Is Valentine's Day All About the Chocolate?

But add some bacon. Google reports that, while simple searches for “chocolate” ruled this week, more specific searches are trending: In the past 30 days, search volume for “white chocolate” beat “dark chocolate” and “milk chocolate” by 37 percent and 35 percent, respectively, while searches for “chocolate bacon cookies” are up over 7 percent year over year.

Of course, Valentine’s Day is a no-brainer for Godiva. This year, the company has multiple objectives for its big push, handled by MediaCom. First, it aims to drive entries for its “Share the Love” sweepstakes on its Facebook page. After providing contact information, contestants enter by uploading a photo of themselves and their Valentines for a chance to win Godiva chocolate for themselves and up to 500 of their closest Facebook fans.

MediaCom is promoting the sweepstakes with Facebook media in social gaming environments. It used the MediaBrix SocialFlex advertising unit that integrates with games and apps.

Next, Godiva wants to increase product consideration by using Facebook media targeting men to send them directly to Godiva.com.

Finally, the chocolatier began nudging men last week with its first mobile campaign on the Millennial Media platform. MediaCom used geo-fencing to deliver mobile ads to men when they were near a retail store. Men who made positive mention of Godiva or Valentine’s Day on social media also got an ad. The final phase of the campaign includes ads on elevator screens.

While many think Valentine’s Day translates to “her day,” the men may make out better than usual this year — at least the single ones. Searches for “gifts for boyfriend” are outpacing searches for “gifts for girlfriend” by more than 240 percent on Google. But searches for “gifts for boyfriend” were more than 292 percent higher than searches for “gifts for husband” over the last 30 days, Google said. Meanwhile, “gifts for husband” was searched on only 39 percent as often as “gifts for wife.” (Marriage changes everything.)

And then, there’s the haters. For the unromantic, the broken hearted and the snarky, Virgin Mobile has you covered.

Virgin Mobile designated February 13 as National Breakup Day, with a YouTube video called “30 Breakups in 60 Seconds” that asks people, “What’s the best break up line?” It ties into a promotion that encourages mobile users to break up with their current provider and let Virgin Mobile pay the fee for breaking the contract.

The video appears as item 16 in a branded story on BuzzFeed, 16 Reasons Breaking Up Is The Right Thing To Do, and it’s also posted on the Virgin MobileLive Facebook page.

The Breakups video is part of a year-long advertising partnership between Virgin Mobile and BuzzFeed. Says Ron Faris, head of brand marketing for Virgin Mobile USA, “It’s less about the number of friends you have on Facebook and more on the number of content pieces shared. The single most important lesson I’ve learned is the difference between what’s funny and what’s shareable.”

After all, you can only share a piece of chocolate once.