The Best Valentine’s Day Campaigns To Come Out Of Social Media

Brands, it’s time to listen up! With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, now is your best chance to maximize your campaign’s reach and tap into this widely celebrated day.

Brands can leverage social media to circulate their tailored campaigns. This could be leveraging short-form video content on TikTok to encourage virality, or using Instagram Stories to encourage user participation with Polls or Stickers. The possibilities are endless!

It’s really important for brands to lean into Valentine’s Day as it proves social listening and can help your brand to remain relevant – or become relevant amongst new audiences!

With this in mind, we’ve sourced the best Valentine’s Day campaigns 2024 others have yet to top.

THE TOP 10 VALENTINE’S DAY CAMPAIGNS

1. Cadbury 5 Star – Valentine’s Day Alibi

Cadbury 5 Star’s clever 2022 Valentine’s campaign took pressure off of those who hate the dreaded question “what are you doing for Valentine’s Day?” by renaming an island “My cousin’s wedding”. So, when asked the question, consumers could respond with “I’m not in town, I’m going to my cousin’s wedding” without telling a lie.

This campaign wasn’t a social stunt, either. Audiences could scan a QR code and sign up for a chance to win a trip to the island.

This campaign generated immense engagement, with over 98,000 people signing up to escape to the island, 63 million impressions and earned media worth over $150,000.

2. Gucci – Love Story Zine

For their 2022 Valentine’s campaign, Gucci released a limited-edition zine showcasing a love story between a fairy and a giant through their Valentine’s Day collection.

The campaign intrigued customers as it showed the beauty of the brand’s clothes and accessories in a unique way and offered an exclusive item (a physical copy of the zine). 

3. Stella Artois – Valentine’s Day

Stella Artois’ 2020 Valentine’s campaign tugged on viewer’s heartstrings by showing a couple’s love story through a short 15-second video capturing the role the well-loved beer brand played throughout their relationship.

The video garnered over 3M views on YouTube and received immense positive sentiment. Its success could be attributed to positioning the beer as something to be enjoyed with others and encouraging its consumers to enjoy the little moments.

4. Dunkin – Valentine’s Day Trivia Promo Code

Dunkin’s 2021 Valentine’s campaign is a clever example of encouraging user participation and encouraging audiences to join the brand’s loyalty scheme in order to claim a free drink.

By leveraging Instagram Stories and integrating an interactive trivia game, Dunkin successfully drove users to engage with the campaign and engage with their Instagram account as watching their IG Story was the only way they could claim their prize.

5. Hotels.com – Anti-Valentine’s Day

Hotels.com’s 2021 Valentine’s campaign took a humorous angle on traditional loved-up Valentine’s campaigns by urging users to visit their webpage and write about an ex-partner they believed deserved a holiday in a dumpster.

These were all entered into a competition and winners received a $300 gift card for use at Hotels.com. 

The campaign successfully drove talkability and got people involved with the campaign, which drove engagement with the brand overall.

6. Tyson – Chicken Nugget Bouquet Contest

For their 2021 Valentine’s Day campaign, Tyson put a spin on the classic gift, by challenging consumers to make their own chicken nugget bouquet.

To enter the competition, participants had to upload a picture of their chicken nugget bouquet to Instagram with the hashtags #NuggetBouquetContest and #TysonNuggetsofLove. Winners received a package of Tyson’s ‘Nuggets of Love’ limited edition heart-shaped chicken nuggets.

Not only did this campaign raise talkability about the brand, it also urged people to take part for a chance to win some limited-edition chicken nuggets!

7. 1-800-Flowers – Galentine’s Day

1-800-Flowers’ 2021 Valentine’s campaign aimed to celebrate Galentines’ and the love between friends through a short video featuring two best friends talking about their friendship.

The emotional ad inspired consumers to send their friends flowers for Galentine’s and celebrate platonic love. The company sold over 14 million roses, which shows how successful their campaign was in terms of aligning its messaging with its audience and how it touched the hearts of many people.

8. OpenTable – Millennial Experiences

OpenTable played on marketing insights which found that Millennials prefer dates over gifts for Valentine’s and ran with this idea for their 2020 Valentine’s Day campaign.

The brand released 14 ads as part of a two-week countdown to Valentine’s Day, encouraging customers to make reservations early to avoid the holiday rush.

What makes their campaign different to other campaigns was that each ad targeted a different audience that could benefit from using OpenTable to make Valentine’s Day reservations, with a clear call-to-action and messaging that appeals to the ideal viewer.

9. Gü Desserts – Love-themed Packaging

For their 2020 Valentine’s campaign, Gü released a series of love-themed packaging – called ‘Love Notes’ – featuring song lyrics with a clever play on words of the brand’s name.

The packaging, along with in-store activation, led to a spike in sales and brand popularity rose as a result. The success of Gü’s campaign can be attributed to its unique packaging and funny play on words which may have tempted consumers to purchase the product.

10. Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing – Customized Bottle

Hidden Valley’s 2023 Valentine’s campaign took a humorous approach to gift-giving and allowed consumers to personalize bottles of their ranch for their special someone.

Despite seeming like a strange gift, Hidden Valley shows its understanding of its audience and knows that there are some fans out there who like to put ranch on almost everything. To these audiences, this gift is the perfect mix of funny, personalized and useful.

Their campaign shows that by taking the typical romantic theme of Valentine’s Day and flipping it on its head to create an entirely different theme can work wonders for brands and enable them to stand out amongst the crowd of generic love-themed campaigns this time of year.