The online dating app category is more cluttered than ever. Not only are major global players diversifying their offering and spending more, new apps like ‘Thursday’ in the UK and Fruitz in France are entering the market with localised activations. Coupled with fatigue at the process of dating online, women in particular want to feel that time invested in dates is time well spent. Better connections, a sense of safety throughout the process and empowerment are key to the success in this space, and Bumble is uniquely placed to help women on this journey.

Bumble is women-first, built on the belief that when dating is better for women, it’s better for everyone. We help women achieve the outcomes they’re looking for, whilst taking the pressure off so that they can feel good and stay true to themselves, making dating more enjoyable and fulfilling as a result.

The challenge is cutting through the noise of the category and also diversifying growth audiences for continued growth of the brand. In Q4 2022, Bumble launched the second generation of their global Brand Anthem campaign – a campaign dedicated to bringing the brand ethos to the forefront and reminding women of the excitement dating can have when you have successful matches – flipping the negativity in the category and focusing on empowering action.

Whilst previous comms focused on Millennial women, this campaign expanded comms to include Gen Z women – a cohort craving authenticity, and requiring a bespoke approach. The campaign was activated across EMEA (UKI, DE, AT, CH, FR, NL, ES, Israel) and APAC (ANZ), further requiring localised comms to ensure relevance and to create impact against local players in the category. Finally, seeding this messaging with a clever media strategy built against audiences was critical to maximise our limited budgets.

Bumble are uniquely placed to tackle dating inertia and celebrate meaningful connections via their empowered dating proposition and their commitment to creating long term relationships versus short term hook ups. The creative concept, ‘Find that Feeling,’ re-ignites that burst of excitement, chemistry, and hope for the future we can all relate to in the dating game. A feeling which can only be attributed to the possibility of a new love interest.

The hero video asset shows the story of a new match on Bumble, discovering shared interests and lifestyles and closes with the pair sharing a kiss. The concept highlights the importance of asking questions and being open and honest to create a meaningful & long-term connection, with Bumble as the facilitator. The creative platform positions Bumble as the catalyst for deep connections by showing how a link on Bumble immediately puts your two worlds in sync, whilst other dating sites might not match you with the right person, this can change when you date on Bumble.

Brand, creative and media worked in sync upfront on the campaign to identify core media channels for our audiences, ideal ad formats and content requirements. Assets included regional and localised variations for all markets, Gen Z specific variations, millennial assets across various diverse relationship types, and consideration driving asset to retarget consumers who had previously engaged with the campaign.
We used a combination of long and short form video assets built for platform, ranging from a 30” hero film to 15” and 6” cut downs for Tik Tok.

Our audio campaign ‘from interest badges to profile prompts’ included audio everywhere and video takeovers on Spotify as well as bespoke podcast host reads via female focussed, relationship focussed shows like Nailing It and The Receipts.