Valentine's Day gift goes up in smoke

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a pie-in-the-sky Valentine's Day stunt.

Or perhaps, it's the Valentine's Day gift for the person who has everything there is — on the ground. On Thursday, MasterCard will announce plans to link-up with the hot ride app, Uber, which becomes UberSky for the day. They will give away free, on-demand sky writing to up two dozen MasterCard customers on Valentine's Day.

Okay, it's not like Justin Timberlake showing up at your front door for an impromptu jam session — another surprise stunt that MasterCard concocted last month — but it's buzz-worthy, which is the marketing magnet behind it. On a day when most Americans will settle for candy, flowers or perfume, skywriting's got to be a head-turner.

Folks can order-up skywriting messages such as "I LOVE YOU" or 'BE MINE" for Valentine's Day — and MasterCard will take care of the $10,000 or so skywriting bill through a social-media giveaway. Consumers living in four major cities are in the running: New York; Los Angeles; Dallas; and San Diego.

Fast as a Domino's pizza delivery, the brand promises to post the message in the sky within a half hour of the request — weather permitting. It's all about the credit card giant trying to pump new life into its "Priceless" campaign by adding the element of what it calls priceless surprises.

For MasterCard — and for all major brands looking for the eyes and ears of Millennials — the Holy Grail is social-media buzz. By linking up with a Valentine's Day skywriting promo, MasterCard hopes to attract just that. Cardholders who use the hashtag #PricelessSurprises on Twitter on Feb. 14 will be randomly selected for the chance to deliver a personal sky-written message to a loved one.

"It's all about novelty," says Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing officer at MasterCard. "It's about getting consumers to engage with our brand."

One brand guru says the promo could have wings. "The 'Priceless' brand idea lends itself wel! l to using social media," says Allen Adamson, managing director at Landor Associates. "If the winners each have 1,000 followers, it will be $10,000 well spent."

But there is a limit on the number of sky characters: 12.

There's a reason for that — and it's not just price. It takes about two minutes for the aircraft to create each letter. Shortly after 12 characters are made, the first character may begin to dissipate. (Messages last for 30 minutes.)

AirSign, the company posting the messages-in-the-sky on Friday, will have 15 planes up in the air, says CEO Patrick Walsh.

If your V-Day sweetie is an environmentalist, not to worry. A special smoke oil is injected into an exhaust nozzle on the aircraft, which creates the smoke. It's environmentally friendly because it's completely burnt, says Walsh, and even certified by the EPA.