While younger people lead Valentine’s Day spending, older demographics are still invested (in the US, participant rates are 55%, 50% and 40%, for those aged 45-54, 55-64, and 65 and over, respectively), often driving higher-value gifting. There’s major mileage in crafting aspirational campaigns for older consumers, frequently neglected in advertising, as Brazilian footwear brand Havaianas’ stylish couples exemplify.

Other campaigns (across homeware, confectionery and beauty) acknowledge rising consumer concerns about artificial intelligence’s (AI) impact on creativity, craft and interpersonal connection (64% of people globally worry that “the human touch is being lost”). Foregrounding smaller moments over spectacle, they spotlight the potency of idiosyncratic love languages, emotional effort and imperfect objects that AI would reject or struggle to perceive.

Valentine’s Day’s continued status as a commercial heavy hitter is driven by its beyond-romance appreciation of family (of the 55% of Americans celebrating, 58% plan to buy gifts for family members, including kids, parents and siblings). Smart brands are saying it’s cool to care in campaigns subtly underscored by the pathos of absence – cheering empty nesters and far-flung siblings.

Responding to the 43% of Americans preferring experiences as gifts for Valentine’s Day (Savings.com, 2026), canny brands have ignited activity-led comms and campaigns. Key strategies include conversation-reviving hobbyist pop-ups, loyalty-led real-life events programming for singles and couples, and hospitality concepts tethered to tentpole film releases.

For 2026, 20% of single American Gen Zers will be celebrating Valentine’s Day’s friends-focused equivalent, Galentine’s/Palentine’s (Savings.com, 2026). Brand strategies bringing new perspectives to platonic connections include Lush’s Bestie Baskets, German meal kit company Hello Fresh and American pop culture news platform Betches’ Galentine’s home-hosting concept, and Finnish game developer Supercell’s recasting of gaming clans as romcom-worthy relationships.

Self-love – and the associated rise in self-gifting – is another major driver in the Valentine’s Day growth engine. In 2025, 60% of 18- to 24-year-old Americans planned to self-gift, up from 58% in 2024, with further increases expected in 2026 (CivicScience, 2025). Brand opportunities lie both in self-indulgence and self-care, presenting possibilities from high fashion to health and wellbeing.  

Brand collaborations now require a greater degree of ‘fandom precision’ to cut through the noise and hit the right note. One key strategy is elevating semi-bizarre social media preoccupations relating to one’s own brand – as seen via McDonald’s, a veteran of deftly crafted viral trend homages, partnering with US-based Paramount Caviar.

Other brands are cutting through clichéd, vanilla Valentine’s Day comms – targeting the 76% of global consumers who feel few brands really stand out (VML, 2026) – with overtly risqué, innuendo-loaded campaigns.