I know 2019 has barely got going, but before you know it the middle of February and Valentine’s Day will be upon us. Now I wouldn’t generally advocate pushing out a quick promotion, but actually that can work well for Valentine’s Day, particularly if you’re a small, agile business which is adept at using social media. In fact, it can be just as effective if you’re a large business, because there are plenty of obvious prizes you can offer and you can go all out for that positive, warm loved-up feeling. However, enough of the hearts and flowers, because, despite the title of this post, I’ve decided not to talk about Valentine’s Day and thought instead I’d run through how to run an Anti-Valentine’s Day promotion.
So the consensus is that female friendships are celebrated on Galentine’s Day or 13 February, which is, of course, the day before Valentine’s Day (which is, of course, 14 February). There’s some disagreement about whether Palentine’s Day, an occasion for celebrating all one’s friends, whatever their gender, is 13 or 14 February, and some mark Singles Awareness Day – otherwise known as SAD – on the day following Valentine’s Day (that would be 15 February then). While it can be a tad confusing, this spread of dates is nonetheless advantageous because it gives you a slightly bigger window for your promotion.
You can get some great Anti-Valentine’s Day cards (Etsy is a good source, but the major card manufacturers produce them, too). Example messages I like include ‘Let’s go out and stare at our phones together’, ‘Our love can survive anything – even my family’ and, probably my favourite, ‘You make me as happy as Donald Trump makes Melania’. Humour, I think, is the key to a successful Anti-Valentine’s Day promotion and if you’re smart you can find a way to introduce some playfulness into your promotion whatever your brand persona.
So, keeping it simple, here are the five basic actions you need to carry out to create a prize promotion:
1 Come up with a concept
2 Draw up terms and conditions
3 Launch the promotion
4 Select the winner
5 Dispatch the prize
It would be remiss of me if I didn’t point out that Prizeology offers all these services, but to be honest, if you’re a small business or a social media influencer and you can DIY most of the steps if you’re so inclined, although I would suggest that you get professional advice on drawing up the terms and conditions. When you select the winner, you also need to make sure you follow the CAP Code – that process must be fair and if it’s a draw you must pick the winning entry randomly.
Of course, anyone who has their wits about them will appreciate that if you want to run a straightforward Valentine’s Day promotion, the process is identical, but whether you take the Darling Valentine or Bloody Valentine approach, enjoy!
Sarah Burns is Prizeology’s founder and Chief Prizeologist.
