A Valentine’s Day Giveaway is the perfect campaign to run during the most romantic time of the year. Such a campaign can boost your socials, website traffic, and signups during a time when consumer spending is through the roof.
And yes, people do spend a ton of money on Valentine’s Day. Consumer spending around 14 Feb is over 20 billion dollars.
So, if you want to get in on this and effectively market your brand and its products over Valentine’s Day, then a giveaway will be just the thing you need!
This guide has Valentine’s giveaway ideas, examples, and more. We analyze past and present giveaways to find key elements that you can include in your next campaign.
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Valentine’s Day Sales Trends 2024
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, brands will begin to kick off their promotions aimed at lovely couples. If you are one of those brands looking to improve this year’s marketing effort, then here are a few trends to look into this year:
- Online Valentine’s Day sales are projected to continue to gain popularity as customers increasingly seek convenience and cost savings when shopping for Valentine’s gifts.
- Valentine’s Day ads tailored to smaller, budget-conscious buyers are also likely to increase.
- Social media is expected to remain an integral part of Valentine’s Day marketing strategies due to its potential reach among various demographics.
- Physical store buying is making a comeback. People will love the experience of taking their partner to a store to buy them a gift. Focus on getting people to walk into your store and deliver the best experience possible, as this is one of the main reasons they are in your store.
Though there is no one-size-fits-all solution for Valentine’s Day sales and marketing, retailers should tap into fresh insights from consumer trends to maximize Valentine’s Day 2023.
Why You Should Host a Valentine’s Day Giveaway?
For starters, Valentine’s Day spending in the United States exceeds 20 billion dollars. If your brand can cater to romantic expenditures in some way, then you should consider running valentines day promotions.
Valentines Day is considered to be the most romantic day of the year. It’s probably why more than half the respondents in a U.S. survey stated that they were planning to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Flowers, candy, and night-outs are the most common products and experiences that people spend on in Feb. However, jewelry, clothing, and online shopping still play a vital role during this time.
Online shopping is right up there alongside department and discount stores as the most popular destination for Valentine’s Day shopping. If you have an e-commerce brand with products that appeal to these shoppers, then you have to get your Valentine’s Day promotions ready.
One effective way to promote your brand, products, and social media over Valentine’s Day is with a giveaway. We analyzed a few excellent Valentine’s Day giveaways in the section below to give you an idea of how effective these campaigns can be.
Want to learn how to host your very own Valentine’s Day Giveaway?
Click here for a step-by-step guide to hosting a Valentine’s Day Giveaway.
Valentines Day Giveaway Examples
We found a few excellent Valentine’s Day giveaways online and analyzed them for you. There is a lot that we can learn from these campaigns.
Take a look at the giveaway examples below and the key takeaways that made these campaigns a success.
Shine Dessert Glitter Instagram Giveaway
- Entry Method: Like, Tag, and Follow to enter
- Prize: Baking Prize Bundle
- Ideal for: Small home industry businesses, part-time business, or home businesses
Shine Dessert Glitter is an edible dessert glitter brand with a considerable presence on Instagram. They took Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to host a giveaway to promote their brand on Instagram.
The giveaway is structured to boost engagement on an Instagram post. To enter, users must Like the giveaway post, tag friends, and follow all brands involved. This entry method ensures likes and comments are increased, increasing the post’s virality.
A viral post can increase the brand’s discoverability with more Instagram users finding out about the giveaway brand for the first time. Entrants tagging friends is also the best way to get your followers to refer new followers.
Key Takeaways:
- A prize bundle that includes four different products sponsored by other brands. This is a valuable strategy for brands that sell small, low-cost products and want to give away something of a higher value.
- Partnering with other brands that help sponsor a larger prize bundle means less expense for you and potentially more entrants/leads from the campaign because of the bigger prize. Each entrant will follow all brands involved, which indicates that the brands that sponsor prizes will get back leads for their generosity.
Valentines Day Gift Ideas + Giveaway – @Katy (YouTube)
- Entry Method: Follow the link to the website to enter
- Prize: 5x $100 Nordstrom Gift Card
- Ideal for: Influencers, vloggers, and makeup brands
Katy is a beauty and makeup YouTuber that has teamed up, on a few occasions, with brands and sponsors to host giveaways. Hosting a giveaway on her channel is an excellent way for her to give something back to her loyal fans.
Katy used Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to create a “gift idea” video. In her video, Katy showcased some wonderful, inexpensive gifts from coffee mugs to jackets. Katy also saw this video as an opportunity to host her own Valentine’s Day Giveaway.
There’s mention of a giveaway at the start and end of the video. Katy briefly announces the giveaway at the start of the video while showcasing the prize, which is Nordstrom gift cards.
Subscribers simply have to click on the link in the description to be directed to the giveaway website.
Key Takeaways:
- A Valentines Day YouTube video that serves two purposes. To showcase Valentine’s Day gift ideas and to announce her gift card giveaway. The giveaway will attract viewers which is ideal when promoting the products featured in the video.
- Katy most likely got Nordstrom to sponsor the gift cards (giveaway prizes) in return for her promoting gifts that can be bought from Nordstrom. She even included links to the products in the video description.
- Gift cards are inexpensive and force winners to visit the brand’s website to redeem. This is an ideal prize for brands to sponsor as giveaway entrants will curiously end up visiting the brand’s site to see what products they can get if they win.
Gift Card Giveaways can be lucrative for e-commerce brands. Especially if the brand knows how to partner with influencers and other brands.
Click here to learn more about Gift Card Giveaways.
Girls Night Valentines Giveaway – @BogartBeauty (Instagram)
- Entry Method: Like the post, Follow all the giveaway partners, Comment or Tag a friend
- Prize: Gift cards, Hairstylist, Makeup application, Manicure, and more
- Ideal for: Small brands willing to collaborate with other brands to host one large giveaway
Bogart Beauty is an Instagram account that’s run by Erica, a skin influencer and makeup artist. Erica specializes in makeup, beauty, skincare, and health.
Bogart Beauty’s Valentine’s Day Giveaway is an interesting one. It is a Partner Giveaway, a campaign that is hosted by two or more brands. In this case, six brands partnered together to build one huge giveaway.
The theme isn’t just Valentine’s Day. Bogart Beauty was smart to include single women in this giveaway by mentioning “Girls Night Out (GNO)” in the post. This way, the campaign won’t just be restricted to women that are already in a relationship.
Key Takeaways:
- The main benefit of a partner giveaway is that multiple brands get together to create one huge prize. Each brand contributes something from their end towards the prize. And, each brand also helps out with promoting the campaign. A larger prize with additional help for marketing will certainly increase your chances of a successful campaign.
- The giveaway also appeals to single women that would love to be treated on a girls night out.
- Users must engage with the post (comment or tag users) to enter. Following brand partners are also necessary to enter. These entry methods will ensure that engagement and follower count are increased.
Valentines Day Giveaway – @ShopLC (Instagram)
- Entry Method: Follow ShopLC, Like the post, Tag two friends
- Prize: Beauty product prize bundle
- Ideal for: E-commerce brands and online stores
Shop LC is a shopping channel focused on selling jewelry and beauty products. Apart from selling products on TV, Shop LC also has an active Instagram account that they use to sell products online. They direct Instagram users to products on their websites and other shopping platforms.
Hosting giveaways regularly is certainly lucrative for Shop LC. Giveaways bring in much-needed followers, engagement, and traffic to their Instagram profile.
Shop LC sees Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to host a giveaway that will appeal to the majority of its audience. They simply offer a gift bundle made up of products from their catalog.
Key Takeaways:
- Shop LC effectively uses its Valentine’s Day giveaway to increase followers and engagement. This helps generate traffic around their Instagram profile. An excellent strategy for an e-commerce brand that uses Instagram to initiate online sales.
- The prize for the giveaway is simple, yet effective. It’s a bundle of products right out of the brand’s inventory.
- The prize is specific to a female audience only, which is ok seeing that Shop LC’s target audience is primarily female.
Valentine Pendant Giveaway – Bouquet & Hugs (Instagram)
- Entry Method: Follow, Like the post, Comment, and Tag two friends
- Prize: A set of matching pendants
- Ideal for: Small jewelry makers, brands, and businesses
Bouquet & Hugs Jewellery are a small jewelry designer and store. They hosted a valentine’s day giveaway in 2023 to promote their brand and line of pendants.
A valentine’s day giveaway is an excellent idea for a small jewelry brand to build an audience and increase engagement on Instagram.
The prize for this giveaway is a pendant set that two people can wear. The two parts of the pendants can be put together to make a single heart-shaped pendant. This is an absolutely cute prize for Valentine’s Day.
Such a prize/product can bring awareness to the brand’s skill and craftsmanship.
Key Takeaways:
- A ‘small giveaway’ with a small prize is enough to boost engagement on instagram and grow an audience. We advise brands to host small giveaways regularly (monthly at least) to grow their audience, engagement, and leads consistently.
- Bouquet & Hugs put up their own product as the giveaway prize. The prize will draw a target audience suitable for the brand. Using your own product as a prize is also ideal for showcasing your product in a giveaway to a larger audience.
Valentines Day Giveaway Ideas with VYPER
The team at VYPER is always in touch with brands that host excellent giveaways over holidays and other special occasions. This allows us the opportunity to build a resource of great giveaway ideas and concepts.
We have two Valentine’s Day giveaway concepts below that were designed for online stores. If you are an e-commerce brand, then feel free to use these ideas for your next giveaway.
NB. The giveaways below are all demo campaigns created using our service. You can signup for free here and create your own designs using VYPER – https://vyper.io/user/register?redirect=freeaccount
Red Dress Boutique Valentines Day Giveaway (Online Store)
- Entry Method – Visit our website to enter
- Prize – Valentines Day Outfit (dress, earrings, shoes)
- Goal – Boost website traffic and sales
Red Dress Boutique is an e-commerce brand that caters to women’s clothing, jewelry, and accessories. A giveaway hosted on their website will be an excellent way to increase traffic, which in turn can boost sales.
The Red Dress Boutique is no stranger to hosting Valentine’s Day promotions on their site. So, hosting a giveaway in February seems like the natural choice to make.
The Red Dress Boutique can use a Valentine’s Day giveaway to promote their Valentine’s offers and drive traffic to their website.
Their giveaway should look something like this:
Benefits of this campaign:
- This campaign is an excellent way to promote Valentine’s Day offers and drive traffic to an online store.
- The prize for the giveaway can come right out of the store’s inventory, minimizing expenses.
- Brands looking to boost their socials can ask users to visit their profiles as well to obtain bonus entries.
Misthub Be My Valentine Giveaway (Vape Store)
- Entry Method – Visit us on Instagram to enter
- Prize – Gift Cards redeemable at misthub.com
- Goal – Increase traffic on socials
Misthub is an online vape store that mostly caters to the American market. They specialize in vape kits, pods, juices, batteries, and more.
While Misthub is a popular e-comm brand, its social media presence needs improvement. A giveaway can be just the thing to build more engagement and fans.
Misthub can host a Valentine’s Day giveaway that requires users to visit their Instagram profile to enter. Users can then follow Misthub or engage with their giveaway post to enter.
Benefits of this campaign:
- This campaign is ideal for online stores looking to build their social media presence. A stronger social media presence can certainly help in directing social media traffic to your store.
- You can ask users to click on the link in your Instagram bio to enter. This link can lead to the giveaway landing page on your website, which is a good strategy if you are looking to increase website traffic. You can use a tool like Hypage to manage the link in your Instagram bio.
Valentines Day Giveaway Q&A
Brands are already preparing Valentine’s Day promotions late in January. A good idea would be to launch your giveaway around this time and then announce the winners on Valentine’s Day. This gives you a solid 2 weeks to run your campaign.
Yes. However, your efforts will be more effective if the giveaway and the prize are in line with the Valentine’s Day theme. If you think your products will not make for a good giveaway prize, then you can try partnering with another brand that has more relevant products.
Flowers, Candy, Jewelry, and night-outs are some of the most spent on items and experiences during Valentine’s Day. Your giveaway prize can be gift cards for any of these places. Eg. Valentines Flower bouquet, a jewelry store gift card, a salon package that includes makeup, and a hairdo.
TL;DR
Valentine’s Day is an extremely lucrative time for many brands. Consumers love buying flowers, jewelry, candy, and more, which is why spending in the U.S. is as high as 20 billion dollars around this time.
If your brand isn’t capitalizing on Valentine’s Day, then now is the time to. And you can do so with a Valentine’s Day giveaway. The Valentines Giveaway Ideas in this guide will give you a better understanding of how you can structure your giveaway.
Have you ever hosted or taken part in a Valentine’s Day giveaway? What do you think of Valentine’s giveaway ideas in this guide?
Let us know in the comments below.
Jack Paxton is the co-founder of VYPER, a marketing tool that helps brands build email lists, social followings, and revenue using viral giveaways, referral, and reward programs. After millions of dollars spent testing different marketing strategies at his marketing agency. He then also co-founded Hyax a fast, conversion & design-focused course and funnel builder for creators.
