How brands are celebrating Valentine’s Day
From Dumb Ways to Die and Dolmio to Telstra brands are capitalising on the day of love with a flurry of tactical ads, and we’ve gathered them all together for your viewing pleasure.
The Dumb Ways to Die campaign for Metro Trains, which was the most awarded commercial in The Gunn Report, has produced a special version for Metro Trains to mark Valentine’s Day.
The new version of the animated ad comes just days after CEO Ben Lilley told Mumbrella he did not want the agency to be known just for the campaign.
Continuing the theme the animator behind Dumb Ways to Die, Julian Frost has directed a Valentine’s Day-themed animated short film called Love Assassin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6YzGE9GKJs#t=78
The two and a half minute film, which features popular emoticon-like character Tuzki and a dismembered heart with a life of its own, was produced by TurnOut Ventures, and is available online globally including Turner Broadcasting’s Adult Swim platform in Australia.
Frost was named in The Gunn Report as the third most awarded director.
Telstra’s Valentine’s Day campaign is the first of a series of customer initiatives that forms part of the telco’s new Brilliant Connected Future brand marketing program launched on Australia Day.
The ‘Send & See’ campaign, developed in conjunction with DDB, gave one person the opportunity to send a surprise gift to her husband and watch his reaction unfold as it was captured on glasses equipped with a camera worn by the delivery person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrxb9HAJ6h8
IGA’s Valentine’s Day social media campaign comes to fruition today. The supermarket chain asked customers to tweet a message for loved one using the hashtag #IGAlovesongs, which video artists have now turned into a seven second music video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQSUoJCJ2dI
Metcash Food & Grocery national digital marketing manager Ram Bhat told Mumbrella: “The objective there is to increase our followers as we’ve just launched on Twitter and we wanted to do something different. There’s an option there for us to expand and reach our customers organically.
“The second objective is to increase the amount of brand mentions on the day.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rafs2KNyZOM
Queensland billboard company Goa invited the public to send in messages of love to be displayed across some of their 18 digital sites in Brisbane.
The public can submit their short message along with their name (or nickname) online and look out for their message across the network.
General Pants Co. teamed up with Tinder for its tongue-in-cheek Valentine’s Day promotion.
Tinder users received a message from General Pants Co. inviting them to ‘Get in my pants’ with the offer of 20 per cent off denim. To redeem the offer, users had to show their Tinder profile in store.
Pasta sauce brand Dolmio produced these print ads which featured in today’s The Daily Telegraph.
Woolworths went a more product-based route, with a Happy Valentine’s day message included in its print message which also appeared in The Daily Telegraph.
The supermarket chain has also produced special Valentine’s Day content for its website, with new ambassador Jamie Oliver creating a number of recipes to woo your loved one.
Woolworths-owned Dan Murphy’s employed the same tactic.
Have you seen a campaign we’ve missed? Send it to miranda@focalattractions.com.au and we’ll add it in.
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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Dumb ways to die!
Entertainment or perception shifting content? I’m leaning towards entertainment!
Not just this Valentines version, but the whole campaign.
Same as the latest version of the Rhonda ads, love the first, message about safer driving reduced premiums delivered in a great story, I was entertained but I also knew why I want to get AMMI insurance. But now, I have no idea what the hell they are communicating, seems as though they are tagging on a unmemorable message. I guess the campaign notoriety has breed flexibility for agency and marketing team, but pretty dissapointing.
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Couldn’t agree more with the first comment. I think the Rhonda are purely satisfying the ego of the brand managers/agency people that work on this that think it’s really entertaining. I’d love to see brand association with this ad, and more importantly how that has lead to new business.
Also, Rhonda and Ketut have been dragged into countless Corby memes, don’t know whether that is good….
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100%. Flogging a dead horse. It’s an embarrassment that Australia gets itself back on the world map for Dumb Ways to Die. A cute animation that everyone likes but its doesnt work! Ben Lilley should show us that McCann are not a one campaign agency not tell us this is the case.
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