Gay Dating App Archer Launches New Campaign as Userbase Grows
Contributed by: kellyseal on Wednesday, July 17 2024 @ 12:50 pm
Last modified on Wednesday, July 17 2024 @ 01:19 pm
Archer rolled out a new marketing campaign during Pride Month, focusing on the issue of unsolicited photos on dating apps and what the company is doing to address it.
The new campaign tagline is “Solicited D*cks” – and the company has a little fun promoting the benefits of consent, as well as Archer’s safety features. It will include cheeky phrases like “Do we use a dick filter? Yes, yes we do.” and “Working tirelessly to weed out the dicks you don’t want from the ones you do.”
According to Little Black Book[*1] , Archer launched the ad in partnership with ad agency Tombras. It will run on billboards across New York neighborhoods, including Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, and Williamsburg, as well as digital and social channels.
In celebration of Pride, the company also created posters of the ad campaign for events and bars across the country, including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Fire Island, Houston, L.A., Miami, Nashville, San Francisco and Washington D.C., in addition to New York.
Dating apps have struggled with unwanted messages and photos being sent over their platforms, and it’s often the number one complaint of users. Archer decided to address this problem head-on by promoting its safety features, so users can feel more secure if they decide to join.
Archer[*2] requires each profile to be verified with a selfie photo (face pic) for added safety. When a user is sent a photo on the app, if the platform’s AI determines that it might contain nudity, it blurs the picture and warns the user before they open it. Users are also given the option to block the sender at any time.
Match Group-owned Archer has seen an increase in downloads at a time when dating apps are struggling to engage with their users. The company reported that its flagship gay dating app has been downloaded more than 685,000 times since it launched this past October, according to Tech Crunch[*3] .
And while this is far below Grindr with 87 million worldwide installs or Scruff with over 17 million installs, Archer is growing fast and promising something different from these apps – a focus on safety for users, including protections against body shaming, racism, and other harms.
“We recognize that there is bad behavior on gay dating apps,” Michael Kaye, Director of Brand Marketing and Communications at Archer said, according to TechCrunch. “And we’re hoping that by requiring every person to verify [their selfie], this will help contribute to a lower rate of bad behavior because there’s really nothing to hide behind.”