Off-the-Wall Valentine's Day Marketing Strategies

When it comes to Valentine's Day marketing, you can bet your box of chocolates that your competitors' efforts will employ hearts, cupids, flowers and candy. These are traditional Valentine's Day themes, but how much motivational value does each have when they're so prevalent? Very little when stacked up against these off-the-wall Valentine's Day marketing strategies.

Break a world record

You can get tons of free advertising and press coverage if you try to break a world record. All you have to do is send out a press release, call a few newspapers and radio stations, distribute plenty of posters, flyers and postcards, and choose a category. You can check out the ]]>Guinness Book of World Records]]> website for inspiration. A few ideas include:

• Most people kissing simultaneously (currently stands at 39,897)
• Largest group hug (at 6,623)
• Longest kiss (31 hours, 30 minutes, 30 seconds)
• Most couples hugging simultaneously (1,451). This one's just begging to be broken, if it's not already unofficially broken every New Year's Eve/Day at midnight.

Hold a contest

Hold a contest in which the winners receive free products, services or discounts from your company. You could try to hold your own longest kiss contest, dance-off or talent show. Or recreate some of the famous matchmaking or newlyweds televisions shows. You could do something live to get plenty of free media coverage, or you could print surveys for couples to complete when they visit your store - any couple who answers each others' preferences perfectly gets a huge discount, for example.

Creative sticker placement

Stickers are cheap to print, easy to distribute, and incredibly memorable with the right placement. Print stickers to place on restroom stalls, on soda machines, and in unique locations where your target audience is likely to notice (all with permission, of course). You could place hearts on public statues, or create a "follow me" trail on utility poles that end at your storefront, for example. If you want to be even bigger, try posters and oversized banners that you could drape over the side of a building in a high-traffic area.

Stage a publicity stunt

Almost anything that will give you positive publicity (and free media coverage) will do, especially if you can maintain a Valentine's Day theme. Contests and world record-breaking attempts are excellent ideas, but so are creative charity drives (what about an outside dunk dank in the winter weather or a polar bear plunge?) and even a mascot at roadside. A comical cupid might be just the thing you need to get noticed and drive traffic to your business this Valentine's Day.