James Blunt has managed to perfectly reinvent himself for social media – going from “that posh chap who sang ‘You’re Beautiful’” to “that posh chap who sang ‘You’re Beautiful’ but can endlessly mock himself and pull the rug from under the feet of trolls”. In many ways, he was Lewis Capaldi before Lewis Capaldi was Lewis Capaldi.

So when he decided to create Valentine’s Day audio e-cards last week, it was obvious they were not going to be sickly sweet: they are, instead, heavy on the self-effacing. Designed like playing cards, they feature a “j” for James in the top left corner (no doubt to echo the joker in a deck of cards) and “b” in the bottom right for Blunt, with the singer’s face in the middle surrounded by roses.

When sent to a sweetheart, they click on the card and it flips to reveal a print message as well as an audio message from Blunt himself. These include: “I would say ‘You’re Beautiful’ but I’ve used that line before”; “Are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only ten I see”; “Happy Valentine’s Day to my single friend. Don’t worry, James Blunt thinks you’re beautiful”; and “I think you’re suffering from a lack of Vitamin Me”.

Atlantic UK commissioned Warner Music Group’s Firepit Technology team to create the Once Upon A Valentines activation. (Don’t look for it as the valentines.jamesblunt.com domain has now been deactivated.) It was there in part to push his most recent album from October, Once Upon A Mind (hence the Once Upon A Valentines title), but was primarily a way to get people to sign up to his mailing list (which they’d have to do to be able to send a card).

A decade ago, Blunt’s album would have been racked with a variety of Greatest Love Album Ever-style compilations on the shelves of supermarkets to give it another push, but those days are pretty much gone. Now it’s about taking your social media brand and making the marketing opportunity bend to it rather than the other way around.