The 12th rose wasn't a flower / DoorDash "Self-Love Bouquet"

The problem

Valentine's Day flower delivery is a brutal battleground. DoorDash had been in it since 2022, but mostly just building awareness. On top of that, one in four women in America spends Valentine's Day alone. Traditional advertising only ever looked at couples. Half of DoorDash's users are women. That's where the opportunity was.

The insight

"Loving yourself" gets talked about all the time, but on Valentine's Day it's always been a side note. 72% of American adults consider sexual self-pleasure a form of therapy, yet women's self-pleasure is still treated as taboo. Around the same time, Miley Cyrus's "I can buy myself flowers" was playing everywhere. The cultural moment was ready.

The idea

A bouquet of eleven real roses with one "Rose™" mixed in. Sold only through the DoorDash app, only in a few cities, only to people 18 and over. In LA and Miami, they also set up a "Pickable Billboard" — a wall covered in real roses that people could take home. The whole thing was designed to tell single women they're allowed to enjoy Valentine's Day on their own terms.

What happened

The bouquets sold out in three days. Flower orders doubled compared to the year before, and sales at local flower shops more than doubled too. It won the Grand Prix in PR at Cannes Lions in 2023 — DoorDash's first-ever Grand Prix.

Afterthought

Instead of treating the taboo as something to avoid, they tucked it right into a bouquet and delivered it. And that one move doubled sales and won an award to boot. It's not just a nice story — the numbers back it up. When you can pull that off, winning the Grand Prix isn't luck, it's inevitable. Here's to buying yourself roses — the 12th one included.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2023

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