1. Gen Z women were swiping left on Tinder

Tinder had come to represent a transactional hookup app that Gen-Z women were leaving behind, leading to its first ever decline throughout each quarter of 2022.

2. Our competitors fueled the hookup stigma

Hinge was “Designed to be Deleted,” inferring Tinder wasn’t a place to find long-term love.

Bumble encouraged women to “Make the First Move,” alluding that Tinder wasn’t safe for women.

3. Tinder needed to reintroduce itself

We needed to pivot the belief that Tinder was only for hookups, and reintroduce ourselves to Gen-Z women.

• Brief

How can we reframe the act of swiping on Tinder from an act of lust, to an act of hope?

• Objectives

1. Increase revenue by 3% in Q2 2023.

2. Increase brand consideration by 2pts.

3. Increase the perception that “Tinder is for all kinds of relationships” by 5pts (baseline 31%)

IT STARTS WITH A SWIPE

Tinder’s first-ever global campaign, titled “It Starts With A Swipe,” highlights and celebrates the infinite possibilities that might come from just a single swipe on Tinder.

Each piece of creative represents a different relationship milestone for today’s Gen Z daters—from doing nothing together to getting lost in conversation to straight up realizing you’re not dead inside.

The diverse range of couples and types of relationships shown in the ten films and 23 out of home ads drives home the fact that Tinder is the catalyst of so many different types of connections.

We needed to learn, if not hookups, what do they want?

We first interrogated what they wanted from dating. Every article on the subject is contradictory. Some say they don’t want casual sex. Others say it’s all they want.

Key observation: They were open to hookups, but wanted hope that it would lead somewhere more meaningful.

They craved chance connections, the feeling of meeting someone and not knowing where it would lead, with the hope that it might go somewhere magical - rather than stopping at a hookup

Our strategy: Tinder stacks the deck in serendipity’s favor. Changing a single swipe on Tinder from an act of lust, to an act of hope.

TINDER’S BRAND CAMPAIGN EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS

Bernard King, Tinder CEO, at the recent MatchGroup Shareholders speech, seems to agree:

“Our new It Starts with a Swipe marketing campaign is delivering, most importantly, by increasing overall new user sign-ups and reactivations at Tinder and is having an impressive impact on our brand consideration and intent.”

But how did we do based on brand metrics?

1. WE RETURNED TINDER TO REVENUE GROWTH

We exceeded our revenue goal of 3% in Q2 2023 by having a 5.7% quarter of growth. Seeing the largest revenue quarter in the brand’s history.

2. WE FLIPPED GEN-Z PERCEPTIONS

The campaign exceeded all brand metric predictions:

Brand consideration rose 16pts, 800% over the objective

And “Is a brand for all kinds of relationships” rose by 17pts to 48%

Tinder shifted Gen Z women’s global perceptions from being that of a dire hookup app, to a place of hopefulness.