Marketing

Musicians are having to find new and more organic ways to promote their new albums, since people are discovering content in different ways outside of traditional radio. To capture new – and especially younger – fans, artists who are serious about promotion are now looking to dating apps, and finding some success.

Millennials are the largest group of consumers of music, and they also tend to be on dating apps like Tinder and Grindr. So it only makes sense that music and dating apps would eventually come together.

Some recent examples: Madonna's latest album was advertised on Grindr, a dating app for gay men, while Jason Derulo debuted a music video on Tinder. PlentyofFish was one of the first dating sites to link itself to an artist, by making an appearance in Derulo’s 2010 video for his song “Ridin Solo.” POF also worked with Lady Gaga during a U.S. tour, offering fans a chance to win tickets and backstage passes.

Other popular dating sites are linking to musicians, too - Mariah Carey premiered her music video for the single, "Infinity" via her new profile on Match.com, and DJ-producer Afrojack answered questions about love and relationships for eight hours on Match’s Twitter account to promote his new single.

The latest musician to take advantage of the wide reach of dating apps is Zedd, the Grammy-winning DJ-producer. He worked with Tinder to promote his album, "True Colors," released last month, by setting up his profile on the dating app. While Tinder users searched for dates, they would come across Zedd's promotional profile. They could swipe left or right, as with any other potential match. But instead of messaging him or setting up a date, if they swiped right, they could purchase his new album at a discounted price of $3.99 (compared to $7.99 on iTunes).

According to a recent story from Associated Press, “True Colors” debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart its first week with 39,000 copies sold. While no specifics were given about how many sales were the direct result of Tinder users swiping right on Zedd’s profile, chances are the app had something to do with the album’s popular debut.

According to Tinder, eighty-five percent of its users are between the ages 18-34, and the average user spends about 11 minutes on the app each day — one of the main reasons artists are looking to work with Tinder in particular. It makes sense. Since users’ engagement with dating apps is pretty high, artists have their attention, at least for a few seconds, which is long enough to swipe right and learn more.

Spark Networks operates two of the best-known niche dating sites in the biz – JDate and ChristianMingle – but lately both brands have taken a hit. JDate's userbase has slowly been declining, while ChristianMingle saw an abrupt drop following a cut in advertising spending.

Now Spark Networks is making plans to implement a broad turnaround strategy. The strategy is divided into two action items: upgrade technology for both websites and redeploy advertising funds for ChristianMingle in a more intelligent manner.

To fully understand the need for a technological upgrade, you first have to appreciate how far Spark Networks has come. Its sites have used the same basic technology and design for the last seven years, a feat practically unheard of in the Internet Age. An update is long overdue.

Mobile versions of the sites are either already available or will be launched soon, and a revamping of site architecture is in progress. The latter project means making future adjustments to keep up with the changing times will be a much simpler matter.

Where marketing is concerned, JDate has little to worry about. The site is so well known that it spreads primarily by word of mouth, and about 90% of its revenue remains after accounting for direct expenses. ChristianMingle, on the other hand, has struggled to achieve the same notoriety despite having more overall users.

The new marketing strategy for ChristianMingle has multiple components. First, the site will focus on select urban centers rather than large nationwide campaigns. The company plans to partner with mega churches and Christian organizations to deepen their ties within communities.

Second, Spark will make changes to its internal emailing efforts. Email blasts sent to all users will be nixed in favor of highly targeted messages sent to the right consumer, at the right time.

Finally, Spark is looking to attract new users who don't consider faith the most important thing in their lives. The company plans to bring more humor into its advertising in hopes of appealing to an audience who doesn't consider Christianity to be as central to who they are. Unlocking this larger portion of the market should give Spark a dramatically larger pool of potential subscribers to draw from.

Plans farther down the line involve expanding revenue opportunities by providing products throughout the life-cycle of a relationship and beginning a fremium website aimed at younger users. Both could be serious boons to ChristianMingle's turnaround strategy, but for now they're on hold until Spark Networks executes its current goals.

Is there an online dating downer worse than finding out your new flame looks nothing like their profile picture? Total letdown, right? As online dating offenses go, it's high on the list.

Zoosk devised a solution to this all-too-common problem back in 2014. The feature, dubbed Photo Verification, confirms the authenticity of members' profile photos. If your photos pass the test, you receive a green Photo Verified badge.

Photos are verified under the Verification section (surprise) of your profile. Select Verify Photos and you’ll be prompted to record a short video of yourself. Zoosk’s moderators review the video and, if they feel your photo is an accurate representation, you'll receive an email letting you know that your photos are verified. The badge will automatically be added to your profile and your video selfie remains private.

The Photo Verification feature made Zoosk the first company to address this prominent online dating concern. With its launch came newfound levels of transparency, increased trust between online daters, and better first-date satisfaction.

“One of the most important concerns of online daters is going out with someone who doesn’t really resemble their profile picture,” said Shayan Zadeh, co-founder and CEO of Zoosk. “By innovating a system for our members to validate the accuracy of existing profile photos, we believe we can create better first-date experiences that will lead to lasting relationships.”

Photo Verification will now take a starring role in Zoosk's “First Comes Like” advertising campaign. “The message from our last campaign was successful in differentiating us from other sites,” Katherine Knight, brand manager for Zoosk, told Marketing Daily. “For our new campaign, we wanted to build on that and take it to the next level.”

The “First Comes Like” initiative highlights the fact that building a lasting relationship requires time, and that “love at first sight” is rare. In one ad, a woman uses Zoosk's mobile site while a voiceover explains the message of the campaign. Another 15-second spot hones in on the photo verification feature, showing a man trying to identify his date in a crowded coffee shop using the Zoosk app.

“Everybody wants love to be a big, huge fairy tale. But the reality is, before all that can happen, you have to fall in like first,” said Tony Zimney, creative director at Muh-tay-zik Hof-fer, the agency that created the campaign. “Each one of our spots highlights this moment of like.”

The commercials will begin airing nationally in the beginning of July.

On Sunday June 14^th, people across America were acknowledging Flag Day, an annual tradition, over social media. Coincidentally, it was also the annual celebration of the LGBTQ community – an event known as Pride. So when Coffee Meets Bagel reached out via social media to announce its support of Flag Day, the online dating service mistakenly caused an uproar because of a typo.

The now-infamous tweet which was widely criticized over social media and the subject of a story in the Washington Post, said: “It’s Fag Day. Hoist your colors and don’t forget to LIKE today’s Bagel.”

People on the East Coast were the first to catch the mistake, but many didn’t realize it was a typo and immediately took to Twitter to denounce the dating service, with one person posting: “Got a notification from @coffeeMbagel saying today was "fag day." I'm disgusted at the audacity to say that during pride. #coffeemeetsbagel.”

Many people weren’t aware of Flag Day, but they were aware of Pride celebrations, which made the typo even worse. They thought the company had posted the tweet on purpose.

Coffee Meets Bagel took down the post after they realized the typo. But thanks to the speed at which social media can influence a story, and the incredibly bad timing that the typo happened during Pride, the company had little chance to correct the error. They have since been apologizing and repeating that it was just a simple mistake.

About three hours after the notification went out, users received an e-mail from the company’s head of customer experience apologizing for the misspelling. It reads, in part:

“I would like to apologize wholeheartedly for the message you received this afternoon. The misspelling of Flag Day was a mistake and a complete oversight. We’re updating our process to ensure something like this does not happen again…Coffee Meets Bagel, as a company and as individual employees, celebrates the LGBTQ community and would never use such a word.”

While it might just be a simple oversight, the bigger question is: will it hurt CMB in the long-run, if people associate their brand with a lack of support of the LGBTQ community?

We have all sent emails and social media posts with typos – this isn’t uncommon. What is a shame in this instance is that a company sent an official tweet meant to show support of both Flag Day and the LGBTQ community, and yet, ended up alienating their customers and potential customers in the process.

Tinder is looking to make a new kind of match: the kind between advertisers and consumers.

Since Tinder's launch in 2012, it has remained a largely ad-free space. Users had plenty to love about that approach, but the model was less successful for a company in need of revenue. To fix the earnings issue, Tinder is joining the trend of dating services offering purchasable ad space.

It's an expected move for Tinder, but a big one nonetheless, and it's uncertain how users will respond. On one hand, an ad-free user experience is preferable because it is seamless and free of annoyance.

On the other hand, users are hardly ignorant to the business side of the services they use. Most understand that a company like Tinder needs money in order to continue, and that selling ad space is an effective way to generate revenue. If advertising allows the app to remain free to download, it’s a reasonable concession for a customer to make.

The question becomes “How will Tinder introduce advertisements in order to minimize backlash?” The app's interface is not conducive to unobtrusive advertising. Facebook Newsfeed ads are easy to scroll past and therefore minimally disruptive, but Tinder doesn't have that option.

An advertisement slipped directly into a user's personal profile would compromise their ability to present themselves accurately on the app. Instead, Tinder will have to create ads that mimic profiles – they'll take up the entire screen, and users will swipe into and out of them. The challenge for brands will be to take advantage of this, by creating thematically relevant advertising content.

Another eye-catching strategy means using video (again with thematic relevance to users). Video could be considered unnecessarily disruptive, so brands will have to tread carefully. Knowing both their own demographic and Tinder's demographic – and making sure they align – will be key. Video ads are a riskier move for Tinder as well, as users may find them too irritating.

How users respond to these kinds of ads remains to be seen, but the experiment is an intriguing one. It’s clear that both Tinder and the advertisers are venturing into largely unexplored territory. OkCupid has seen brands successfully create thematically relevant ad content on its site, while companies like Match and Meet Me have had ads included in their applications for years, but it is still a relatively new practice.

Tinder's audience of tech-savvy millennials may also present a unique set of challenges. It will be interesting to see which strategies prove most effective for that highly sought after market.

Luxy, a new dating app for rich people, seems to like provocative gimmicks to attract new users to their service. First, they launched their app in 2014 describing it as “Tinder without the poor people.” Now, they have taken their brand to the next outrageous level by offering $3.4 million to rename the celebrity enclave of Hidden Hills, California after their own app – Luxy, U.S.A.

Hidden Hills is an exclusive suburb of Los Angeles, home to celebrities Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus, and the Kardashians. The app is trying to tie in its own service with the rich celebrity lifestyle.

According to an article in CNN Money, the app so far has 135,000 active users, including its latest member – an actor from Californication. (Luxy is apparently using this bit of celebrity news to help promote the app, too.)

To qualify to use Luxy, members must prove they make at least $200,000 per year – by providing income tax statements.