Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to show your loved one just how much they mean to you. You might send them flowers, buy expensive chocolates, or just stick a cheesy card…but would you take them to a Valentine’s Day event?

Meanwhile for those not in a relationship, Valentine’s Day has become a great reason for companies to attract singles to various events, with the ‘promise’ (or at least the possibility) of finding love.

But how many people, both in a relationship or single, go to a Valentine’s Day themed event? Why do some people go to these events, and others don’t?

To find out, We asked a 1000 people about their behaviour on Valentines Day last year, including whether or not they went to an event, what motivated them to go (or not) and how organisers could do a better job of getting them to attend.

If you’re hosting a Valentines themed event, this is a must-read!

Key points to take away:

• 20% of people we asked attend a Valentine’s event last year
• The most popular category of event was Food & Drink (36%)
• 73% of people that went to a Valentine’s event last year were either married, living with a partner or in a relationship
• 52% of those that attended an event said the reason they attended was because it was a date
• Out of the 52% above, 80% were non-singles

So we started off by asking if they’d been to a Valentines Day event in 2015. The result?

19.02% said yes 

80.98% said no

That’s a whole lot of people (and unsold tickets) that aren’t going to these type of events. It also presents a big opportunity for organisers to recapture the hearts and minds of new attendees in 2016.

Let’s break the results down further and see just who is and isn’t going to Valentine’s events and what organisers can do to woo people there.

The Yes People

Whilst the number of people that said they did attend a Valentine’s Day event last year is low, it’s interesting to see what type of event they went to and why.

People were given the option of describing the event they attended in as many categories as relevant. Below is the breakdown of the types of events people attended in order of popularity.

It’s clear from these results that Food & Drink is a winner for getting people to Valentine’s events, with 36% to attendees telling us they attended that kind of event.

(This isn’t too surprising, given how popular food & drinks events are, a growing trend within events highlighted in a previous report).

Breaking this down further, let’s look at how the relationship status effected the results. Out of the 190 people that went to an event, their relationship status shows as follows: 

If we categorise this into two categories: Single & Not Single, we see that 73% of people that attended an event were in a relationship, and 27% were single.

This would suggest that organisers should concentrate on attracting couples, over those that are single, as those in a relationship are more likely to attend a Valentine’s Day event.

Why did they attend a Valentine’s Day event?

We’ve established that most attendees were in a relationship, but why did people attend the event in the first place? Not just those in a relationship, but all those asked. Here are the results:

Over half the people (52%) had said the reason they went to a Valentine’s Day event was because it was a date.

80% of the people who answered ‘it was a date’ were in the non-single categories, with just 20% being single.

Combining this information with our previous findings, it’s clear that couples are predominantly  going to Valentine’s Day events, and the reason for this is because they are going on dates.

This means organisers looking to create a Valentine’s Day event need to focus their events to suit couples looking to take their significant other out on a date.

What you can do with this information:

• Create a food & drink event, or at least make food & drink an important element of your event
• Aim your event at couples,  or make it as couple friendly as possible
• Make sure your event is a great date destination

The No People

We’ve found out who attends the events and why, but what about the majority of people that said they didn’t attend an event? Why didn’t they and what would change their mind?

Key points to take away:

• 27% of people that didn’t attend an event said they didn’t because they would rather stay in
• Followed closely by 26% of people that didn’t attend an event said they didn’t because they think Valentine’s events are too cheesy
• The main reason for Singles not going to an event was due to the cost of the ticket (35%) followed by having no one to go with (19%)
• The main reason for Non-Singles not going to an event was due to them finding Valentine’s events too cheesy (23%)
• 22% of people who didn’t attend a Valentine’s Day event last year would this year if it was more original
• Followed closely by 20% who would if their friends were going

Out of the 809 people that didn’t go to a Valentine’s themed event, the reasons for not going were as follows:

27% said they would rather stay in followed closely by 26% of people saying they thought Valentine’s events were too cheesy.

This could mean that a majority of those that said no, just have no interest in attending a Valentine’s day event. However, if we combine this with the ‘too cheesy’ group, we could say that people could very well be staying in due to the ‘cheesy nature’ of Valentine’s Day events.

Let’s break down the results further again by looking at people’s relationship status:

Breaking this up into the Singles and Non-Singles categories:

Those that fall into the single category answered the reason they didn’t go to a Valentine’s Day event as follows:

We see the cost of ticket is one of the biggest reason why singles aren’t going to Valentine’s Day events. Followed by the issue of not having anyone to go with.

Lets now take a look at the results from those in the non-single category:

In these results we can see that people in a relationship are much less price sensitive than singles, with the cost of tickets being the second lowest factor in them not attending a Valentine’s event.

However the perception of ‘love themed’ events as cheesy is clearly a big branding issue, and a big ‘no no’ for couples look to have a nice, sophisticated evening together. Coupled with the other perception that Valentine’s events are all about matchmaking for singles, and we see a lot of work needs to be done in re-positioning them as couple friendly and non-cheesy.

What would make people attend a future Valentine’s event?

There is still hope for future Valentine’s Day event organisers! We asked those that didn’t attend an event last year, what would make them go to an event this year. The results are as follows:

With the majority of people (22%) saying they would attend a Valentine’s Day event if they thought it was something original (and we assume, non-cheesy), it shows there needs to be a change in how event organisers organise these types of events.

Whilst it’s easy to follow a formula, it seems potential attendees aren’t receptive to the norm, and are looking at events that are alternative and different to others. So get your thinking caps on and brainstorm some unique and original ideas!

After originality of the event, 20% of people said they would go to a future Valentine’s event if their friends were going. So here’s a top tip – make sure you turn on all the social features on your Eventbrite page – including the ‘See who’s going’ feature – so it’s easy for potential attendees to check if their friends or extended social network will also be attending (and invite them if not!)

What you can do with this information:

• Create an event that moves away from cheesy Valentine’s Day event formulas to attract both Singles and Non-Singles.
• Attract Singles with special pricing offers that offer group discounts, for example 2 for tickets.
• Create FOMO; if someone knows their friends are going, you’ll get them to go too. Create social media campaigns to encourage this.

Summary

There are many reasons why people are attending Valentines Day events, and many reasons why people are not.

From the Yes People, you can see exactly who attends Valentines Day events and what attracted them to them in the first place. Take a look at what your event is doing and what you could add, change,  or take out to make sure you’re catering for this group of people.

From the No People, we see the reasons that stop people from going to Valentines Day events. Look at ways you could attract this group of people, considering the important things, such as price and originality of the event, and figure out how you can attract the No People by making changes to your event.

Click here to download our eBook covering the key findings from our report.