Unlike last February, when the UK was in lockdown, this year UK adults are able to celebrate Valentine’s Day unrestricted.
Throughout the year, we understand how people are feeling on a monthly basis, we focus in on different topics by month depending on what is important to the general public.
For February, we spoke to over 1,000 people to understand their emotions and what plans they have for the month ahead, with a focus on Valentine’s Day.
The February paper brings you an understanding of what the general mood of the nation is in the United Kingdom and how the UK feels about Valentine’s Day, how they will be spending and thier plans to celebrate.
How is the UK is feeling about February?
When we conducted our nationally representative survey in January there was a lot going on in the UK. The UK describes their feelings towards the month of February as ‘Optimistic’, ‘Excited’ and ‘Hopeful’. For February this year, UK adults are feeing happier compared to last year, and using our response analysis, 39% of our sample reported a positive emotion for February 2022 compared to 29% last year.
Through the Spark Emotional Wheel, which is our bespoke tool that helps us quantify emotions, we have found the mood of the UK public has improved compared to February last year. They are feeling ‘Amused’ whereas last year UK adults felt just ‘satisfied’. All scores of Happiness, Excitement and Control have all increased as we head towards Valentine’s Day and spring.
Will the UK spend more for Valentine’s Day this year?
This year over half of UK adults (52%) will celebrate Valentine’s Day and they will plan to spend more on the event than last year. Of those spending more, 1 in 5 will do so because they want to do more out of lockdown. On average, men will plan to spend £81 on the day (£45 in 2021) and women plan to spend £33 (£23 in 2021).
How will the UK shop for Valentines Day in 2022?
Men and younger generations are more likely to shop for Valentine’s Day online, and those spending online are likely to have larger budgets for gifts compared to those purchasing Valentines gifts instore. Online shopping facilitates sensitive purchases (especially for Valentine’s Day) that maybe be a little too embarrassing for some shoppers to make in person (lingerie etc), perhaps something physical stores should consider when promoting Valentine’s products.
In Summary
Valentine’s Day is looking to be very different compared to last year. With no restrictions, the UK is looking to spend more and make the most of the event. Those who are casually dating are more likely to spend to impress, so appealing to this group will help find incremental growth.
To find out more about how the UK is feeling in February, either click here or the image below to download the full report and sign up to recieve the Mood of the Nation on an ongoing basis.
How can Spark Emotions help?
Optimising trading events is crucial for driving incremental growth throughout the year. The team at Spark Emotions are pioneers of growing trading events, delivering double digit growth in 90% of the events we have worked on.
To find out how we can help you sell more during these key events, get in touch by entering your details below.
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Written by Tara Moran, Research Executive at Spark Emotions.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Tara via email tara.moran@sparkemotions.com or connect on LinkedIn
