Valentine fun…

Here at Retail Insider we are always interested in the ways retailers get the most out of our seasonal celebrations – and none is more interesting than Valentine’s Day which has been twisted round more tenuous tie-ins than most other annual festivities.

If you had told us yesterday that cook in the pot noodles could squeeze sales out of February 14th we would have laughed but top of our picks today is the rather wonderful ‘Send Noods Not Nudes’ campaign by student stalwart Pot Noodle in conjunction with Deliveroo.

Pot Noodle does it again

Today in Leeds and London while stocks lasted, Deliveroo users could order a special one off box of their favourite Pot Noodle flavour to be delivered for £1 to their secret Valentine because, as we all know, nothing at all says I love you like a Pot Noodle.

The foundation behind this genius plan was research done by the company which surveyed 2,000 Gen Z ers on their love lives. Nearly a quarter of them said that they did not have time to get a present so would rather send a nude pic of themselves to their date. Surprisingly around three quarters of those same people also said that they did not really want to receive a nude pic as a Valentine’s present so Pot Noodle then stepped in to save the moral fibre of the nation.

Sadly when Retail Insider tried to order a Bombay Bad Boy kit we were told that they did not deliver to our area but Pot Noodle, we salute your retail nous.

In a close second place, although not strictly a retail opportunity we also love the Twitter pop up in Covent Garden – a concept which could very easily be turned into a shop in our opinion. Running from 13-16 February the Dating Twitter Advice Bureau is a proper Valentine’s celebration for the smart phone generation – full of awkwardness, celebrations of failure, and humour.

The Ghosting Graveyard at Twitter’s pop up

According to the company visitors to the free Covent Garden pop up can expect to hone their dating skills through only slightly “educational and entirely uninformative installations” including the ghosting graveyard, the gallery of awkward silences, the wheel of misfortune, the giant swipe simulator and this display of rubbish Valentine’s gifts taken from real tweets.

What’s not to love?