Valentine’s Day celebration is a huge ad campaign.

Think about it for a second….  the celebration for Valentine’s Day has got to be one of the biggest, most complete and effective ad campaigns ever.  I don’t mean to sound thoughtless and commercialized by sucking out the romance for those caught up in the Valentine’s Day festivities, but you have to admit, if you were a marketer….imagine how much work you’d have to put behind just one day?  Either you’re a business advertising your products/services or you’re a consumer…and as a consumer you’re a “sender” passing the celebration message along or the “receiver” of this message.  I guess that’s why the coined phrase…”love is in the air,” because on this day you’re surrounded by messages influenced by celebrating Valentine’s! 😛

What other day in the year besides the day where Christ was born do you see such commerce amongst consumers and businesses?  However, I will add that according to an article in the Huffington Post, “[c]ontrary to what some may believe, Valentine’s Day wasn’t created by greetings card companies just to sell cards and candies. It’s actually a church sanctioned holiday , as Pope Gelasius deemed February 14 St. Valentine’s Day near 498 A.D.”  Even still, church holiday or not, Valentine’s Day is a cash cow.

Here’s just a few examples of some of the muscle behind the Valentine’s Day celebration ad campaign:

Television, Radio & Print (incl outdoor). For the few weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day you will witness numerous advertisers pushing their products to be sold just for this particular day.  You can’t deny it.  You’ve seen those Kay Jeweler’s TV spots, heard those 1-800-Flower radio spots or even witnessed a Billboard pushing chocolates on your afternoon commute from work.  Heck on 2/14 you’ll even hear songs dedicated to loved ones on the radio.

Public Relations. In the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day you’ll more than likely hear or read stories in the media about the perfect Valentine’s gift idea, romantic spots or scenery, or even love stories about specific couples, including those that may have some kind of star power.

Online ads & Email campaign. To enhance and support their broadmarket campaigns, advertisers also turn to the web as well, some even offering exclusive online benefits like free shipping or e-deals.  This can also be applied to their e-blast campaigns….which results in things like sending emails to your loved ones on Valentine’s day or even e-cards.

Social Media Marketing. SMM on Valentine’s Day goes off the hook.  Consumers and business are FBing and Tweeting…  Pictures and video are going viral….coupons sites such as Groupon or LivingSocial leading up to this week probably had one of their highest redemption rate since Christmas.

Going guerrilla. Flowers and candy being delivered to the targets….cards, stickers and candy snuck on co-worker’s desks….even anonymous deliveries of such gift items all occur on Valentine’s Day.

Direct mail. Probably one of the largest and more successful direct mail campaigns ever occurs on Valentine’s Day.  Each mail pieces is personalized and targeted specifically for the reader….er in other words, you’re going to send a Valentine’s Day card to your Valentine 😛  Which translates to your “direct mail piece” will likely have about a 95-100% readership with a 50% chance of response rate (receiver acknowledging sender).

As you can see, the celebration behind Valentine’s Day is a huge ad campaign.  I’m just glad we’re not the agency responsible for everything.  I think I’d have to start planning for the campaign today in order to meet next year’s expectations!