For Valentine’s Day, DoorDash promoted the idea that flowers are for everyone, including men.

We teased the campaign on social media, asking a sampling of men if they’ve ever received flowers before.

To normalize the idea of giving men flowers, we partnered with female influencers who gave flowers to the special men in their lives (boyfriend, dad, brother, etc).

To further reach in culture, we partnered with the Golden State Warriors NBA team–gifting flowers to each team member. The league shared videos of the players receiving flowers on social channels. And in-game coverage on NBC further amplified the idea.

In the United States, as in most of the world, giving flowers to another person is an inherently gendered act. While men often give flowers to others, they seldom receive them. DoorDash’s brand platform “Your Door to More” positions DoorDash as more than just a delivery service: it’s your trusted assistant to help navigate the complexities of modern life. So we thought Valentine’s Day would be the perfect moment to create a more inclusive modern tradition that empowers women, men, and non-binary people to give flowers to everyone, including a segment of the population that rarely gets them: men.

In 2022, DoorDash launched flower purchases in-app for Valentine’s Day and doubled their sales in 2023 by creating the Self-Love Bouquet–a bouquet of 11 roses and 1 The Rose ™ vibrator–to talk about celebrating singlehood with self-pleasure. Now, DoorDash needed another culture-breaking idea that could appeal to everyone and showcase how DoorDash is the door to more ways to celebrate love.

The goal was simple, to compete with 1-800Flowers and grow DoorDash’s business, the idea needed to appeal to more audiences, and specifically speak to men who are big purchasers, and high spenders, of Valentine’s Day gifts.

Objectives:

Drive a 24% lift in sales for flowers.

Drive a 20% increase in flower deliveries.

Drive 50k new first-time customers.

Garner 5M social impressions.

Because flowers have historically been associated with femininity, most men are never given flowers in their lifetime. In fact, men often get flowers for the first time at their funerals. But the majority of men say they would actually like to get flowers.

We grounded the conversation in destigmatizing flower-giving by encouraging people to give flowers to men before their funerals.

DoorDash sold flowers to a new demographic - any person who’s never bought flowers for a man before. We encouraged customers to break age-old stereotypes and normalize a new tradition: gifting flowers to men as a sign of love and appreciation on Valentine’s Day.

DoorDash wanted to connect with Millennial men–high Valentine’s Day spenders–while also appealing to Millennial women and Gen Zers.

The target audience became our insight when looking at Valentine’s Day behaviors.

For Valentine’s Day, it is hyper-traditional that men are expected to buy the women in their lives some flowers–an archaic standard.

If DoorDash had empowered women with something culturally taboo in 2023, what impact could be made for men?

On social, a trend had appeared of gifting random men on the streets a flower. The videos noted that most men don’t receive flowers, at least not until their funerals. That’s too late. Plus, 61% of men say they would actually like to get flowers (Society of American Florists).

DoorDash could change this, after all, flowers are for everyone. Instead of only asking men to buy flowers, DoorDash could tell everyone to also buy flowers for the men in their lives.

On February 1, DoorDash dropped a teaser video on social asking a random sampling of men if they’ve ever received flowers before (of course most of them said no!)

We followed up a week later with a music video featuring old men–who are no longer living–singing about how they wish they got flowers while they were alive because flowers are for everyone.

Flowers were available for purchase on DoorDash, with a 20% discount promo code if purchased on DashMart from February 9-15.

To seed the behavior right before Valentine’s Day, we partnered with female influencers to spread the word that buying flowers for men is a beautiful way to express love for Valentine’s Day.

On the evening of Valentine’s Day, we surprised each of the Golden State Warriors basketball players with flowers, and further amplified the message that flowers are for everyone during in-game coverage on NBC.

DoorDash didn’t just achieve its goal to lift flower sales by 24% from the 2023 Valentine’s Day campaign, Bouquets for Living Men drove a 31% increase in sales, performing 110% to the campaign’s goal.

DoorDash delivered 346k bouquets for Valentine’s Day, a 48% increase in deliveries from the year before. These deliveries were fueled by bouquet purchases from new first-time customers for DoorDash. Bouquets for Living Men successfully brought in 136k new first-time customers, performing 172% to plan.

It wasn’t enough to drive orders and sales though. DoorDash wanted to make sure that people knew that anyone could be a recipient of a Valentine’s Day bouquet, especially men. Within two weeks, DoorDash garnered more than 11M social impressions, more than 2X the campaign goal.

The insight that men don't get flowers until their funeral could be taken in a somber and serious direction. But we wanted the campaign to be hopeful and inspire change on Valentine’s Day, so we avoided undertones of gloom and sadness.

Instead, we infused levity into the idea via its execution: bringing dead men to life, singing a cheerful song about how they love flowers and wish they got them during their lifetime.

When our female influencer partners surprised their boyfriends, fathers, brothers, and husbands with flowers, their reactions were genuine and positive. The NBA basketball players were also delighted to receive flowers. The humor of the campaign helped propel a positive message instead of sad one.