Valentine’s Day: Love or Consumer Spending?

We all know that Valentine’s Day is a “Hallmark holiday”, meaning that it is perceived to exist primarily for commercial purposes, rather than to commemorate a traditionally or historically significant event. And although it is a day designated to celebrate love (and actually does have some historical significance), it gets quite a bit of hate, especially online.

That being said, February 14th is still the third-highest grossing holiday when it comes to consumer spending. If you are curious, Christmas comes in first with over $600 billion in consumer spending, and Mother’s Day comes in second, barely beating Valentine’s Day with $19.9 billion. Although only 55% of Americans say they will celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, the average male will spend $190 on February 14th. When you compare that to the current average daily spend for American consumers of $81 per day, it is no wonder that companies are willing to shell out the funds for a Valentine’s themed campaign.

When it comes to Valentine’s Day campaigns, there are a few factors that brands have to consider:

Men are going to spend the most, but the day is also very important to women. So how do you reach both audiences with a message that will leave an impression?
There are hundreds of other companies who are also trying to get their message out on Valentine’s Day. How do you create a campaign that will break through the clutter?
Often, Valentine’s Day ads have to compete with one of the most ad-happy events of the year – the Super Bowl. So your TV spots are going to be competing with some of the most creative, well produced spots of the year.

Check out these spots from this year’s set of Valentine’s Day campaigns. You will see that some brands clearly targeted men with weird, off-beat comedy. Some attempted to break through the clutter by pulling at your heartstrings, or by being a little provocative. Others tried to stand out by tying into the Super Bowl.

A day to celebrate love or a day made up for commercial purposes, either way you look at it, there are $19.7 billion in consumer spending at stake here, and it would be a shame for retail brands not to take advantage of Valentine’s Day.