Valentine’s Day Events
Top of the week to all my readers. Yesterday was Valentine’s
Day. A global Day for the celebration of Love.
According to Wikipedia “Valentine's Day, also called
Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an annual holiday
celebrated on February 14. It originated as a Western Christian liturgical
feast day honouring one or more early saints named Valentinus, and is
recognized as a significant cultural and commercial celebration in many regions
around the world, although it is not a public holiday in any country”
There are many myths and Martyrdom stories associated
with Valentine’s Day however “The day first became associated with romantic
love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the
tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into
an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting
flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as
"valentines").” Says Wikipedia.
In this present times, Valentine’s Day has grown to
become a huge commercially successful attractive event all over the world. If there
is a way to measure, it will not be out of place to find that over $2b Dollars
exchange hands on this day.
Since this is a yearly event, it does not comes as a
surprise to anyone. The questions here is how are event managers positioned to
tap into the massive financial activities that takes place on the 14th
of February every year? Our last week post on this blog was titled “Using Event
as BD Strategy”, Valentine’s Day is one of those events that can be
successfully developed into a BD strategy.
In this regard, let us look at some of the activities
that took place this Valentine’s day and hope that it will serve as a guide to
the coming year.
Couples Night: This was a dinner event organised by
Catholic Men Organisation of St Agnes Catholic Church in Maryland, Lagos.
Beautiful occasion for their members and invited guests to bond with their
spouses. It was a paid event and the organisers provided a lot to eat, plenty
of music, dancing and a lottery to end the show.
Boat Cruise: Here is good example of an event that
suites the Valentine’s day celebration. Couples will have a splendid time in
the serenity of a boat cruise providing ample gateway opportunity for couples
that want to rediscover their relationship. It happened last year but I
listened for one this year without luck.
Sports Time Out: Fitness houses, Aerobic clubs, etc. are
the target group for this kind of event. Creatively weaving the Valentine day
celebration around their activities could create an attractive buy-in for
members.
Movie: Good Old movie. Yes it still sparkles on
a valentine day. It can be spiced up with a group movie event and an after
movie networking and discussion around good music, food and side attractions.
Moving guests around to and fro movie location in a bus will go a long way to
create warmth and inter personal relationships.
Art and Culture: This has never ceased to be an
attraction. Creating an event that includes visits to places of interest likes
Museums, Natural Parks, Gardens or even some kind of theatre performance, will
always be a sell-out. The OpenMic event was quite apt in this season of
valentine.
Party: When every other thing fails, a party
comes in handy. Arrange good music, appetising dishes, Suave MC, Comedian and
set the ball rolling. Combine the day with side attractions such as Couple
Dance, Couple Fashion parade, Couple Games, etc. and you will have a fantastic
night. Here is what took place in some locations.
Family Funfair: Creating an occasion for the families to
share love is a great selling point too. If well packaged with activities for
kids such as games, rides, bouncing castles, Best dressed Mummy and Best dressed
Daddy, etc. You are sure to have a hit show.
The die is cast. The preparation towards the next Valentine’s
Day starts now. Get your team together to brainstorm over strategy sessions for
concepts, ideas, activities, that will capture the audiences and make you grab
a slice of the $2b dollars or more that will be shared worldwide during the
next Valentine’s celebration.
I am out here.
Have a good week.
(NB: These pictures used here are not mine and copyright belongs to the rightful owners)
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