Once upon a time it was a friend or a cousin who would play the role of cupid in our lives, cut to now – it’s the likes of Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, Aisle, among others, who have replaced them. Yet, when it comes to building a strong narrative through advertising these apps seem to have failed to strike a chord among consumers. “These brands have indulged into a marketing style which echoes the thought that some are better than nothing. Two decades ago, insurance companies had the same problem. Companies need to work on building trust and relationships. Strategy is apt but the campaigns are not right, some insight needs to be added there,” Amer Jaleel, former group CCO and chairman, Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, told BrandWagon Online.
Industry experts opine that even if these brands haven’t been able to build any kind of consumer loyalty through story-telling. For instance, the latest campaign of tinder, called ‘A swipe is just the beginning, you up?’ majorly focuses on its feature of swiping right or left. In the ad film, it can be seen that the protagonist swipes right or left As per the company, this shows the endless possibilities to explore her individuality with new experiences. This campaign was curated and conceptualized by Lowe Lintas in December 2022. For Abhijit Avasti, founder, Sideways Consulting, while there is no story being told in these campaigns these apps are honest in their narratives. “These are casual dating apps and not exactly matrimony, sites or platforms. So they are pushing the agenda of meeting up with people you would want to hang out with and date and they just sort of, in their own ways, putting it out there, which is, you know, just go ahead and find someone who you will like hanging out with,” he explained.
Meanwhile its competitor Bumble’s campaign focuses on how you can find your date in the same city. This city specific campaign of Bumble has been going on for three months now. As for Aisle it’s narrative focuses on long term relations. As per the dating app, it is important for anyone choosing a long-term relationship to take their time and get to know their potential partners before jumping into the possibilities of a future together. “There is a product which you can actually feel and touch and consume, but here is a product which is intangible. This can’t be measured with quantitative figure, it is the experience that you get. At the end of the day, there are five-six brands today which will give you the same kind of experience based on the algorithm which is the same. However, the brands need to have a point of view, which many work for some and may not for few,”Rahul Dutta, creative director, DDB Mudra, noted.