Whether you love Valentine’s Day and all the hype that goes with it, or hate it, you have to admit that it’s a great opportunity for sales or exposure. Like many big calendar events, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and Easter, the Day of Love can drive significant sales and increased traffic. It’s a good idea to see if there is a digital marketing campaign you could design for your business, eCommerce or not, to increase your brand awareness.
Through videos, adverts or special offers and giveaways, there’s a lot you can do to capitalise on the romance of Valentine’s Day. In 2015, there were a number of very successful campaigns worth mentioning:
- Clothing retailer Topshop’s homepage used a video to show the Valentine’s dilemmas of awkward silences and all-important outfits involved in a first date. It was funny and engaging and, most importantly, it connected with its teenage/young adult target audience. The video has been viewed around 290,000 times on the brand’s Facebook page and over 13,000 views on YouTube, proving the popularity of good rich content.
- Ryanair launched a competition on Twitter with the hashtag #loveRyanair, encouraging people to post images of themselves and their loved ones, and asking them to pick their dream romantic getaway destination for the chance to win free flights.
- Tesco took to Twitter with its hashtag #loveisallaround, focusing on romance in the aisles. Tesco used Vine videos to create simple, funny stories which played freely on Twitter, instantly engaging the follower and creating a sense of fun around Tesco’s brand, like a female shopper spotting an ex with new girlfriend and hiding in the frozen section upright freezers rather than have to chat. They also Tweeted Valentine’s related images incorporating food, for example, ‘Brie Mine’.
- Debenhams used Valentine’s Day as a focus point on its homepage and introduced offers on specific products such as perfume, flowers, lingerie and jewellery. Each offer displayed within the graphic was clickable. Beneath the offers, Debenhams stated all delivery options to remind that there was more than one method to get the gifts delivered in time for Valentine’s Day. Debenhams offered ‘more ideas’ for ‘gifts for him’ and ‘gifts for her’, making it easy to browse its ‘Gifts Designed for Love’ and navigate to the most relevant products. This online campaign was supported by social media promotions across Twitter and Facebook.
To carry off an effective digital marketing campaign takes planning and preparation, way ahead of time. Content needs to be created around the special day to deliver engaging content to the audience at the right time. It’s vital to know your audience and who you are aiming your campaign at. Think of which channels would best reach your audience – email can be useful for existing customers, while competitions can boost social engagement.
Need help with your calendar event campaign? Call Unibit Solutions
Unibit Solutions, digital marketing experts, can assist with your online campaigns, your website and even your social media strategy to capitalise on opportunities like Valentine’s Day. They offer a full suite of services and have extensive experience with online communication. Contact them to find out more information.