Valentines Day: our favourite campaigns 

Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated by people all over the world, and it has become a major event for businesses looking to connect with their customers and in turn generate sales. Over the years, many companies have come up with creative and effective marketing campaigns to capitalise on the holiday of luurrve.

You know we’re a sucker for a marketing campaign over at team NJ and after a bit of research and some very serious discussions, we’ve settled on the following 5 as our top Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns!

"Say it with a Coke" campaign (Coca-Cola, 2011) - Remember this one? How could you forget? I won’t lie, I definitely succumbed to this campaign and bought myself all of my girlfriends a personalised bottle. In fact I’ve probably got mine lying around somewhere!!

Anyhow back to the story, for those of you that are fortunate enough to be too young to remember, in 2011, Coca-Cola launched a Valentine's Day campaign that allowed customers to personalise a Coke bottle with their own message. The campaign was a huge success, with more than 1 million bottles being personalised in the first week alone. Yes, you read that right, 1 million in the first week. The campaign generated a whole storm on social media, way back when social media was still a bit of an unknown entity, their Facebook page received 25 million new likes and brand awareness increased when over 500,000 images were shared during the #shareacoke campaign. Of course in turn this increased sales and market share, and saw a rise of 2.9% in the number of litres of Coke drunk, up to 272.17 million versus the same period the year before. As far as campaigns go, we would say this one was particularly successful!

"The Kiss" campaign (KFC, 2017) - In 2017, KFC launched a Valentine's Day campaign that featured a series of ads depicting couples sharing a kiss while enjoying KFC's famous fried chicken. The campaign was a hit, generating a lot of buzz on social media and helping to drive sales. The campaign also helped to position KFC as a fun and romantic brand, which was a great way to connect with customers on a more personal level.

"The Love Story" campaign (Tiffany & Co., 2018) - In 2018, Tiffany & Co. launched a Valentine's Day campaign that told the story of a couple's romance through a series of ads. The campaign was a hit, generating a lot of buzz on social media and helping to drive sales. The campaign also helped to position Tiffany & Co. as a luxury brand that is synonymous with romance and love.

"The Love Calculator" campaign (Hallmark, 2019) - In 2019, Hallmark launched a Valentine's Day campaign that featured an online love calculator. Customers could input their names, and the calculator would generate a personalized message that they could share with their loved ones. The campaign was a hit, generating a lot of buzz on social media and helping to drive sales. The campaign also helped to position Hallmark as a fun and romantic brand, which was a great way to connect with customers on a more personal level.

"Love is not Cancelled" campaign (Zola, 2020) - In 2020, Zola, a wedding planning company launched a Valentine's Day campaign that featured the slogan "Love is not Cancelled" in the middle of the pandemic, the campaign was a hit, generating a lot of buzz on social media and helping to drive sales. The campaign also helped to position Zola as a company that is committed to helping couples celebrate their love despite the challenges of the pandemic.

Plan in advance, think about your shareability and go for it! We can’t help you this year [it’s a bit short notice!] but we can certainly get our thinking caps on for you, for 2024!