Content Marketing for Valentine's Day: Who says BtoB is boring?

Best Agency Cards

Agency_Valentines_Cards

Cards Against Marketing: The only agency valentines you'll ever need

"We created the perfect Valentine for everyone in your open-office floor plan because while they may know when your next dentist appointment is, they may not know the depth of your love/contempt." – Location3

Business-Speak Valentines from Frequency540

‘Let's get aligned.’ / ‘You've got a tight brief.’ / ‘Let me A/B test your core competencies.’

Click to see and share more e-valentines from F540. 

Best Agency Brand Message

Holland-Mark_website_vole

Holland-Mark Agency Goes Wild Kingdom

This small agency is all about the love, all times of year. But in their February blog they gave a subtle plug for their new website, which is a great Valentine's Day promo in and of itself. It's pretty fun and much more Marlin Perkins than Madison Avenue — which I guess is the whole point. As the narrator explains, "Much like the prairie vole, your brand needs to find mates for life."

Best B2B Valentine's Day Campaign

B2B Comedy in Content Marketing: The perfect gift for Valentine's Day, from Cisco

This is a fun one from 2013, and still hard to beat. Valentine's Day lesson of the day: Businesses that boost their budgets to cover high-quality creative get love, affection and ROI in spades. 

5 Clever Valentine's Day Brand Campaigns: Agencies share the love (but hold the cheese)

Sure, I appreciate Cartier's “The Proposal” as much as the next critic. It's an elegant six-minute triptych for fans of visual storytelling — and for those who fall for big diamonds, handsome men falling on one knee, and things like that. But when it comes to valentines and marketing, it's a fine line between sweet and saccharine. Depending on the audience and the product, it's often best to try a different tack altogether — like humor. Just like chocolate, holiday marketing can be cloying. Those looking for a decent chunk of organic dark chocolate will likely be turned off by a box of "assorted creams." Reach out to the tired, jaded masses and you just might get some traction.

Funniest:

SNL_Fifty_Shades

SNL's Vanessa Bayer Gets Fifty Shades of Awkward for Audi Video

Hilarious. Can't stop laughing. "Fifty Shades" thoroughly deserves to be parodied by everyone; this Audi ad is hands-down the best yet.

Dairy Queen Spoofs Jared Jewelers

Funny and creative. Heck, sounds like the perfect Valentine's Day gift to me. Ingenious, actually. I'm an ice-cream snob but would happily dig into a Dairy Queen cake with my own special spoon. 

Quirkiest:

Dumb_Ways_to_Die

Dumb Ways to Die: Valentine's Day

Short, twisted and sweet. Loved the original Melbourne Metro Train cartoon so much I'd follow these little bean-shaped characters anywhere.

Red Velvet Oreo's Animated Cartoons

Not in love with these cartoons, but I do like them. I'm sure they'll speak to a new audience and add to Oreo's success on Twitter. 

Most Fun:

Mustang Sally: Speed-Dating Stunt Driver Takes Unsuspecting Men for a Spin

Ford lets a woman take the lead in a kick-ass car commercial, for once. Hilarity ensues. 

Honorable Mention

cupidrone

Sweetest (without being schmaltzy):

"Cupidrone" – Flower Council of Holland

I just think it's cute, this Cupidrone. That is all. 

Foolish Infographics (April Fool's edition)

I'm always on the lookout for good infographics. As a "visual learner" and follower of trends in information design, I'm both delighted and bemused by the daily flood of data visualization on the Internet. Often I'm more enamored with the execution than with the content itself, so when I come across a silly "mock" infographic, the joke's on me.Here are some of my favorites: 

Ben Greenman's Charts About Graphs and Graphs About Charts

This series on McSweeney's is funny and spot-on. My top picks:   

For more funny examples, check out:

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Ben Greenman's Graphs About Charts and Charts About Graphs