I had a great conversation with Mandy Ginsberg, the new North America General Manager of Match.com. Mandy was the GM of Chemistry.com previously. Mandy replaced Craig Wax, who is no longer with the company. Here’s what I learned.
Chemistry growth is up 11%. They have a high rate of people completing the initial profiles. A series of new questions are displayed when I logged in this week (been a while), six in all. I am in the middle of going through the multi-step meeting process. This is not a product review, but I continue to keep track of what’s working and where improvements are needed.
Helen Fisher, who created the Chemistry matching system, has written a book about why we match up with people. The book is based on what she has learned from members of Chemistry.com during the last 2.5 years. Everyone there is excited about the book and I am hoping for an unprecedented look into how singles are using online dating.
Chemistry is launching a new ad campaign in April 2009. The campaign will feature hard-hitting, irreverent and urban messaging. Photo to the left is of successful couples who have met on Chemistry. This is a small sampling, there simply isn’t enough room for them to display them all.
Chemistry is working hard to streamline the communication process. I was glad to hear that. It takes a while to get to the point where you’re actually asking someone out on a date.
Now, on to Match. Match is preparing a new ad campaign in coming weeks. More on this after I’ve had a chance to review the creative.
Match is testing a newsfeed feature similar to the Facebook Live Feed. Only certain members can see the feature at this point.
Working on 2009 strategy now. Stepping back to figure out what consumers are feeling, address quality of matches and responses and laying out roadmap to address those sentiments. We’re going to see more innovation from Match in 2009 than we’ve seen in the past few years. Maybe video, we’ll see.
There is a whole new position for someone who is in charge of retention efforts.
Match gets 25,000 new members a day, that is incredible. I talk to a lot of smaller dating sites who would kill to have 25k members.
I’ve mentioned that the Facebook Application “Are You Interested” displays profiles of members who are also on Match. Turns out that Match shares a feed of members with Are You Interested, which inserts the profiles into the profile stream every once in a while. Clicking “Yes” on one of these profiles directs the user over to Match.com, where I found that I had to log in twice to see the person’s profile.
Login problems aside, this is a good way for Match to try out social network marketing without a) changing the way Match works for existing members and b) implementation appears fairly straightforward, click Yes (Anonymous) or Yes(Let Them Know) and either way you are redirected to Match.com, where hopefully you will create an account in order to communicate with the person. I’m not sure if there is a difference between the two Yes options?
Watch for Match to do more in the social networking space as they continue to evaluate new opportunities and partners.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
— “Helen Fisher, who created the Chemistry matching system, has written a book about why we match up with people”
A book is only for marketing purposes. Educated consumers should demand a Scientific Paper which can substantiate its matching method.
I remember I had seen two draft papers from Chemistry:
The first clearly shows:
a) that Chemistry has a low successful “1.2.3 MEET in person step-by-step process”, low successful first meeting rate for its members.
b) its matching method only reported early stage attraction between prospective mates and after the first meeting; in some persons attraction reduces its level OR worse even, morphs/metamorphoses to rejection.
The second shows:
a) the high serotonin type (Builder) who is attracted to people like themselves and the high dopamine type (Explorer) who also is attracted to people like themselves, could be looking for a LONG term romantic relationship.
and
b) the high estrogen Negotiator who is attracted to the high testosterone Director and vice versa, could be looking for a SHORT term romantic relationship.
What happened with the ‘The Great Mate’ Debate blog?
— “We’re going to see more innovation from Match in 2009 than we’ve seen in the past few years.”
Which kind of innovations?
Only superfluous marketing bells and whistles, a new kind of diarrhea of pyrotechnic marketing devices?
or
The ones which will revolutionize the Online Dating Industry?
The ones which will allow to cross the barrier of (and sustain) more than 2,000,000 paying subscribers for IAC’s Personals (Match, Chemistry, Udate)?
Check the Udate homepage to see a link to ZeroDegrees!!!
ZeroDegrees was discretely buried circa 2005.
This new General Manager has a big challenge, she should prove she is not only a cannon that shots flowers. She should achieve more than 2,000,000 paying subscribers before 2012.
Kindest Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
its not good enough for a conversation