Another year, another Valentine’s Day, as stuffed with stale clichés as a novelty teddy bear. Red roses, overpriced prix fixe dinners, and heart-shaped everything flood our feeds, reminding us that love has become just another transaction. It’s predictable, it’s uninspired, and increasingly, it’s being met with eye rolls rather than excitement.
No wonder consumers are continuing to turn their backs on the ‘big day’. While spending still spikes, engagement is shifting, with younger generations seeing through the marketing gimmicks, and an increasing number opting out altogether. In Asia, where cultural nuances around love are profoundly varied, the Westernized, cookie-cutter approach feels even more out of place. So why do brands keep pushing the same tired formula?
A Love Story No One Believes Anymore?
The problem isn’t Valentine’s Day itself – it’s how marketers have conspired to trap it in a 20th-century time capsule of romance that no longer resonates. Love has evolved, and so have consumers’ expectations. Yet brands cling to the same outdated playbooks of ideas as tired as those last-minute gas station bouquets.
And yet, the fascination with love is far from dead. The cross-cultural hunger for reality dating shows like Love is Blind and Single’s Inferno prove that younger consumers are still drawn to romantic storytelling – just not the forced, overly scripted kind brands are pushing.
By inserting themselves into the day and perpetuating a culturally and creatively narrow interpretation of romantic love, brands have stifled the opportunity to show affection more authentically. Valentine’s day remains rich with storytelling potential. The key is for brands to shift from dictating how love should look and feel to creating a space for consumers to express love on their own terms. Valentine’s day should be a playground for creativity and emotional expression, celebrating love in all its forms.
Embracing Love In All Its Forms
Instead of sticking to outdated tropes, brands should celebrate the many faces of love – family, friends, pets, community and even self-love. This more expansive approach chimes more deeply with today’s consumer, and speaks to the diverse ways Valentine’s Day (and its equivalents) are celebrated across Asia.
In South Korea, there are no fewer than 14 ‘love holidays’ each year. As in Japan, Valentine’s Day is followed by White Day on 14th March, on which Valentine’s gifts of love are reciprocated. Then, on April 14th Black Day celebrates those singles who were overlooked on the two previous occasions.
China’s Qixi Festival also has its own unique cultural spin, focusing more on symbolic expressions of love rather than extravagant gifting. While in the Philippines, Valentine’s Day is still celebrated in many places on a grand, community-driven scale, with public weddings in large-scale ceremonies.
Brands can lean into these alternative narratives, making Valentine’s Day about love in all its forms – not just the heteronormative, romantic kind, but celebrating all the relationships that shape us, and tapping into a more collective expression of love beyond the more limiting narrative of one-on-one romance.
Budweiser’s ‘All Love is Love’ Campaign (2024) celebrated the Qixi Festival by launching a campaign that featured art bottles promoting inclusivity and diversity in love, encouraging consumers to embrace various forms of love, transcending traditional romantic relationships.
Experiences Over Stuff
In an era of more mindful consumption, experiences can hold more value than mass-produced gifts. Instead of pushing unoriginal, unsustainable products, brands should create moments and platforms that help consumers express love in their own original ways.
According to a Nielsen study, 74% of millennials and Gen Z consumers in Asia-Pacific prefer spending money on experiences over material items. Meanwhile, e-commerce platforms have reported growing demand for experience-based gifts, from travel and adventure packages to wellness retreats and personalized events.
Brands that recognize this behavioural change can craft campaigns that encourage shared, memorable experiences. The key is interactivity – giving people something to do, not just something to buy. AI-driven platforms can further personalise these experiences, offering consumers curated events or experiences based on their personal preferences, local culture, and unique relationships.
LEGO’s “Botanicals Le Florist Flower Truck Tour” travels cities offering consumers the opportunity to build custom LEGO flower bouquets. The activation celebrates all forms of love and provides an interactive experience for lucky participants.
Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is
Instead of dictating how people should express love, brands should do more to show their own love and gratitude to consumers, using discounts and thoughtful rewards, rather than the familiar price-gouging and the removal of choice and spontaneity.
We know well that younger consumers crave purpose-driven brands. A 2023 McKinsey report highlights that Gen Z consumers in Asia-Pacific are more likely to engage with brands that align with their values, particularly around social causes.
This presents brands with an opportunity to connect Valentine’s Day with causes that matter – mental health, DEI, or initiatives that support relationships in more meaningful ways. By embracing such an approach, brands can position themselves as enablers of love in its many forms, not just opportunists cashing in on it.
Brands that integrate such initiatives – whether it’s funding counseling services, supporting diversity, or addressing loneliness – will connect more deeply with consumers, and help to broaden Valentine’s Day from being commercially-driven event into a celebration of love’s most important aspects: care, connection, and inclusivity.
In 2023, MINI Ireland partnered with Grow Mental Health to share some Big Love on Valentine’s Day, with the aim of delivering hundreds of roses to Grow Mental Health facilitators, volunteers and peer support group members – part of MINI’s commitment to social causes and charity while supporting social entrepreneurship.
Who Will Own Valentine’s Day 2.0?
No single brand will “own” Valentine’s Day 2.0, but that’s not the point. In an era of experience and hyper-personalisation, brands must do better than falling back on tired romantic tropes and focus on what truly matters.
Don’t try to guilt-trip everyone into doing the same generic things – focus on your own consumers and give them insightful, nuanced, and delightful ways to express their deepest emotions in ways that are truest to them. They might actually love you for it.