10 Valentine’s Day marketing ideas to fall in love with

You’re in the right place if you’re looking for innovative Valentine’s Day marketing ideas. From love insurance to emergency boxes and a scavenger hunt to a time-traveling trick for those who want to avoid Valentine’s Day, here are ten clever marketing campaigns to inspire you.

Let’s face it, new relationships don’t always work out. Wouldn’t it be great to buy “love insurance” that would pay out if you broke up? That’s precisely what Toblerone offered with their Valentine’s Day 2024 marketing. Customers could visit the Toblerone website to buy a special edition chocolate bar with insurance. If their relationship didn’t work out, they received a voucher for more chocolate to ease the pain.

Use these Envato assets to create a playful Valentine’s voucher of your own:

Last year, Lindt also experimented with an innovative Valentine’s Day marketing idea—they had “emergency boxes” pop up across the UK on Valentine’s Day. The boxes contained the company’s newly launched blood orange truffles, and one lucky couple would win a romantic two-person, all-inclusive getaway to Sicily. This ‘Break for Emergency Bliss’ campaign was a fun way to introduce a product, and it also played off the panic some people might feel when they’ve left their gift-buying to the last minute.

Cadbury 5 Star is a popular chocolate bar from India. Their Valentine’s marketing took a different spin by appealing to people who aren’t holiday fans. For their campaign, they launched a mini-film that allowed people to escape the cringe of Valentine’s Day by using a time-travel trick. People on social media wished the time-travel vessel luck, and the brand ran a live stream on Valentine’s Day showing the vessel’s launch from the control room.

If you’re telling a good story, your Valentine’s Day marketing doesn’t always have to be complicated or clever—it can just be sweet, like this Pandora ad. In the ad, the company simply asks real couples questions about love and their relationships. You can catch a viewer’s attention by doing something simple that people can relate to.

Fans often get excited by a new release of exclusive products, particularly if they’re endorsed by a celebrity. In this McDonald’s Valentine’s marketing campaign, a meal was created by celebrity duo Cardi B and Offset. This exclusive meal included the duo’s go-to menu items and featured things a couple could share, like fries or an apple pie. The meal was served in Valentine’s Day-themed packaging and came with a Valentine’s Day card.

Denny’s marketing for Valentine’s Day included more than couples, also appealing to those in a ‘situationship.’ The company came out with a gift card to invite someone to be a “Friends with Bennys.” The cards were sold for half price, and you got two Benny breakfast meals, the company’s most popular meal. Denny’s only had 500 cards available and sold them out. Creating an exclusive, limited-edition offering like this is a great way to build excitement and buzz on social media.

Walkers Crisps’ marketing for Valentine’s Day encouraged customers to buy a pack of crisps and hunt for a heart-shaped crisp. If a customer found the heart-shaped crisp, they could win money. This kind of thing is a fun way to encourage customers to buy your product while staying on the theme for the holiday.

Target reposted a customer’s post, showing them making a sweet charcuterie board from Target products. This method of Valentine’s marketing takes advantage of user-generated content, a very effective technique for brands that want to showcase their authenticity. This type of marketing can inspire customers by showing how they could use your products creatively.

You can also use a picture from a customer who is using the product, like this one from Starbucks:

This post is from a customer who is drinking the limited edition Valentine’s Day drink while wearing a romantic sweater. It’s a great way to inspire customers to seek out the current limited edition product.

Gift guides help customers who don’t know what to get their partner for Valentine’s Day. Try creating a gift guide featuring products that could work for different kinds of people. You could do a fun gift guide like James Allen Rings’, which describes its gift guide as a hyper-specific Valentine’s Day gift guide.

You could also create a serious gift guide like this one created by Nordstrom. It suggests gifts for any occasion and can help last-minute shoppers or those unsure of what to get.

Couples aren’t the only people who celebrate Valentine’s Day. You can practice self-love, whether because you’re single or for any other reason. So why not buck the trend this Valentine’s Day by targeting people who want to show love to themselves rather than someone else? This Doordash Valentine’s marketing encouraged people to treat themselves to a bouquet of red roses.

Bumble also leaned into this approach by posting an ad showing a woman going through many relationships that didn’t work out. The ad encourages you to remember that before everyone else, there was you, so don’t forget to take care of yourself and show yourself some love.

Social media polls are a great way to increase engagement on your channels. Dunkin’ Donuts posted an interactive quiz on its Instagram stories for a chance to win a free drink. This encouraged engagement and could excite customers—who doesn’t love a freebie?

Check out our social media marketing guide for more tips to engage your community on social.

This clever Valentine’s marketing idea from James Allen combined memes and classic romance movies to showcase their jewelry. It’s a fun approach that would resonate with a large audience while showing their products.

Memes are a great way to add humor to your marketing and showcase your products. This can also show that you’re keeping up with relevant trends.

Ready to build a creative Valentine’s Day marketing campaign? Take inspiration from these campaigns to develop ideas that surprise and delight your audience. Envato has everything you need to create a successful marketing campaign, from graphic templates and effects to icons, fonts, and more.

Embrace the spirit of Valentine’s by reading about how to use the “rom-com effect” in your creative work. Or check out this roundup of Valentine’s design styles and templates.