Breakdown of Valentine’s Day: Stats & Content Marketing
Valentine’s Day is TOMORROW. (for those of you who had no idea, you’re welcome) Whether you celebrate Valentine’s or not, this won’t be a gushy mushy post. Let’s forget about all the hearts, teddy bears, flowers, and chocolate for a minute. Start thinking like a marketer and how much Valentine’s Day actually represents content, shares, and sales!!! So don't be bitter if you’re flying solo this year, you should be focusing on posting the most (and most shareable) content for this small window of opportunity! Take advantage of those love birds by creating pretty, fluffy Valentine’s content, because there’s more to this holiday than chocolate.
Valentine’s is a HUGE spending holiday, everyone trying to show how much they love their sweetie with materialistic products and gestures. Ohhhhh love. Consumers are on the hunt for the perfect Valentine’s everything; jewelry, drinks, food, gifts, places to go. People get excited/ stressed to ensure everything is perfect for their special someone. This leads to impulse buys, overspending, and frantically looking through any Valentine’s content searching for ideas. The time is limited and the volume of search is high. This is where you come in.
| Valentine’s Day by the Numbers | History.com |
Business2Community has a great article, Killer Content Marketing: Valentine’s Day Branded Content. This article discusses the major statistics of Valentine’s spending and which brands are killing it at their content marketing for this time of year. People begin looking for Valentine ideas from November-February.
Bussiness2Community reported that 62% of adults celebrate Valentine’s Day and 41% of the people reading Valentines related content are millennials. Millennials also account for 50% of gift content search. Millennials, known for their tech savvy habits, will be the one’s brands are trying to impress because it’s most likely they will like, share, and even purchase your products through social media or online.
They gave Pillsbury number one for having detailed, festive, and original content for the holiday. Pillsbury has numerous recipes with Valentines colored accents on their sweet treats, heart shaped cookies, and language like, “15 Easy Treats to Say ‘I Love You’.” The original content they created puts them in the leading search results for example ‘recipes for valentine cookies.’ They have also purchased ad space on Google for similar searches. Pillsbury is ON TOP OF IT!
| Screenshot on Pillsbury Valentine’s webpage |
Some brands I guess you can say don’t have to try as much as others for this holiday, some things are just traditional to purchase like Necco Sweethearts. Necco’s Sweethearts have been around for 150 years! As long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed multiple boxes of Sweethearts on or around Valentine’s Day each year. Ya the taste of them aren’t really that great but the nostalgia has me hooked, like many others. I know I’m not the only one because approximately 8 BILLION Sweethearts are produced annually. That amount is enough to wrap around the earth multiple times, and enough for everyone in the world to have one! (no exaggeration) And of course, most of the sales are from January 1st to February 14th.
Apart from nostalgia, Sweethearts are still popular because they continue to make themselves relevant by adding more sayings based on how people communicate, opportunity to personalize your Sweethearts, and varieties (tart, sugar free, & now en español!)
| Picture from Luxeandthelady Instagram | Personalized Sweethearts |
According to U.S. News & World Report, a total of $19 billion was spent on Valentine’s Day in 2015. Forbes published an info graphic highlighting some main spending points for Valentine’s:
Men spend an average of $190.53 and women $96.58
Popular products: Candy, flowers, date night, jewelry
Who they are buying for, not just for couples
So how did February 14th become a day with hearts, chocolates, and sending valentines?
“The most popular theory about Valentine's Day origin is that Emperor Claudius II didn't want Roman men to marry during wartime. Bishop Valentine went against his wishes and performed secret weddings. For this, Valentine was jailed and executed. While in jail he wrote a note to the jailor's daughter signing it "from your Valentine"
Source: List 25
A brief history on Valentine’s Day:
Fun Facts about Valentine’s Day:
First mass-produced valentines are sold in the U.S. in 1840’s
Americans spend 8.6 million dollars on sparkling wine for Valentine’s Day
For every 100 single women in their 20’s, there are 120 single men
189 million roses are sold in the U.S. on Valentine’s Day (67% are red)
In Victorian times it was bad luck to sign a Valentine’s card
The first diamond engagement ring was given by Archduke Maximilian of Austria to Mary of Burgundy in 1477 (lucky girl)
In Medieval times, girls ate unusual foods on St. Valentine's Day to make them dream of their future husband
$703 million is spend on Valentine’s pet presents!!!