Feb. 14: Not just for Valentine’s Day this year
By Flickr user sloanpix
You think the Super Bowl is an advertiser’s dream? Wait a week.
February 14 and the week that follows has this year shaped up into a superfecta of marketing opportunities that go far beyond red roses and chocolate-covered cherries.
Valentine’s Day 2010 is on a Sunday – making it more practical to pitch romantic dinners, getaway hotel/motel weekends, spa days and other sensual treats to lovers who won’t be fighting rush-hour traffic that night and screeching into a drugstore for a last-minute card or candy box. You can check with all of those establishments and more to find out what’s hot this year and what’s not.
But readers needn’t be in love to be looking forward to February 14. It’s also the start of the Chinese New Year, the prime holiday in the Chinese calendar, which this year will usher us out of the Year of the Ox and into the Year of the Tiger. (Let’s hope the stock market follows suit.) While not as widely celebrated in the United States as elsewhere, the day has accumulated a small and growing following.
In my family we exchange the traditional red envelopes with a token amount of money enclosed, and other good luck charms for the coming year. My Year of the Tiger gifts will be extra-special thanks to the Chinatown shops in Philadelphia; if you have a centralized Chinese business district in your region, visit it for story ideas and wonderful photo opportunities. The U.S. Postal Service releases a lovely commemorative stamp for the Lunar New Year, as it also is known. Hallmark has a specialty line of greetings as well, as do many e-card vendors. Check with party supply stores, card shops, import companies, Chinese restaurants, bakeries, grocers, any Chinese or Asian import stores in your area for other signs of shifting demand and consumer trends. Casinos like to emphasize the good luck aspects in their marketing campaigns this time of year, as well.
The green flag drops in Florida for the Daytona 500 on the 14th also – what some consider the Super Bowl of motorsports and a nearly unparalleled marketing juggernaut. You don’t have to be anywhere near the speedway to be affected by the hype – grocery stores will be touting race day fare, memorabilia shops will be cranking out jerseys and caps, bars will be simulcasting the race and holding special events. See how travel junkets are selling, what pizza stores expect, how many kegs liquor stores are stocking (mine says it’s one of his biggest days), how the local racing scene is holding up and where NASCAR fits into your community… any local sponsorships?
And if all that isn’t enough excitement, the next day, Monday Feb. 15, is President’s Day, meaning the revelers of the above festivities may well be getting a day off to recuperate – or shop. Appliance stores and car dealerships are big on President’s Day sales; see what else you can find out there.
And…drumroll… Tuesday Feb. 16 is Mardi Gras — sure to be used for a local advertising angle no matter how far you are from Bourbon Street. (After this decadent weekend, perhaps the local liver clinic should be on your list of businesses to check.)
I envision a really fun round-up – maybe use alternative story-telling and come up with a big illustrated grid showing the deals, offers, tie-ins, contests and other business strategies for taking advantage of this action-packed weekend that may well give consumer spending the boost economists have been waiting for. Or at least a great excuse for you to take a pleasant break from dreary economic news and come up with a lively centerpiece and perhaps some colorful video. Look for the quirky, the off-beat, the ridiculous…. It shouldn’t be too hard to find.
