Only 43 per cent of the Czech population celebrates Valentine's Day on 14 February, especially those aged 18 to 35. On average, Mother's Day is more popular, for example, and despite its association with the previous regime, so is International Women's Day, at least according to a survey by Provident Financial last year. Still, brands' investment in Valentine's Day campaigns is growing again in 2021 after a covid slump, according to Ad Intel data. However, the monitoring does not include programmatic online channels and it is 2021 that has seen the highest volume of online searches for Valentine's Day terms, given the overall growth in e-commerce. Last year, the market invested CZK 16.8 million in monitored channels and the forecast for this year is even higher.
Sales opportunity
Unsurprisingly, the categories directly related to the holiday saw growing investment in advertising: chocolate and chocolates or confectionery doubled their investment, shopping centres returned to almost pre-pandemic levels, cinemas also invested heavily, as did erotic and contraceptive products with budgets exceeding CZK 250,000. The biggest advertisers, however, were Fast with its "Valentine's Day discounts" on Marimex electric and infrared saunas.
In terms of media types, love favoured print with 11.4 million, radio, where 3.7 million flowed in, and the internet, where advertisers spent 1.6 million crowns in monitored direct buying alone.
Such rankings show that Valentine's Day is still primarily a sales opportunity for brands, even though it is the commercial aspect of the holiday that its detractors often criticize. This is confirmed by Mindsquared specialists' experience of CPM trends during clients' Valentine's Day campaigns in previous years, where we did not see a significant increase around 14 February in the Czech Republic or in foreign markets compared to the previous and subsequent weeks. This suggests that overall the advertising space is not materially overcrowded, although this is the first significant opportunity after Christmas. The problem - and the opportunity - is thus more to do with the blending of the campaigns' product-focused messages against a backdrop of rose petals, lace and, of course, red hearts.
Brand building
Meanwhile, the theme of love can provide the ideal platform for expressing brand values. Customers are increasingly sensitive to these, especially in younger age groups celebrating Valentine's Day more intensely. Last year, Hershey's, one of the largest global chocolate manufacturers, embraced various forms of love, including friendship and parenting, expanding shopping opportunities and nearly doubling digital sales as a result. Bloomreach platform data then shows another trend - caring and self-love. In 2021 and in the first weeks of February, searches for sports equipment and apparel, diets and mental health programs dominated e-commerce.
But good news awaits even Valentine's Day detractors. The various alternatives to Valentine's Day are also becoming more and more popular, according to search volumes. Singles' Day, or Singles' Day, set symbolically for 11/11, originated in China and represents the largest one-day shopping event in the world. Thanks to sales records, it is also increasingly penetrating the Czech consciousness. The "Steak and BJ day" was created as a Valentine's Day inside out for gentlemen, they can look forward to it on March 14. For women, there's a similar "Chicken and lickin' day" just a day later, and to celebrate the amazing ladies in their lives, Galentine's Day is on February 13. However, their familiarity is still very low in the Czech Republic.
Source: mam.cz
