After the holiday season and Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine’s Day advertising efforts are often overlooked by many marketers—but they shouldn’t be. Valentine’s Day is big business, with the National Retail Federation (NRF) reporting that consumer spending for 2018 would reach $19.6B.^[1] (Put into context, that’s roughly the same amount as the recently approved bipartisan Senate budget deal for nationwide infrastructure improvement projects.)^[2]

You can’t buy love—or can you?

For many consumers, Valentine’s has become increasingly important—with the holidays behind them and the long winter months slogging ahead, chasing Cupid’s arrow gives people a reason to celebrate. And celebrate they do. Of that $19.6B, NRF estimated the spending breakdown as:

These are not insignificant category spends for what was once thought of as just a “Hallmark holiday.” With that in mind, Camp + King offers you a quick view into the winners and losers (not just those without dates) this Valentine’s season, and a few insights to ensure consumers fall in love with your brand for Valentine’s Day 2019.

The Way To Your Valentine’s Heart Is Through The Stomach

Outside of the brands you’d expect to see ratcheting up advertising spend in February (candy, flowers, jewelry), it’s food and QSR brands that rise to the occasion with unique and creative initiatives. As the saying goes, food is love.

Our favorite from this category: Snickers, who perfectly extended its “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign to solve a common Valentine’s frustration—forgetting to make a dinner reservation. After all, Snickers suggested, you’re forgetful when you’re hungry.^[3] In London’s trendy Shoreditch neighborhood, Snickers parked a van and posed the question, “Need a table for tonight?” Passersby could pull a reservation card from the van for an exclusive table at a pop-up restaurant with a top UK chef.

Other interesting executions: Land O Lakes quirky “Spread the Love” TV spot boldly claimed that “Love is like butter.”^[4] KFC tapped into the nostalgia of elementary school Valentine’s cards, offering fried chicken scented scratch-n-sniff Valentines.^[5] Meanwhile, McDonald’s sparkled with its “Bling Mac” social media contest, inviting fans to express their adoration for the Big Mac for the chance to win a $12,500 bejeweled ring in the shape of the sandwich.^[6]

And we’d be remiss not to mention that year after year, Valentine’s proves to be one of the most important nights of the year for two of America’s beloved greasy spoons—White Castle and Waffle House—both of which offer romantic, full-service dinners with reservations required far in advance.^[7][8]

On the flipside of White Castle’s and Waffle House’s efforts to coyly poke fun at the Valentine’s Industrial Complex is Panera Bread, which invited people to propose at one of their locations for the chance to have their wedding catered for free.^[9] Here’s the thing: Put aside that there is no food less romantic than a soup bread bowl, those who did actually get engaged at Panera were then entered into a drawing for the free catering. Come on. Opportunity missed.

Love is in the air. This Valentine’s Day, get engaged at a Panera and we might cater your wedding, for free. #PaneraProposalSweeps https://t.co/mpL5VbjSOd pic.twitter.com/VPRzu0QLNd

— Panera Bread (@panerabread) February 9, 2018

This Modern Love

Outside of food brands stepping up for Valentine’s, the other underlying trend in creative execution was brands using the holiday as a platform for social commentary, addressing gender and relationship norms, unhealthy relationships, and love in the era of the #metoo movement. Naturally, some brands did this well, while others extended beyond the bounds of the topics they have credibility addressing. For instance, while the sentiment is lovely, a UK-based frozen food brand, McCain, may have overreached with its celebration of the new normal with its “Here’s to Love” TV spot.^[10]

One interesting execution that effectively forced people to evaluate their own behaviors was the One Love Foundation #LoveBetter pop-up store in New York. In the week leading up to Valentine’s, a store opened seemingly offering traditional Valentine’s gifts like candy, jewelry, and stuffed animals. However, upon closer inspection, each item struck a darker chord, providing commentary on unhealthy romantic relationship behaviors to draw attention to the reality of abusive relationships.^[11]

Two brands successfully contemporized themselves without entering into the broader cultural conversations listed above. Tiffany’s, long a Valentine’s brand favorite, has found it’s had to work harder to attract younger audiences. It created “The Tiffany Tattoo Shop” a series of tattoo-like stickers that users can add to their Instagram photos, creating branded customer photos for Tiffany’s, as well as offering its younger visitors a fun interactive experience.^[12]

Kudos also go to another Valentine’s classic, Sweethearts conversation hearts candy, for modernizing without stepping away from its heritage. In recent years, those silly heart-shaped candies with classic Valentine’s messages (“Be Mine” or “Kiss Me”) printed on them have begun offering more modern messages, too, like “Text Me” and “Tweet Me.”^[13] As a result, Conversation Hearts now command more share for Valentine’s candy purchases than the staid heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, suggesting that other gift and candy makers should take note and look for ways to modernize their offerings, too.

Searching for love

As you might imagine, consumers are turning to search more than ever to make their Valentine’s Day purchases. 1800Flowers proved to be the paid search winner for 2018, ratcheting up its search spend with 890 unique search ads that ultimately garnered ~35% of Valentine’s paid click-share.^[14]

While this is indeed impressive, search trends actually suggest that marketers are missing out on some big Valentine’s opportunities. According to Google, the top-searched Valentine’s topic for 2018 was “Valentine’s gift,” earning a whopping 60% of the search volume. What’s more, Google suggested that most frequently it’s women searching for gifts for men, instead of the other way around. Indeed, two of the top five most frequently Googled questions were “What to get your boyfriend on Valentine’s Day” and “What to get a guy on Valentine’s Day.”^[15]

This makes sense if you stop and think about it: Men have basically been programmed to buy flowers and chocolate for their significant others on Valentine’s, whereas women thinking about gifts for men are offered little direction. And, when you consider that according to Psychology Today, during other holidays (like Christmas), women give 84% of all gifts, but only receive 61% of them,^[16] there’s a huge opportunity for a brand to fill this void and capitalize on these search trends.

One final interesting tidbit from our Valentine’s search behaviors: In 48 states, people are more likely to search “Valentine’s flowers” over “Valentine’s chocolates.”^[17] The two states that need their sugar fix? Alaska and Maine—presumably to help get through the long winters.