OkCupid Debuts New Campaign Focusing on Inclusivity
Contributed by: kellyseal on Saturday, August 28 2021 @ 10:05 am
Last modified on Saturday, August 28 2021 @ 10:16 am
OkCupid has debuted a new global ad campaign “Out of Home” (or OOH) to celebrate people meeting in person again - but with a focus on inclusivity.
The creative was developed by Italian artists Maurizio Cattelon and Pierpaolo Ferrari in partnership with creative agency Mekanism, and features colorful depictions of OkCupid daters in celebration of their individuality. Website The Drum[*1] also noted that the new campaign is also a nod to the diverse user base on the platform.
One ad reads “tree hugger” and features a tree growing out of a dater’s boxer shorts, watered by someone off-camera with a watering can. “Every single vaxxer” features a couple kissing, their tongues becoming one. And another reads “every single cuddler” with a couple embracing with multiple arms. Each of the ads has bold coloring and a rich array of ethnicities, genders, and sexual preferences.
The ads are meant to be provocative, and in fact some of them had to be pulled from large markets like New York and L.A. for being controversial. Still, OkCupid pressed forward with its vision starting with the U.S., and will be rolling out the campaign later this year in Europe and other markets.
“As people return to dating, however they feel most comfortable doing so, we want this campaign to show everyone – from feminists to introverts to non-binary to pansexuals to vaxxers – that OkCupid is a place where they can feel welcomed,” said Melissa Hobley, the brand’s global chief marketing officer in an interview with The Drum. “We have always been an exclusively inclusive dating app, and that will never change.”
OkCupid has promoted inclusivity on its platform, part of the dating app’s appeal to its mostly younger, progressive user base. It was the first mainstream dating app to offer a range of gender identities and sexual orientations for user profiles. This year, the brand added even more identity tags in conjunction with the Human Right Campaign, allowing users to select and filter from more than 60 identities.
OkCupid is also following its target market, pointing out to The Drum that just this summer, the company witnessed a nearly 20 percent increase in users identifying as non-binary, and a more than 5% increase of users identifying as bisexual. Sexual preferences are also diverse on the platform. OkCupid noted an 85 percent increase from this time last year in users who identify as pansexual, and over the summer, a 7 percent increase in people who are open to non-monogamous relationships.
“The ‘For Every Single Person’ campaign reintroduces OkCupid as a modern dating brand and generates cultural commentary that sets OkCupid up as a leader in the dating space and beyond,” said Mekanism’s creative director Katrina Mustakas. “The bold and provocative aesthetic ... helps to bring this exclusively inclusive differentiation into the world.”