• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, February 14, 2023

Nearly half of the world's consumers last year said they were unlikely to celebrate Valentine's Day because it came across as too commercial and heavily marketed. The second most common reason not to celebrate Saint Valentine's Day is that more than one-third of survey respondents worldwide said it simply was not part of their culture.

Did the data published by Statista Research Department last year have an influence on Semrush’s decision to create a lighthearted Valentine’s Day ad campaign — Marketers In Love?

The series of five entertaining 45-second videos highlight the company’s products and services using the holiday as a tipping point to market its services. The videos highlight products such as SEO Writing Assistant, Topic Research, Audience Intelligence App, Social Media Tracker, and EyeOn.

The ads were written by Semrush’s creative team. The group also worked with creative studio Comedy for the Internet to produce them. The ads will be featured across YouTube, social media platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tinder.

The idea, per Semrush, is to make the "audience fall in love with your brand time and time again." Semrush is a company focused on online visibility to help brands rank higher in search, so landing the top spot in love resonated with the agency on Valentine's Day.

This is not the first Semrush Valentine's Day-themed campaign. Years ago the company ran a campaign called Marketing Actually. This campaign also debuted humorous stories about how technology can help people in their personal lives.

Five years later, the company decided to do a remake of the original campaign.

Since I’m in Southern California this week, I found the story of Layne, the owner of a surfboard rental shop, interesting to share. 

“Last week, my boy Shane said, dude, you really need to meet someone,” Layne said. “And I feel that because crushing waves is sick and all, but you know what’s even more rad, forming connections. So now I have a date with Lucy from Pottery class. She studies philosophy and digs deep thinkers, man.”

Layne began using Semrush Topic Research so he could study the most important elements of philosophy. “And bro,” he said, “the topics are so legit that I have a whole date of real talk.”

The ads highlight a diverse combination of preferences and ideas about love to attract all types of people.