With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it’s yet another opportunity to create a video that will tap into the public sentiment and get your brand some visibility as well.
We’ve chosen a few of our favorite Valentine’s Day videos from last year to provide some inspiration. Happy Valentine’s Day, and enjoy!
Keep it Classic: Google
Last year, Google’s Valentine’s Day Doodle Animation was a big hit, attracting more than a million views and inspiring a bit of romance in everyone who watched.
With simple and classic Google-style animation telling a charming romantic story, it’s hard not to fall for this one.
Strong points in this video are product placement (Google logo is central, and the Google search screen peppers the start of the video), and a universal love story (who hasn’t been in puppy love?).
Google adds some thoughtful details, including a truth to which we can all relate: The heart of romance is compromise.
Use What You’ve Got: Victoria’s Secret
This video proves that catchy doesn’t have to be complicated. With its simple use of images, music and text to create that trademark hard-to-look-away factor they do so well, this video is easy on the eyes.
Again, product placement (lingerie) and brand visibility (classic VS typeface and visual style) are key.
The video is also targeted in VS’s specific web style: cute and flirty, clearly aimed at female web shoppers, and very different from their male-friendly TV ads (but still plenty of eye candy for those men that tune in).
Bottom line? You can make this video yourself, minus a few supermodels.
Indulge Your Funny Bone: The Onion
An unconventional approach to Valentine’s Day, this video is The Onion doing what they do best: satire and straight-up funny.
For anyone who’s ever been dumped, irritated by a sickeningly sweet couple, or who isn’t a fan of romantic holidays, this video is a winner.
With plenty of handy brand placement and lots of attention to detail (the morning-show feel is seamless, the post-production details flawless), this style is for those with a sizeable budget.
But it’s worth the cash: this “for the rest of us” approach to the romantic holiday is irresistible, garnering a quarter of a million views.
Go a Different Way: Acumen Fund
This concept-rich video from the Acumen Fund is an uplifting alternative to traditional Valentine’s Day marketing, as they expand the focus from giving to “That Special Someone”, to generosity towards everyone.
With strong and accessible visual animations, this video appeals to one’s optimistic side, and inspires audiences to be a part of something bigger than Valentine’s Day on February 14, to take part in “a Generosity Revolution.”
Helpfully, the video points you toward the perfect way to get started: donating to the Acumen Fund.
Your turn
Good luck creating your Valentine’s video this week, and if you tweet your video link to @SproutVideo with hashtag #vdayvideo, we’ll happily promote it!
Comments, questions, something to add? Let us know, we’d love to hear it.
