Love is in the air — and on the Internet.

As a holiday centered around spending money for your significant others, Valentine’s Day presents a distinct opportunity for brands to reap profits. Pinterest boards reign supreme as people scour the internet for the perfect gift, Instagram wins over fans with fun contests and branded hashtags, and Twitter sees brands publicizing witty retorts.

Businesses are leveraging more interactive, branded experiences to win over hearts on this special day — like Waffle House, who is known for offering a white-tablecloth, candlelit dining experience on February 14.

To inspire your Valentine’s Day marketing strategy, here are some unique ways you can spread the love to your customers.

Take an Unexpected Twist

At first glance, tattoos and Tiffany & Co. have absolutely no correlation. But the mega jewelry retailer created an unexpected campaign that leveraged the permanence of tattoos to mirror everlasting love.

In 2018, the brand launched the Tiffany Tattoo Shop. In lieu of a traditional Valentine, users could access an online tattoo generator to customize digital love notes to send to friends and family. The generator first prompted users to choose design elements from the brand’s Valentine-specific jewelry, including a locket, fragrance bottle, hourglass, diamond, anchor, and rose. Tiffany & Co. extended its campaign to Instagram, where it encouraged users to share their creations on social media with the hashtag #BelieveInLove.

Although the concept of tattoos may have been a departure from the brand’s fundamental identity, this fun campaign cut through the Valentine’s Day clutter of other brands. It shows that you can leverage an unrelated topic by adjusting it to the context of your brand.

Think Broader Than Romantic Love

Valentine’s Day isn’t just a holiday for couples — in fact, consumers spent a total of $703 million on Valentine’s gifts for their pets. Not to mention, people are more focused than ever on self-love in the age of the “Treat Yourself” movement. They delight in celebrating their love for their friends (sometimes furry ones) and families as well.

Known for its famous festive heart-shaped donuts this time of year, Dunkin’ has leveraged multi-channel marketing to ring in this love-filled holiday. The #DDLoveContest, open to any and all fans and relationship types, encouraged consumers to share photos on Instagram of how their relationship or friendship “runs on Dunkin.” Those who used their hashtag were automatically entered into a competition for a chance to win a trip for two — to any U.S. city with a Dunkin’.

On top of this Instagram contest, Dunkin Donuts spread the love across other channels as well — with an iMessage card builder, Snapchat geofilters, and a Facebook Live musical performance.

Broaden Your Campaign Focus (and Length)

Most brands focus their efforts on romantic-themed advertisements and promotions leading up to Valentine’s Day. But Snickers decided its campaign would hone in on the day after Valentine’s Day — encouraging people to share their most regretful Valentine’s Day stories. The post-Valentine’s Day campaign also doubled as part of the NFL Countdown before the Super Bowl.

This campaign not only takes a humorous approach to promoting a new product line, but it also appeals to an atypical audience: those who didn’t have the perfect, love-filled Valentine's Day. Beginning February 15, Snickers #SmoothItOver campaign asked consumers’ to tweet their most “unsmooth” moments. Lucky fans in New York and Los Angeles even won free Creamy Snickers-infused flower bouquets by tweeting the hashtag #SmoothItOver and the chocolate emoji to the @Snickers account on Twitter.

Leverage Unique Product Photography

Even if you don’t offer heart-shaped donuts or a holiday-specific product, Valentine’s Day presents a great opportunity to promote products, services, and activities that relate to the holiday — or make a great gift.

Chairs aren’t necessarily the most obvious product to advertise on Valentine’s Day, but IKEA changed our minds by stacking a pair of chairs suggestively in their ad last year. Known for their provocative advertising this time of the year, they also offered free cribs to babies born nine months after Valentine’s Day. The ad, posted both on social media and in stores, was on-brand and received very well.

Many other brands have leveraged clever product photography in their ads, like McDonald’s Big Mac representing an engagement ring and Krispy Kreme’s donuts mimicking the flowers in a bouquet.

Conclusion

Whether you love or loathe Valentine’s Day, there’s no doubt that it can bring immense revenue to businesses. Brands can be successful with creative product placement, social interactivity, and out-of-the-box thinking to spread all types of love to consumers. As more and more people view the day as over-commercialized, it’s vital to approach Valentine’s Day marketing in a unique way.