.webp)
Marketing platform Jacquard has published research suggesting Valentine's campaigns perform better when brands focus on a person rather than the calendar event. In email subject lines, "Valentine" outperformed "Valentine's" by 22%.
The findings are based on an analysis of more than 61,000 promotional subject lines sent by major retailers during the Valentine's period over the past decade. The dataset covers messages sent from mid-January to mid-February each year and compares engagement across wording choices.
Jacquard also launched a consumer-facing AI tool for the season. It analyses dating app profiles-including bios and prompts-and generates language suggestions aimed at improving "right swipes", using the same linguistic optimisation approach it sells to retailers.
The research is positioned as a guide for brands planning seasonal campaigns in a crowded promotional environment. In the US, Valentine's was a USD $25.8 billion holiday in 2024, based on figures cited by Jacquard, with spending projected to reach USD $27.5 billion in 2025.
Person, not holiday
The strongest theme in the analysis is that subject lines framed around an individual or relationship outperform those framed around "Valentine's Day" as an event. "Valentine" used in a personal sense delivered a 10.8% uplift. By contrast, "Valentine's", referring to the holiday, was associated with an 11.1% drop.
Phrasing such as "your Valentine" or "be a Valentine" outperformed variants like "Valentine's Day sale" or "Valentine's gifts", according to the report.
"Consumers are overwhelmed by transactional Valentine's Day messaging on a day that's meant to be all about genuine affection. The data shows that when brands shift focus from the calendar event to the human relationship, engagement improves dramatically. It's the difference between 'Valentine's Day Sale' and 'For Your Valentine'-one feels like a retail obligation, the other feels personal. One makes you think of a day in the calendar, and the other calls to mind a specific loved one. Even the smallest choices can make a real impact during such an important time of year for retailers," said Toby Coulthard, Jacquard's chief product officer.
Generic romance fades
The research also suggests familiar romantic wording has become less effective in retail marketing. Terms such as "love" and "heart" are heavily used in February campaigns, and that overuse correlates with weaker performance.
Across the dataset, "love" reduced performance by 6.6% and "heart" reduced engagement by 15.6%. "Sweet" showed a 14.3% decline. By contrast, "adore" delivered a 16.9% uplift and "romantic" drove an 11.7% increase.
"Every brand defaults to 'love' and 'heart' around Valentine's Day, which creates a sea of sameness in the inbox-all too familiar to consumers inundated with the cliché-ridden, generic language of standard LLMs. More specific, elevated emotional language-words like 'adore' or 'romantic'-feels more intentional and less generic. The data shows that specificity, and a focus on making the language stand out, wins over generic sentiment every time," said Coulthard.
Inclusive language
The analysis also points to the growing relevance of Galentine's Day and gifting beyond romantic couples. Jacquard cited a statistic that 25% of consumers planned to celebrate Galentine's Day in 2025. In the email dataset, "friend" produced a 10.9% uplift, while "partner" was associated with a 4.1% decline.
"The rise of Galentine's Day has fundamentally changed Valentine's marketing. Brands that exclusively target romantic couples are missing a significant opportunity. 'Friend' language not only captures the Galentine's audience but also performs better overall because it feels more inclusive and less presumptuous. Not everyone celebrating Valentine's Day is in a romantic relationship, and the data reflects that reality," said Coulthard.
Shipping stands out
Practical terms performed strongly. "Shipping" delivered a 28.3% uplift, the highest-performing word in the dataset. "Offer" showed a 6.9% increase and "free" a 6.7% uplift.
Some common sales language underperformed. "Shop" drove a 21.3% decline, "save" reduced engagement by 10.3%, and "limited" drove performance down 18.8%.
"Consumers don't want to be commanded to 'shop' or told to 'save' during Valentine's-they want practical information that helps them execute their purchase decision. 'Shipping' is the single strongest performer because it answers the critical question: will this arrive in time? Similarly, artificial scarcity tactics like 'limited' backfire during Valentine's because consumers can see through manufactured urgency. Genuine helpfulness outperforms sales pressure," said Coulthard.
Performance was measured using "normalised engagement scores across multiple tests". Jacquard described the results as both a historical view of what has worked and an indication of the patterns it expects to shape seasonal messaging.
Alongside the retail insights, Jacquard is promoting its Valentine's consumer tool as an example of how the same linguistic approach can extend beyond shopping messages to personal profiles, as brands and platforms continue to experiment with AI-generated and AI-optimised text.