Valentine’s Day can be a polarising event, with affection measured in monetary value the commercial element generates mixed feelings across the marketplace. So how can B2B organizations harness these mixed emotions, and should they?

Valentine’s Day ♥ Loved & Loathed

Some perceive Valentines as an overly commercial date in the diary that only serves to remind everyone not in a couple that they’re alone, others get excited about the opportunity to gift and sing songs of love.  Therefore should B2B organisations participate in this seasonal holiday and if so how? 

Should B2B organizations get involved?

Does trading B2B disqualify businesses from participating in this consumer event? That depends entirely on how you use Valentine’s day within your marketing activities. Maybe sending a dozen roses to the finance director of one of your key accounts isn’t the way forward.

B2B marketing has traditionally focused on the principles of formality and respect, marketing unique selling points and pricing, the humans behind the computer screen are often forgotten. But here’s the thing, at the time of “going to press” the majority of business is still done by a person, not AI, not a faceless corporate machine, people.

Is it, therefore, appropriate to send a dozen roses to your favourite customer on Valentine’s Day? Probably not, but we can reimagine what Valentine’s Day is and utilise the day to demonstrate gratitude.

So, Valentine’s Day in essence, is about appreciation, therefore capitalising on this seasonal opportunity to express gratitude should serve to improve relations between businesses, so here are some ideas to inspire your B2B campaign…

B2B Valentines Day Promotional Ideas That Work

Idea 1

Show love to a charity, the charity will naturally benefit through awareness and/or your corporate donation, your customers will think you’re a business that cares. It’s a double win.

Idea 2

Say thank you to the database, email subscribers, offer customers exclusive content or promotional offer to show your appreciation for their business.

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Idea 3

Celebrate your customers throughout the day, just secured a contract? A customer has been with you for 10 years? Share the news throughout the day and show your customers that you appreciate them.

Idea 4

Internal customers are why you have revenue generating customers. Celebrate employees, showcase your team wins and get employees feeling good about themselves.

Valentines Campaign Wins and FailS

Valentine’s Day Campaigns are not new, the proliferation of advertising campaigns that arise in B2C markets means that consumers are typically inundated with promotional offers for cards, flowers and miscellaneous gifts, but for B2B markets the seasonal holiday has seldom been adopted as a tool to boost customer loyalty, take some inspiration from some successful (and avoid the tactics of the less successful) campaigns in these examples…

The Winners…

Snickers

Targeting the forgetful, Snickers introduced a genuinely useful and also eye-catching campaign with their out of home, “you’re forgetful when you’re hungry” campaign. Apply the principles used here for your B2B campaigns and provide customers with a helpful resource (in this instance, Snickers provided cards that could be peeled off the billboard).

Droga5 London

The creative agency pushed cards with ugly endangered animals, focusing on the principle that “love is blind” to reiterate some of the more important values of Valentines Day.

Droga5 persuaded various other organizations like Screaming Colour and Shutterstock to help produce the cards at a low rate to generate as much money to share amongst a selection of charities, demonstrating their core skill set and showing love to a philanthropic cause clearly demonstrating their brand values.

Cisco

Using the powers of social listening, Cisco identified a cohort of indivudals that were actively engaged in the subject of IoT, rolling out this graphic had 50% engagement with identified opportunities, reaching over 20,000 potential Twitter followers of Internet of Everything thought leaders.

The Less Successfull…

Nakshatra Diamonds

The approach to targeting in this campaign is clear from the outset, but it’s also demeaning and damaging to the “she” referenced within the campaign, unlikely to fill the recipient with a warm fuzzy feeling if they were reached by this brands attempt at valentines day.

Tampax

Tampax misses the mark by attacking mother nature, given that the majority of Tampax customers are of female orientation, Tampax is attempting to capitalize on a perceived universal consumer pain point but uses a male character as it’s representative, the ad creates feelings of anxiety rather than warm feelings towards the brand.

Need a creative solution to make your customers feel warmly towards your B2B organization?  

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