Another Valentine’s Day has come and gone, the Hallmark holiday bringing with it the usual slew of discounts, deals and display hearts, as well as stories of anti-valentine vigilantism in more rural areas. However, the noise around the former is definitely drowning out the latter.
That being said, Valentine’s Day is often a tricky one for brands, purely because of the TG that their products may cater to. Besides that, there’s also the fine line between it being in line with the cultural beliefs and traditions in India.
Mithun Mukherjee, ECD, Kinnect Brands, notes that brands often find it difficult to take a call about whether they should do a campaign around this day or not.
“But if numbers are anything to go by, more and more brands are willing to do a campaign on this topical day. With India being touted as one of the ‘youngest’ countries in the world, it is a bet most brands are willing to take. Brands choosing to do a campaign on this day enjoy higher recall and inclination from their consumers,” he says.
With a more comprehensive consumer understanding, marketers are well aware of the importance of up-to-the-minute and opportunity-based creative fodder for extracting more engagement and conversations from a campaign. Mitesh Kothari, Co-founder and CCO, White Rivers Media, notes that Valentine’s Day comes with great potential for brands with the whole week preceding it, each day a goldmine of distinctive content.
From usual suspects like Flipkart and Ferns n Petals to outliers like financial institutions and insurance services (“Valentine’s: the perfect day to insure your spouse’s life”), brands love to do business on St Valentine’s day, their cupidity motivated as much by the heart’s desires as the bottom line.
Mukherjee, and others, believe if a brand has higher street cred (read Zomato, Swiggy, Cred and the like), it could also end up starting a particular trend as a part of the campaign. This can then spur an online conversation that most brands can then try to ride and create online equity out of. Even smaller brands have often managed to spark of interesting chatter, leading to increased brand recall.
Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO, and Co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea, says that Valentine’s Day marketing, as occasion-driven marketing, vibes well with Gen Z, across segments and especially in the gifting space. “So, if you are an apparel, cosmetic, or electronic brand, then you should be looking at spending monies. I think any category that requires physical presence like restaurants would be cautious about spending monies, especially in conservative areas,” he says.
But that too seems to be changing.
“When it comes to conservative areas, most brands might steer clear of them. However, if a brand has a particular messaging that appeals to the audience it’s trying to talk to, and also creates a connection with Valentine’s Day, it definitely sees an uptick in consumer sentiment,” says Mukherjee, pointing out that given the influence of homegrown social media apps like Moj and Josh, most global phenomena, like Valentine’s Day, have seen increased interest from the masses even in conservative areas.
“The reach is no longer limited to urban millennials and consumers from tier 2 and tier 3 are being targeted now as well. Being a country with 120+ languages and 270+ mother tongues, we recognize the power of language personalized, hyperlocal content,” asserts Kothari, noting that efforts made and paid for help brands yield greater ROIs with lesser spending while winning the hearts of consumers, and thus, gaining loyalty that resonates far beyond that specific day or occasion.