Valentines Day is the New Super Bowl Postgame
As the clock ticked down to :00 this past Sunday, the Super Bowl season ended for most of this year’s 59 advertisers (and hundreds of tag-along brands). But it didn’t have to be that way.
When the NFL extended their season by a week, they created a golden opportunity for marketers - 2 of the year’s biggest PR moments are now within a week of each other. In 2026, the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day even fall on the same day!
McDonalds was one of the first brands to capitalize in 2023, when they launched a Celebrity Meal with Cardi B & Offset just before kickoff to steal in-game food orders from pizza chains - then continued to promote their ‘date night done right’ through Valentine’s Day. Apparently, brands weren’t knocked off their feet, as few have pursued a similar 1-2 punch. This is a missed opportunity.
Brands can spend upwards of $1M to produce a worthy spot, plus another $7M to air it one time and anywhere from $300K to several million for celebrity talent. So, it's no surprise that brands need to milk all the value they can from their moment in the cultural zeitgeist. CeraVe received a lot of credit for priming their audience with 450+ influencers and a TikTok campaign that stirred the pot about a link between actor Michael Cera and the brand. But using influencers and teasers in the Super Bowl build-up period is nothing new. The real white space here is continuing the conversation AFTER tired Americans return to the grind on Monday.
But how? Well, it starts with campaign-oriented thinking in agency briefs and marketing calendars. Don’t get me wrong – a lot of brands have planned cute & funny stunts around February 14th, but they are usually one-off executions with fleeting interest from national media.
Dunkin is one brand that got it right this year. While most teams were poring over ad-tracking articles and sales figures on Monday, the team at Dunkin was putting the bright orange tracksuits from their DunKings Super Bowl spot online (they sold out in under 20 minutes) and finalizing their Valentines Day extension. By dropping their hot new track, Don’t Dunk Away at My Heart, on Valentines Day, Dunkin accomplished what few brands have done before – owning a piece of both the Super Bowl AND Valentines Day press cycles.
What’s even more impressive is that Dunkin executed a trifecta, bridging from the Grammys to the Super Bowl and now Valentine’s Day. The DunKings activation fits harmoniously under the brand’s America Runs on Dunkin campaign, but gives it legs to be a part of culture and drum up massive PR. They are calling this the Dunkin Cinematic Universe and while it deserves to be celebrated in its own right, I think it also represents a pivot from activating the Super Bowl as a standalone event.
Even if your brand doesn’t have the same access to A-list celebs or the marketing budget of the Barbie Movie, there are lessons to be learned here. If you have an insight-based Brief, moments like Valentine’s Day could serve as a piece in your brand’s larger story, allowing you to re-skin a winning idea for multiple executions. In the case of Dunkin, it may have started with the idea that their users prefer Dunkin's down-to-earth Boston roots over the snootiness of Starbucks. Ben Affleck was a Super Bowl worthy payoff, but they could have found more affordable execution ideas if necessary. And with the seasonal Valentines Day spike in doughnut sales, plus the custom menu offerings already in the pipeline, they had every right to extend the campaign.
Let’s be clear – such an approach won’t work for everyone. If you run an orthotic insole brand that's going all-in on a Super Bowl ad, Valentines Day may not be the right fit. But for other brands, it can be an intuitive extension. No matter the size of your brand or your budget, the key is to maximize applications for your campaign and sweat assets to maximize ROI.
After a year with more 1-star Super Bowl ads (out of 5) than any year on record, there seems to be plenty of room to optimize overall performance. So, for brands planning to activate in the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans, the tantalizing allure of a Valentine’s Day as a campaign extension should be part of the conversation. And when the NFL decides to add more games in the future, keep an eye out for my post about the Oscars!
Reach out if your team may benefit from a Brand Management Boot Camp, customizable around 16 different topics. We've trained people from 180+ different schools & companies – 95% of grads say they would reco to a peer, so I’m sure your team of marketers or MBA students will love it too. Follow us on LinkedIn and check out testimonials, more blog posts and registration info at https://www.cpgcamp.com/.