FTD Valentine’s Day Billboards
Nothing says Valentines’s Day quite like a bouquet of flowers, making February 14 the single biggest day for sales at FTD. Our campaign: We Love Love. A push to combat the idea that Valentine’s Day is outdated and instead embrace it for what it is — a celebration of love.
Along with our paid and organic presence, we ran an out of home campaign in three major metropolitan areas: Albuquerque, New Mexico, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Columbus, Ohio.
Design with gorgeous macro shots of flowers, plants, and chocolates layered with regional-specific copy (along with a few that spoke to our broader campaign), these billboards lit up the gray winter skies to drive sales in key markets.
Well… oops.
It seems that not everyone in Columbus was thrilled with these billboards — particularly the Short North Alliance.
See, my designs for Columbus were just a tad more on the nose since I happen to live here (a very happy coincidence). The Short North is a section of High Street that bridges the gap between Downtown and the University District, the main campus for The Ohio State University. It was once a mecca of sorts for artists and the LGBTQ+ community. In recent years, however, real estate projects have removed much of the charm (and plenty of the parking).
I'd apologize for offending, but honestly? I'd write it again. It was true then, and it's true now.
And I take great joy in knowing that on more than one occasion, Columbus locals laughed at this specific billboard (one of the boards happened to be near my sister's office and she filled me in on every reaction).
I learned a few valuable lessons from this letter. One, good creative sometimes takes jabs, and that's okay (within reason). And two, if you're going to take shots, you better be right, and you better have a team that's going to back you up. Thankfully, my manager supported me whole-heartedly, and as we've worked together over the years, this story always seems to come up.
This letter also might be framed in my office…
