“It was absolutely time for us to take control of our brand narrative,” Danzi told ADWEEK. “In a sense, we reintroduced Tinder to the world to prove why we matter to a new generation of singles.”
While the category had become jam-packed with looking-for-love options since Tinder’s groundbreaking entry onto the scene, dating app fatigue had also set in more recently, especially with Generation Z.
Women in that age group had left Tinder for other apps or ditched the scene entirely. After a decade of almost consistent double-digit revenue growth, Tinder saw a decline in the first quarter of 2022, followed by a second, third and fourth.
Against that backdrop, Tinder couldn’t afford a fumble, with Danzi saying, “It’s impossible to overstate how important this was,” although Tinder’s widespread brand recognition acted as a bit of a double-edged sword.
“Because of our prominence in the space, and culture as a whole, Tinder is a bit of a lightning rod for social commentary,” Danzi said. “We’ve seen how recent brand missteps can be amplified across channels like wildfire.”
Rom-com but make it punk
After extensive brainstorming and refining, the creative team infused its approach with “a touch of whimsy,” McCrory said, “but not overly saccharine and sweet—like a rom-com/punk rock mashup. Who wouldn’t want to live in a world like that?”
The resulting campaign featured an all-inclusive cast of Gen Z daters representing the app’s core membership and the various relationship categories they fell under. They aimed to give a modern take on dating gone right, showing that users could define relationships in their own ways.