DigitalBulletin, part of Brand Republic, has a strategy analysis for the Match.com UK reality show.
My ears perked up until I read this:
The idea was to take Match.com to people by allowing them to interact with the brand, not just each other.
Ugh, who let the markers in the room? Don’t I always say that people don’t date on dating sites? They are introduction billboards, so what’s with interacting with the brand? NOBODY wants to align themselves with a dating site. We’re not talking about a lifestyle brand link Mercedes or Volkswagon.
TV: The climax of the idea gave one male and one female Match.com member the chance to find love through Match.com, and appear live on peaktime TV. Three consecutive solus breaks in Love Island were secured on 6 August. The ads were shot immediately before transmission, in front of a live studio audience, and then transmitted “as live”. The first saw the host introduce the lucky winners, the second gave the winning man the opportunity to sell himself, and the third saw the winning woman’s turn.
Online: Before TV activity, contestants uploaded videos to a special “Live Love” Match.com microsite, comprising a 30-second pitch describing why they shouldn’t be single. Other Match.com users then judged the entries, with two winners going forward to the final TV stage.
The day after the live ads aired was the highest month for subscriptions in Match.com’s history, and was 3.5 per cent higher than the best-performing month for the year (what month was that?).
Google searches that day led to the highest number of new subscriptions in the history of Match.com’s relationship with the search engine, and these have continued to increase since. MSN has also seen a 23 per cent increase in registrations and a 39 per cent rise in subscriptions.
Not bad results, indeed. Steve Hobbs, head of planning and integration, Carat, gives the verdict. Worth reading.
However, the thinking behind this activity seems a bit more old-fashioned than that. In the past, Match.com has run awareness-building activity on TV, radio and outdoor. Though this work is executionally very different, on face value it’s difficult to see how it achieves much more.
The campaign successfully delivers on its objective of taking Match.com to people and explaining its services, with well-executed ideas. But it is unclear whether the work was founded on the consumer insight that a social stigma remains attached to online dating, or whether many still believe people do not represent themselves in a virtual world as they are in the real world.
This is a great idea, similar to Comcast’s singles channel. But really, I can see this being an enormous YouTube competition next. You don’t need a television or to pay for a specific dating site. Perfect for a brand aligned with being single that’s not necessarily in the dating space.
Get rid of HRP, M2M Cherish PR and some company called Monkey. Four companies is three to many to promote the show. Do it for cheap on the net and promote through your marketing agency and go viral with teaser videos. Let that bleed over to mainstream media, who will provide all the coverage you need for free.
Have separate categories for men, women, gay straight, younger, older and whatever else makes sense. That could be a great exercise.
Kudos for Match for pulling this off. Expect to see more web-based versions of this soon.
