Come February and it’s time for the marketers to play the love tune. This year we saw some witty, sweet and unabashedly romantic campaigns. We’ve rounded up some of the most talked videos, ads and online Valentine’s Day campaigns in 2014.
The video shows a man detailing the idiosyncrasies of the woman he loves and wants to marry. While most ads try to market the notion of perfect romance with perfect partners; this ad breaks that and it’s fearlessly sincere about it. The man in the video talks about the quirks of his partner – “in your wonderful world order and chaos there’s no contradiction at all”, “every morning you really test my nerves” and so earnestly concludes “for all of that I love you”. The viewers won’t see the connection between the ad and the product till the end, nevertheless it touches a chord. It’s already had well over 1,500,000 million views on YouTube. The video has love written all over it -from the beginning ( it starts with “You, your smile, your eyes, your stubborn curl that you got from your dad that he got from his mum”) till the end.
Every ad tells a story. This Valentine’s Day ad tells the story of waiting- the despondency of waiting for your partner in an empty house, the sheer sadness of holding your partner’s pillow and crying; the feeling of hopelessness when every little thing around you reminds you of him/her. The video is packed with surprises at the end. We aren’t going to let out the surprise, but what we can tell you is that the video will pull on your heartstrings.
The little blue blob who sold both his kidneys online is back. And he’s found a new way to die! You have to watch the video to find how he dies; but we can tell you it’s bloody and cute at the same time. The “Dumb Ways to Die’ videos aren’t made for making people laugh, though. They’re actually a public safety campaign run by Melbourne Metro to encourage people to act safely around trains. “Be safe around Valentine’s Day … and trains,” says the on-screen Valentine’s Day copy.
Jabong tapped into the popularity of Alok Nath’s sanskaari jokes and ran #OnaSanskaariDate campaign on Twitter. The tweeps who participated stood a chance of winning gift vouchers worth INR1000.
In Bollywood if there’s someone who can preach about sanskaar, it’s one and only Alok Nath. 9XM ran a special Valentine’s ad with Alok Nath, bade and chote on how to celebrate a sanskaari Valentine’s Day. The sanskaari twist is ridiculously funny. Watch the video to see how Indian cinema’s babuji plays with the names of the girls.
A funny take on being single on Valentine’s Day, the ad sends a warm message, though. As 14th Feb approaches, single people start feeling lonely as they see couples in love gifting each other, sending love notes and flowers. The ad shows a spectacled, not-so-smart man coming to office on 14th Feb and minutes after starting his day he’s swamped with gifts. And each time a gift parcel comes for him, his colleagues give him a surprised look. Even the hottie at the office looked surprised as he got more gifts than her. The surprise breaks at the end when the ad shows the man shopping for himself on ebay and availing great Valentine’s Day deals.
Centering around the message – to love is to share, the ad shows a couple talking about how their love for pets played the cupid. The ad will remind you of Marley and Me – the Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston starer. For all the believers of ‘happily ever after’ this video would warm your heart.
As mushy as a warm peach pie, the video will make you fall in love with love! The theme – go further to get closer connects with today’s couples who are time-pressed and often get so caught up in everyday nuisances that spending time with their significant other takes a backseat. Also, Indian couples who live with in-laws can easily relate to the video. We see Sumeet and Chetna, a young couple, trying hard to find some ‘we’ time together but can’t as living in a joint family has its own cons. The campaign shows how British Airways helped Sumeet give Chetna a heart-touching surprise – a romantic getaway.