Get With It Valentines Day!

Valentines Day 2014 is upon us and for the Gen Zs who are in a “relationship”, this can be a very confusing holiday.  Valentines Day is one of the most traditional holidays, filled with offline rituals including high maintenance gifts, Hallmark cards, dates at the Olive Garden and maybe romance. But such offline rituals are new to Gen Zs who approach everything virtually, including relationships. This offers numerous opportunities for brands to take Valentines Day out of the stores and into the laps of romantic Gen Zs.

Dating, courting and relationships for Gen Zs occur mostly “on the lap”, the devise on the lap, not physically on the lap (at least we hope not). Social media is the new Mall or HS Rec Night for managing the dating game of interests, crushes & dating status.  Gen Zs use You Tube to learn and share dating advice, ask.fm to get details about their crushes, Instagram to announce that they are “dating”, and Snapchat & Vine to share images of the new couple.  As the relationship gets more serious, Gen Zs use social media to strengthen both their physical and digital relationship.  Young love is a major topic for Gen Zs on the Internet.

Using social media, Valentines Day presents a perfect opportunity for brands to resonate with Gen Zs who want to celebrate the holiday in a completely digital way. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Brands targeting Gen Zs can demonstrate that they get today’s youth by offering relevant and contemporary gifts. Target the Gen Zs specifically, not adults or their parents. Many Gen Zs have their own funds or accounts.  Gen Zs want to be understood and admired for being a “technical genius”
2. Brands can create a clever social media campaign to reach Gen Zs, one that is fun and viral. For example, the 167-year-old Necco brand launched its Tweethearts campaign, which allows users to customize its Sweethearts candies by tweeting a message to @tweethearts. (BrandChannel) 
3. Brands can help Gen Zs take their dating to the next level. With ASK or YouTube videos replacing adult advice, brands can sponsor videos or create the platform to help Gen Zs stay cool. On You Tube there are many videos such as “How to Ask the Girl Out” 
   
4. Popular games played by Gen Zs such as Minecraft & Call of Duty should offer an invisible Valentines Day section where messages can be exchanged privately.  Players can flirt privately while staying in the game

For our tech-savvy Gen Zs, Love means Connection and Connection means Love. So brands, learn what love is to a Gen Z and you can help build long-term relationships, on and off the lap.