Since day one, stories about the experiences of queer daters inspired our product team to prioritize user safety features that would enhance protection on the app, while creating a product that reflects the celebratory nature of our audience. Personally, dating apps were the only way for me to connect with other gay men when I graduated college and was still in the closet; the only gay dating apps available to me reinforced the idea that queer love and connection should be secretive and hidden, as I was flooded with blank profiles or people hiding behind headless profile pictures. Marcus Lofthouse, chief product officer, recognized early on that requiring selfie verification at signup, making each user have a face photo as their main profile image, would encourage celebration over secrecy, while also creating an app designed to mitigate abuse and fraud.
Continuing to build out the app and merge the best of social and dating, we implemented features such as a group chat and new means of discovery that would welcome connections of all kinds. We stayed focused on connecting with community members to ensure what we were building resonated with those who would actually be using our app. Surveying over 1,200 queer men, and recruiting over 200 queer men who participated in the app’s beta program this spring, captured more qualitative data. Further, it informed us on how queer men date—fluidly. Many shared they use dating and social apps for a range of things, including hookups, dates and finding friends. Rather than a segmented experience, we learned that our audience uses various platforms in unique ways depending on their needs and moods.
Additionally, the health and wellness of gay, bisexual and queer men became a recurring conversation among our employees and the group of community advocates, which led us to create an in-app health hub designed as a digital center for access to medical and mental resources. It will also provide advice on mental, physical and sexual health with tips from experts, including author and influencer Zachary Zane, with additional and diverse dating coaches, health activists, relationship and sex experts on the way.
Reaching users on- and offline
At the beginning of 2023, we began thinking through our communication and marketing strategy. For Archer, a brand new app in an extremely competitive space, our tactics had to drive awareness, conversion and retention. We had to make sure we were engaging with Archer’s targets on- and offline.
Other Match Group brands, including OkCupid, have a long-standing relationship with Braze for our CRM efforts spanning in-app notifications to emails. Their system helps us create engaging and impactful campaigns that allow us to customize messaging for Archer users and connect with them based on their activity, age, location and more.
Tapping into creators on Instagram and TikTok was core to our go-to-market strategy, helping encourage app pre-registrations in June, and downloads during July. Though the app would not be fully available until mid-July, we knew we had to capitalize on Pride Month. We recruited brand ambassadors to promote Archer at gay bars across Brooklyn and Manhattan, with on-the-ground marketing in key locations throughout the rest of the year. These brand ambassadors will also be showing up to parades, including the NYC Pride March and Harlem Pride at the end of June. All these in-person interactions and our custom mailers include branded favors from LGBTQ+ vendors, which allowed us to be creative and dive into the mind of what was useful and sustainable to our audience.
