Valentine’s Day. The biggest date of the year for eHarmony. The day the nation talks, thinks and plans all things romance.

History had shown it was a crucial period to drive subscriptions. For the online dating category, Valentine’s Day had become the direct response battle of the year with a premium to compete and drive as many sign ups as possible.

The problem for eHarmony? The cost to compete had continued to increase, yet since 2014 there had been a trending decline in subscription numbers and share of voice, due to the free apps, like Tinder and Bumble disrupting the market.

eHarmony couldn’t risk another Valentine’s Day passing them by and missing an opportunity to reclaim their audience’s attention.

Our objectives were clear:

• Reverse the trend and increase subscription numbers

• Own online conversations to drive share of voice

• Create an emotional connection to increase positive brand affinity

We were confident that our content would create an emotional connection with our audience and deliver strong social engagement. Our paid strategy, however, had an integral job of increasing subscription numbers. To do this we had to reach singles, encouraging them that eHarmony was the online dating destination for them.

Two weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, our content was amplified across YouTube, Twitter and leading Australian websites via Outbrain. We leveraged Facebook to reach singles within eHarmony’s target audience of 25-44 and re-targeted those that had viewed the content with a follow up to send a card.

To extend the campaign offline, the kids handmade cards were turned into post cards and distributed at social environments all over Australia.

To maximise share of voice on Valentine’s Day, we asked Twitter users to submit their last-minute dating dilemmas with our little love ambassadors then directly responded with personalised video advice.