Galentine’s Day: The Secret To Creating Bold & Beautiful Campaigns
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Brands are busy planning their V-Day campaigns. But there is one other day to add to your social media calendar. A trend that’s offbeat yet a total social media hit – Galentine’s Day.
Galentine’s Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on February 13, the day before Valentine’s Day. Galentine’s Day is dedicated to celebrating female friendships. It gives women a chance to honor their lady friends who stand by them through the ups and downs in their lives.
What was introduced as a casual idea in a sitcom (more on this a little later in this blog), has now grown to become a trend popular among the female audience around the world. So much so that the #galentinesday hashtag has over a million posts on Instagram alone. And we know well that social media trends make a wonderful idea for brand campaigns. Because by talking about what your customers are talking about, you have their attention.
However, there lies the big question – what kind of campaigns can you plan? What kinds of designs work in your Galentine’s Day campaigns? We’ll talk about all those details in this blog by looking at some Galentine’s Day campaign examples too.
The Galentine’s Day story
Well, by now aren’t you curious about how this whole trend started? And how a pseudo-holiday has fallen on the radar of big brands looking to engage their audience?
The fictional character Leslie Knope featured in the sitcom Parks and Recreation talks about Galentine’s Day in one of the episodes. She calls it a day for “ladies celebrating ladies”. In the show, the day is about lady friends meeting for breakfast and celebrating the beautiful bond they share.
The trend slowly caught up and today women around the world talk about Galentine’s Day on social media. And they use it as an opportunity to spend time with their lady friends and pamper them with gifts or even throw a party.
A study on “Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology” revealed that when it comes to having a best friend, about 98% of women report that they do while only 85% of men are on the same page. It shows how a majority of women value female friendships in their lives. And so, when the sitcom introduced a fictional day dedicated to their female friends, it naturally turned out to be a big hit.
With the growing need for inclusivity, Galentine’s Day goes beyond female friendships, beyond genders. Some even celebrate Palentine’s Day on February 13 to embrace the spirit of platonic love. So, if you haven’t already planned a campaign or a social media post for this occasion, now is a good time to start.
What kinds of businesses can capitalize on the Galentine’s Day trend?
To answer the question we’ll talk about what women around the world like to do on Galentine’s Day.
Some women like to go full Leslie Knope – style when it comes to celebrating Galentine’s Day. They meet for breakfast or brunch and hang out with their lady friends. There might be an outing that involves spa visits and other kinds of pampering routines. Some women invite their friends over for dinner or a fun party merely for their “girl gang”.
Of course, gifting holds a special place in celebrations like these. And this means there is a surge in shopping. Women shop for party outfits for a girl’s night out, skincare and makeup for themselves and for their friends, or any gifts that can help express their love to their platonic better half.
Do you see your brand, your products or services fit into any of these? Then you are in luck – you can easily plan Galentine’s Day discounts. One extra day of discounts just before Valentine’s Day is going to give your customers one extra reason to shop. A win-win, don’t you think?
Nevertheless, if you think that your business offerings do not feel relevant to Galentine’s Day, you can still take the time out to wish the women in your audience. A simple GIF, a meme, or a customized social media image is all it takes. By doing this, you get to use topical hashtags and gain visibility for your brand in the process.
Sometimes, finding the right GIF or meme for the occasion can be tedious, we get it. With Kimp Graphics you can easily get memes and GIFs designed to align with your brand identity.
7 Galentine’s Day campaigns that caught our attention
1. Who doesn’t like a gift guide?
Around the holiday season, there is one type of post that will never let you down – a gift guide. People are curious to find out what others are buying, what gifts are trending that year. So, providing them with those answers simplifies their shopping experience.
According to Google Consumer Insights, there has been a 230% increase in the number of people who search for gift ideas for people who “has everything” or “wants nothing”. That only means more people are looking for gift ideas. So, come up with creative and relevant gift guides for Galentine’s Day.
A holiday gift guide can come in the form of an email with direct links to the recommended products, a shoppable social media post or YouTube video posts with all the relevant product links. One of the most common formats for gift guides is the blog post format. A post that has a few quick lines on the recommendations along with why these are recommended will drive more traffic to your site.
Kimp Tip: Visuals have become indispensable elements in blogging. They make your content more interactive and visually appealing. Custom graphics with your brand’s unique flavor add value to your post and also help your website rank better in image search. Around the holiday season a lot of brands come up with gift guides. So, adding custom graphics will help your blog post stand out in the crowd.
Need help creating custom blog images? Get in touch with the Kimp team today.
2. Create a limited-edition product
One of the best campaign ideas to celebrate any holiday will be to launch a limited edition product to celebrate the occasion. This idea particularly works if your brand caters to some of the most popularly sought-after items around Valentine’s Day and Galentine’s Day.
However, introducing a new product comes with additional marketing efforts, some packaging design tweaks, and other measures. If that sounds overwhelming especially with Valentine’s Day grabbing all the attention, you can go for a customized product combo instead. This involves putting together a simple product bundle or a combo discount for a set of products that feel most relevant to Galentine’s Day.
Another idea is to come up with a digital gift that’s easier to launch without much offline infrastructure to arrange (in the form of packaging design, etc).
In the below collaboration, American Greetings, a greeting cards company came up with a customizable e-card for Galentine’s Day.
You can create digital gifts and digital products like these to allow the women in your audience to celebrate with their friends.
Kimp Tip: Digital downloadables make great holiday gifts for your customers and they also act as lead magnets especially since there is a high likelihood of seeing new leads around popular holidays.
Need help coming up with the designs for these digital products or want to quickly customize your packaging for the Galentine’s Day exclusives? One Kimp Graphics subscription can take care of all your design needs.
3. Put the right products in the spotlight
Sometimes, you do not even have to introduce a new product for the occasion. All it takes is to put the right products in the spotlight. How do you do that? Social listening – look at the topics that your customers are talking about close to Galentine’s Day. Are they talking about throwing a party or hosting a dinner or dining out? Use these cues to come up with relevant product recommendations.
In addition to recommending specific products, curating discounts in these selected categories adds more value.
In the below post, Trump Winery talks about its Galentine’s Day discounts on products handpicked for the occasion. And discounts like these work even better if you manage to cover both online and in-store purchases. This way, friends gifting their lady friends from other parts of the world will also shop on your site.
4. Relevant, but for a cause
Charitable measures that brands take ring a different tone, especially around competitive times like the holiday season. While people are talking about all the glitz and glamor surrounding the season of love, if you find a relevant and subtle way to talk about a noble cause, it helps strengthen the trust and respect customers have for your brand.
Here is a post on the Twitter page of Girl Effect, a non-profit organization focused on eradicating poverty.
Similarly, if you can tie back your corporate social responsibility activities to Galentine’s Day in some way, use the opportunity to talk about something bigger than your brand name. In other words, use the opportunity to win your customers’ hearts.
5. Host an event to pamper your female customers
Businesses offering skincare and beauty services are particularly in luck when it comes to occasions like Galentine’s Day. Getting ready for the special day feels like the most relatable thing to do. So, you can organize a fun event that lets your female customers give your services a try.
For events like these, based on the anticipated traffic at your store, you can choose to encourage walk-ins or pre-registrations. Reward your customers with exclusive discounts for attending the event or a chance to try additional services on a minimum purchase. Much like holiday discounts, the focus here will be to encourage customers to visit your store.
All the foot traffic your store gets on Galentine’s Day can win you some new customers and create a buzz for your brand too.
Kimp Tip: To make your event a success, you need to promote it the right way. From choosing the right channels to promote to using the right kind of graphics, everything counts. Social media is a place you cannot ignore when it comes to promoting your event. Have an event landing page to elaborate on the finer details. For local marketing, use flyers, billboards, and other localized advertising platforms. But ensure that your designs and the message look consistent everywhere.
A designated design team working on all your designs makes this happen smoothly. Get Kimp!
6. Drive more engagement with a social media giveaway
There is one social media campaign idea that works for almost all occasions including Galentine’s Day – social media contests. Giveaways and social media contests are good for engagement. Planned and executed right, they bring new followers, increase the comments and shares on your posts, and along the way they also help increase your reach.
Remington’s Galentine’s Day giveaway below is a good example of a simple yet effective social media campaign idea.
As women come forward and tag their BFFs, the engagement on the post increases. And when the tagged friends start following the brand’s page or share the post and tag a few more users, the idea gains traction. This can be good for the brand.
Since the idea of giveaways and social media contests can be quite common around popular holidays like Valentine’s Day, to make your post stand out, come up with catchy graphics. Videos like the one used by Remington work even better. They give a quick peek into the products that customers can win by taking part in the giveaway.
7. A thoughtful wish makes all the difference
In the midst of all the campaigns and discounts you plan do not forget the crux of Galentine’s Day – “celebrating female friendships”. You might have posts talking about the special events, your social media contests and the other campaigns surrounding Galentine’s Day going live a few days in advance. But a warm and thoughtful wish on February 13, makes a whole lot of difference.
See how a simple GIF adds to the memorability of the post? So start incorporating motion graphics into your social media page more actively.
Another reason to sign up for a Kimp subscription today.
Create catchy Galentine’s Day posts with Kimp
We are sure that you have plenty of ideas for your Galentine’s Day campaign already. Now it’s all about executing them right on social media. If you need help in creating the graphics that take your campaigns forward, Kimp subscriptions are just a click away. We even have a 7-day free trial so that you can try our subscriptions before paying for them. Register now and start your free trial.