Sweet Branded Valentine!

Single on Valentine’s Day? No worries, these brands will be your Valentine! St. Valentine’s is a celebration of love and romance, for singles and couples but above of all for brands and consumers. According to research the average person will spend $116.21 on traditional Valentine’s Day merchandise this year, up 11% in comparison to last year, while 18.1% of consumers say they’ll include online retailers among the venues they’ll shop. Total holiday spending is expected to reach $15.7 billion. Maybe the cynics look down upon this day and disregard it as nothing but a consumerism trap, but I don’t see what’s wrong with sprinkling your shopping with some love and red glitter. Let’s take a look at how brands leveraged digital and social media to renew their relationship with their customers:

Victoria’s Secret: It’s no secret that this brand is one that never forgets Valentine’s day and is always happy to spread the love and sexiness to couples and singles around the world, with offline and online events. This year, on the page featuring the Victoria’s Secret Valentine’s collection, customers can create their own Valentine’s Day cards to share with their special someone or friends via email, Facebook or Twitter. By doing so, they also enter the win some to win prizes, like a Napa Valley getaway and a $250 Victoria’s Secret gift card. On the love me section, customers can also flip through the Lookbook featuring photos from the Valentine’s Day campaign. Victoria’s Secret fans can also post branded Valentine’s cards through the brand’s Facebook page, while they had the opportunity to watch and participate to the special Ask An Angel that was broadcasted live from the brand’s New York City Herald Square store on the 9th of February. The brand also spread the love on YouTube with a series of videos featuring backstage material and angels sharing their Valentine’s Day dos and don’ts. Victoria’s Secret has one more special V-Day gift for its Facebook friends, by giving away free downloads of Love Me campaign track from Mike Posner for free.

Harlequin Romance: A brand synonymous with fantasies and romance, the famous publisher of romance novels for more than 60 years, opened Harlequin’s Office for the Preservation of the Kiss (HOPK), giving you the opportunity to Patent Your Kiss online. You can explore the kisses submitted or submit your own kiss and maybe this way win a trip to Las Vegas. You can share your kiss via email, Facebook and Twitter.

Angry Birds: Surely this game’s name does not scream romance, but it tops the “highly addictive” chart along with kissing and chocolate, making it right to celebrate our love on this special day. For this reason Angry Birds released a pink overloaded St. Valentine’s edition.

Snooki: Our favorite Jersey meatball is justifying her Twitter bio which among others states she is a business woman, by promoting a Snooki branded heart shaped necklace as the ideal Valentine’s present for all the single and coupled ladies. Miss Nicole Polizzi produced a funny and sweet video to promote the Snooki’s Love Pendant starring herself and Andy Milonakis. The video that was released on the 7th of February has more than 42,000 views. *Fist Pumping*

Yoox: One of the top e-tailers Yoox celebrates Valentine’s day with a special designed collection “Waris Heart’s You” and invites you to spread the word and get dirty through its Facebook app. Apart from a test revealing your personality as a lover, “Waris Loves You” invites you to submit your pic for a chance to be among the people Waris selects to send a full set of his Yoox collection.

Intimissimi: The Italian clothing label, produced a video which you can watch on the brand’s YouTube channel, Facebook Page and official site featuring top model Irina giving away style and romantic tips to spice up your valentine’s day and night.

Yamamay: The clothing, lingerie and cosmetics brand is celebrating love by asking its fans to share their love stories on its Facebook page. On February 14th the love stories that get the most “Likes” will be published on yamamay.com, giving this way the spotlight to the real stars of the day: people in love.

Blenz Coffee: Keeping it social online and offline Blenz Coffee is spicing up its site and Facebook page with romance relevant content in text and video form like good and bad date stories. The most interesting part of Blenz Red Campaign targeted towards singles looking for a date, is the offline part that invites singles to buy a coffee with a red sleeve to signal they’re single and ready to mingle, the sleeves even has special space for the singles to exchange contact information.

Savanna Cider: Through its Facebook page Savanna Cider puts the melody if you put the love story. Submit your love story on Savanna’s Facebook page and get it delivered in song by Savanna Lemon band.

GCraw: Heinz juice brand GC Raw launched a Valentine’s Day campaign through a microsite that invites consumers to send their message of love through a branded video that they can share through email or Facebook to enter a chance to win a $1,000 dream date.

Google: Remind your Valentine of a special place with Google Maps, through Map Your Valentine. Your message will be delivered in the form of a card featuring your special place pointed by a special heart shaped pin. Aww, who said Google is evil?!

Dexter: A romantic serial killer? The popular CBS Showtime series Dexter is having a pop-up sale of branded Valentine’s Day gifts on Facebook featuring T-shirts and a tote with the logo “I heart Dexter”. Being single is hard, but think twice before you make a serial killer your sweetheart ladies.

Orange: With the moto: “Isn’t it tweet?” Orange invites you to tweet your romantic story to OrangeTheFeed using the hashtag: #feedlovestories , to get it animated by Tom Judd and Ed Barrett. You can watch the sweet videos already made on Orange’s YouTube channel.

Mulberry: The British luxury fashion brand with Love Blossoms enables your to create and send to your Valentine a unique digital artwork, while logging in with your Facebook and Twitter account provides access to two more exclusive prints for your design.

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Which brand was your Valentine this year?