IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: valentine’s day

  • Valentine’s Day goes green for beer?

    Asian night clubs, beer, sword-fighting, and the color green are not what people would typically refer to as romantic or associate with Valentine’s Day. However, this year Heineken has decided to market its product unconventionally by creating a campaign based on Valentine’s Day.

    Heineken’s Serenade campaign has videos of a man and woman on a first date, running and dancing through an Asian night-club with jazz music. The man on the date is charming and wows the woman with his skills of swordsmanship, popularity and dancing. At the end of the video, the man and the woman both drink a Heineken and the phrase “open your world” pops on the screen. The video gives the impression that Valentine’s Day can be enjoyed by both sexes in far more exciting ways than the typical flowers and chocolates. Heineken rebrands itself as a more adventurous way to enjoy the holiday and for couples to open themselves up to new possibilities, while remaining appealing to both women and men alike.

    Another aspect of Heineken’s Valentine’s Day campaign is the Facebook app which creates a personalized video for users to ask a friend out on a date through a song. This service promotes Heineken as a matchmaker of sorts. While the videos satisfy the users’ needs of asking out their romantic interests, they also give Heineken greater exposure. As Facebook users see the videos on their friends’ profiles, they will notice that Heineken created the video. The more that people see the advertisements, the more likely they will think of Heineken the next time they purchase beer.

    Heineken has certainly taken an unconventional approach to marketing itself during the Valentine’s Day season. Unlike other companies sticking to the traditional concepts of love and romance, Heineken has chosen to use the holiday as a chance to market itself as an adventurous matchmaker. If the campaign proves to be a success, it is possible that we will see many more companies choosing to taking this unique approach to marketing their products in future Valentine’s Day seasons.

    -Ashley Oliver, Molly Jacques, Hunter Wilson, and Josh Vester

  • Have a Sexy Valentine’s Day, Gorgeous!

    A week from today, one of the most commercialized and superficial holidays will occur: Valentine’s Day. For those of you who are one half of a couple, Valentine’s Day is all about making your significant other happy, whether it involves showering him/her with gifts, making dinner reservations, or planning exuberant and normally unnecessarily expensive dates.

    The beginning of February marks the time when store fronts become clad with hearts, cupid cutouts, and pink and red streamers.  Around this same time, we begin to see an increasing number of men lurking around lingerie stores, especially Victoria’s Secret – and for good reason.  Victoria’s Secret has a dramatic increase in sales during the season of romance. With their sexy print ads in magazines, their silky almost-obscene commercials, and their free “Lacie Pantie” giveaway, what man in their right mind would avoid giving their girlfriend/wife the gift of sexiness?

    In their 2012 Valentine’s Day campaign, Victoria’s Secret Angels clad in pink and red barely-there bras and panties have advertised to their customers that with the gift of anything from their line of lingerie, their Valentine’s Day celebrations will be fabulous. In their sneak peek to their photo shoot, the Angels prance around in their under garments, smiling, laughing, and selling the ideas of sex and playfulness. In interviews, the girls claim that any man could win their hearts on Valentine’s Day by picking out something from the Victoria’s Secret shelves. One even says that if a man chooses something that he likes, it will give plenty of hints to his significant other.

    Not only does this campaign appeal to male shoppers, but it also appeals to women. The Victoria’s Secret Angels encourage their customers to feel sexy, and by offering specials, free panties, and coupons during this season, women will certainly be able to feel like Angels.

    So whether you are shopping for a significant other or are planning on spoiling yourself with brand new sexy lingerie, Victoria’s Secret will certainly be the place to shop this romantic season.  And don’t forget to have a sexy Valentine’s Day, Gorgeous!

    Love always, Christina Stevenson, Mollie Berthold, Dorothy Conley, & Laura Simmons

  • All The Single Ladies

    Valentine’s Day is a holiday dreaded by a great deal of people, both male and female, for various reasons. There is pressure on both genders to perform, declare emotions, and out-do previous years or expectations. Those who fail at this task of grandstanding may in fact find themselves without a date for next year. Okay, so there’s a ton of pressure on people in relationships, but what about those of us who are single? While some take pride in their solitude, others wish they had someone to be their valentine, and a few twitch at the mere thought of being in a relationship.

    According to an article in the New York Times, being single is a prevalent occurrence these days with 59.9 million single women in America. This staggering rate may surprise some, but companies like Dove chocolate see these table-for-one ladies as a prime marketing demographic. They hope to strike a chord with this growing independent group by catering their advertising to the women who are without companions. That is why this year Dove has made a campaign to remind women Valentine’s Day isn’t just about romance.

    Dove is banking on the stereotype that single women will turn to chocolate this year on Valentine’s Day. Instead of the standard “Call me” or “I’m yours” found on the candy hearts we used to share with our playground crush, Dove has created a host of witty comments and placed them on the inside of their chocolate wrappers. Some of the best include, “You’re gorgeous,” “Sometimes I buy flowers for myself,” “My flaws are fabulous” and even the ever so uplifting, “Love yourself in a moment.” The new commercial features women sharing their Dove chocolates with everyone from their barista to their neighbor, and most importantly, themselves. Is this a message of independence for the strong woman? Or rather, a cheap ploy based upon the assumption that women alone on Valentine’s Day will inevitably console themselves with chocolate? Either way it’s hard to dislike chocolate, especially when it’s making single girls smile and promising not to judge if we have more than one.

    By: Alexis Kapczynski, Kacy Cox, Josh Bowman, and Sara Kaloudis