This year, they introduced a number of latte and macchiato flavors, brought back all the heart-shaped donut favorites and made a video on how to make your own bouquet made of Valentine’s Day donuts.
Pretty great Valentine’s Day marketing ideas, don’t you think?
2. Pizza Hut’s heart-shaped pizza
Pizza Hut brought back the heart-shaped pizza this year that could be ordered separately or in a bundle.
The bundle included either a Hershey’s Triple Chocolate Brownie or the Ultimate Hershey’s Chocolate Chip Cookie.
The brownie consisted of a square of 9 brownies covered with chocolate chips and the cookie was cut into 8 triangles, covered with chocolate chips, as well.
This Valentine’s Day marketing idea was brilliant because people often crave something sweet after eating a pizza.
In Malaysia, Pizza Hut sent heart-shaped pizzas with notes to their competitors, including McDonald’s, Dominos, KFC and many others.
They posted photos on social media and the Chief Marketing Officer said that the reason they did this was because they have a lot of respect for their competitors and they thought this would be a fun idea.
Their competitors responding on social media brought likes, comments and shares for everyone included, so the stunt was definitely useful.
3. Uber and their Valentine’s Day special offers
In 2013, Uber partnered up with Rose Shop and came up with a quite romantic Valentine’s Day marketing idea.
For $100, you got a bouquet of a dozen red roses, on-demand delivery by an Uber driver and a personalized Valentine’s card.
They also had a contest going on where you could win two $50 gift cards, two spots in a cooking class, two tickets to the theatre, a gift certificate for a dinner for two, and another one for a one night stay at Aloft Minneapolis.
In 2018, Uber Belgium and their delivery service, Uber Eats, partnered up with Moët and created a unique Valentine’s Day marketing contest.
The lucky winner won a special Uber ride with UberBLACK, a bouquet made by Hélianthus, an Uber Eats dinner in a secret location chosen by One House Stand and a night at Hôtel des Galeries.
The night was worth over €2.100 and the winners entered by commenting with a love declaration on the Facebook post.
This year, it was possible to upgrade your ride to UberBLACK and ride with your date in style and even send the car to pick them up.
Uber Eats also offered a 25% discount on KFC orders to the first 30.000 people who claimed the code BUNINAMILLION.
4. Tiffany & Co., tattoos and flowers
In 2018, Tiffany & Co. came up with a pretty unique Valentine’s Day campaign where they combined the traditional and the modern.
They created a tattoo generator that you could use instead of Valentine’s Day note and customize your own cute little graphic.
The generator is still up and you can select your image of choice, background color, font, and text, and then share it on your social media of choice or save it.
In 2020, Tiffany & Co. did a collaboration with Flowerbx, a London-based flower delivery service and combined jewelry and flowers for this special day.
They set up a stunning flower display in a Tiffany shop where people could take photos and post them on their social media.
Every purchase made in the shop was packed in the Tiffany signature blue boxes and bags and wrapped up in Flowerbx floral wraps.
What they also did was open a special Tiffany café in London on Valentine’s Day, called the Tiffany Blue Box Café. Now, you can have a real breakfast at Tiffany’s.
5. Terminix and chocolate-covered insects
Talk about unique Valentine’s Day marketing ideas.
In 2018, this pest control company sent heart-shaped boxes filled with edible crickets covered with chocolate to the winners of their contest.
They said that their goal was to add a fun twist to the typical Valentine’s Day gift and to ‘spread the love bug’.
6. Potbelly Sandwich Shop and free cookies
Unlike all the previous brands that focused on couples and gifts for two, Potbelly Sandwich Shop decided to focus on people who weren’t in relationships in 2019.
On Valentine’s Day, this sandwich shop offered one of their signature cookies to anyone who came in without a date, including a special red velvet cookie or a chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips.
The music that played wasn’t romantic and sappy and their goal was to make single people feel as loved and welcome.
Finishing up
There you have it: 6 unique and creative Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns that were huge hits and resulted in thousands of purchases and social media shares.
From classic Valentine’s Day themed foods such as pizzas, cookies, and coffees, through special dinners and rides, to unique ideas like edible insects, brands always spend a lot of time coming up with the most effective and different Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns that will make them stand out and get a lot of engagement.
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