Valentine’s Day is the day many agencies get busy with planning cupid-themed PR campaigns.
Here is a flavour of what brands have been up to for this year’s Valentine’s Day.
1. Marks & Spencer’s ‘Love Sausage’
Yes, you did read that right. Marks & Spencer, the quintessentially British brand we all love, decided to go for an innuendo-led Valentine’s Day campaign with a long sausage in the shape of a love heart. (We don’t want to be *that* person but we think switching the initials round perhaps works better for this particular campaign…)
Although it’s perhaps traditionally off-brand for Marks & Spencer’s, it’s got everybody talking!
It’s a simple idea, but it set social media alight with comments after Marks & Spencer asked people to tag who they’ll be sharing their Love Sausage with this Valentine’s Day.
While some people suggested that Marks & Spencer hadn’t thought its product through, the story made the headlines across a variety of national newspapers. We’re sure the PR and marketing team will be classing it as a success with the original tweet generating 5.7k likes and 1.7k RTs, and the Facebook post resulting in 6.2k comments, 14k reactions and 5k shares!
2. Red Letter Days’ Post Boxes
Valentine’s Day can be a lonely time. Gifting company Red Letter Days created a touching campaign aimed at combating loneliness in elderly people. Its campaign involved setting up special post boxes across the country, with people encouraged to send a card to a stranger.
It’s not only a heart-warming campaign, but has also been supported by the Campaign to End Loneliness and the Salvation Army.
This idea works as it’s not just focused on the products that Red Letter Days sells. Instead it builds up a positive reputation for the brand through charity partnerships.
3. Snickers #SmoothItOver
Even though there’s no escaping it, there’s always someone who forgets to get a present for their partner on Valentine’s Day.
Snickers has decided to capitalise on the couples who may have fallen out on Valentine’s Day. The brand combines its brand new ‘smooth’ chocolate bar with its #SmoothItOver campaign.
Snickers is encouraging users to share their regretful Valentine’s Day moments by tweeting the hashtag #SmoothItOver – those who tweet can be in with a chance of winning a Snickers flower bouquet to make it up to their partner!
Plus, as we all know, chocolate makes everything better.
4. Tinder for cows
Is your cow lonely this Valentine’s Day? Fear not as Tinder has released a brand new dating app for cows to get in the ‘moo’d for love.
The new app is called ‘Tudder’ and has been launched in partnership with an agritech trading platform.
Just like normal Tinder, farmers can swipe left and right on images of female and male cows to find the perfect match. Once users find a potential match, they’re directed through to a website to buy the cow….
It might seem like a joke campaign, but the app is intended to make the process of breeding easier for farmers with all of the data available in one place. Although the app is a pioneering development in the agricultural world, the story may not have otherwise made headlines had it not been released to coincide with Valentine’s Day.
5. El Paso Zoo’s ‘Name a Cockroach After Your Ex’
Flipping love on its head, a zoo in Texas came up with an idea especially for single, and perhaps bitter, people on Valentine’s Day.
The un-romantic idea involved naming a cockroach after their ex. Not only that, but keepers would feed the cockroach to a meerkat! The names have been displayed on its meerkat exhibit and across its social media channels this week, with the feeding of the cockroaches taking place on Facebook on Valentine’s Day.
As well as a quirky story for social media, the story has gone global raising awareness of the zoo. We also expect it has seen an increase in followers and impressions on its social media channels as well as traffic to its site.
6. The Printworks ‘Adopt a Bee For Your Honey’
On a slightly sweeter note, we wanted to do something a little different to celebrate Valentine’s Day for our client, The Printworks.
The Printworks, is a staple landmark within Manchester’s heritage. As well as being known for its leisure and entertainment, lesser-known is its rooftop garden which houses honey bees and a vegetable patch.
To highlight both The Printworks’ hard-working rooftop bees, AND raise some extra money for charity, we were puns galore with the un-BEE-lievable unique gift of adopting one of The Printworks’ bees for just £2. Also up for grabs was the chance to adopt a Queen bee for their Queen (yep, that was also our pun!) for £25.
All of the money raised goes to The Booth Centre, a Manchester-based charity that helps support homeless people to get back on their feet and rebuild their lives.
There’s still time to adopt your very own bee. Plus, with The Printworks having four beehives which house between 30,000 and 40,000 bees in each hive, there’s also plenty left to adopt!
Lastly, we won’t go into much detail but we also heard that Valentine’s Day was the day you can show Uranus… Enough said.
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