For Valentine's Day, brands look for love in the age of social media

Brands spiced up the message of love with social causes and share-able videos

Salman Khan is asking people to go single this Valentine’s Day. Go ‘Swag Se Solo’, he says, swinging to the Pepsi brand tune. Tata Motors says love is staying safe in relationships and on car rides. For Mother Dairy, Uber, Fastrack and a host of other brands, love transcends gender and age.

From fizzy drinks to cars, jewellery and fragrance brands, love on the occasion of Valentine’s Day 2019, is being pitched as a many-splendoured and multi coloured emotion, wrapped up in a larger social cause. Eager to find easy traction on social media, the ads are turning popular wisdom on its head and pushingthe boundaries on social norms. 

Salman Khan’s anthem for  staying single may appear to be contra-intuitive for a day meant to celebrate couples, but PepsiCo India says the campaign is based on customer insight. Gen Z prefers to be self-partnered and at least 7 out 10 Indian men, in the age group of 15-30 years, said they would rather stay single in a survey. Tarun Bhagat,  director-Marketing, Hydration and Cola, PepsiCo India said that when it comes to Valentine’s day, even today, many brands are focused on celebrating couples and the dating culture. But Swag Se Solo, encourages the young to unapologetically embrace their relationship status.

Not only is the popular understanding of love being challenged, many brands are also looking at the day as one of the biggest moments to push the brand forward, after the year-end festival season. Hence the occasion is being stretched beyond the traditional dating-day framework, say marketers. 

MG Motor equates love with keeping the seat belt on, in a car ride

For instance, Raymond’s ad for ColorPlus  talks about love via hand-written notes. “The film focusses authentically on love, beyond gifting roses or chocolates which bring people momentarily closer. Our film simply shows how a man is expressing love for his wife through her hand written letters,” says Sheetal Seth, head of Marketing and Digital, ColorPlus. 

Maruti Suzuki has made the occasion all about one’s car, not a new car but just loving one’s old ride by showcasing its vast network of service centres. Titan has launched a series of films around platonic love and friendship for its fragrance brand Skinn. Ankit Kasliwal, head-Marketing, Fragrances, Titan Company said the film is  not limiting love to certain boxes and boundaries. 

Several brands are wrapping the message of love around gender parity, diversity and respect for all. Several experts noted that social media is an integral part of the marketing mix for all brands today and hence ads, posts and special announcements are all crafted with an eye on shares and likes.   

Uber celebrates gay pride in an Instagram post

Humour plays a big part  too, in the ads and tweets and Instagram posts. MG Motor, Kellogs and others are using love as a metaphor for safe driving or a selfie-moment. For brands such as Zivame (lingerie), Durex (condoms), the occasion offers a chance to push through some tongue-in-cheek humour to further the message of love and the brand. 

Bhagat explains, “The primary difference in campaign delivery now, versus a few years earlier, is that consumers are looking for relatable stories that they can share amongst their peer group. Hence, most brands are taking the content marketing route for the occasion rather than pure play advertising.”

Even jewellery brands are moving away from the traditional gifting stories, of a man bringing home diamonds and gold for his wife. The ad for Kalyan Jewellers celebrates love between a young woman and her parents-in-law. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, executive director, Kalyan Jewellers said that his company's Valentine’s Day campaigns have steadily moved from traditional mediums of communication like print to more digital channels, where there are multiple avenues and mediums to influence the consumers. For brands, Valentine’s day is as much about love as it is about finding sticky and emotional connections, which in the age of social media, means raising a few laughs and generating a few moist eyes in the house.