Interview: Bumble's Priti Joshi on differentiating from dating apps

As Bumble attempts to go beyond the online dating space to establish itself as a social media platform, Social Samosa talks to Priti Joshi understanding the app's trajectory.

Bumble made its India debut in December 2018 and so far, they have had 1.7 million people join in. What makes the application different from others in the dating category is that there are three verticals to it — Bumble Date, Bumble BFF, Bumble Bizz — helping it become a social networking platform.

They hope to empower women to make the first move and forge meaningful connections. In a conversation with Social Samosa, Priti Joshi, Global Director of Strategy, Bumble, spills the beans about their brand expansion journey in the country.

Which avenues have proved beneficial for promoting Bumble in India?

Since our launch in India, we’ve been curating an omnichannel media mix approach to our marketing campaigns — from driving reach and awareness through high impact OOH and digital-first brand campaigns to building engagement through high-affinity media investments such as events, influencer activations, and content partnerships.

How do you plan to use social media platforms to further augment the number of users on Bumble? Would you be exploring Tik Tok?

We’ve launched numerous social media campaigns across Bumble Date, BFF, and Bizz. Since our launch in India, our marketing efforts have largely focused on tapping into audiences across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and additional platforms. Going forward, we are keen to explore brand synergies across newer social platforms, such as TikTok. 

What's the story behind Bumble's association with Priyanka Chopra?

In October 2017, Bumble launched Bumble Bizz through an intimate dinner with powerful women in business. Priyanka Chopra co-hosted this event with a handful of other very inspiring women. As Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble’s founder and CEO was sharing her inspiration for why she founded Bumble, Priyanka leaned over to Whitney and said she felt passionate about bringing Bumble to the women of India.

Since then, we’ve worked side by side with her to create our strategy, develop creative campaigns, and empower women to make the first move! 

Also Read: Campaign Face Off: Tinder v/s Bumble v/s OKCupid

How do you plan to use various forms of media to attract women?

We want to take an integrated approach to make sure that we’re speaking to our target audience at the right time and the right place. We’ve seen that leveraging a mix of traditional, high-reach mediums such as TV, OOH and print, along with digital platforms is a great way to increase brand awareness and exposure.

In January 2019, we launched our #EqualNotLoose campaign and worked closely with Priyanka Chopra Jonas to create content for OOH, Print, and TV commercials pan India. Shortly thereafter, we launched an integrated campaign highlighting our product features. We launched this campaign across many channels, including but not limited to, Print, OOH, Digital OOH and corporate parks/malls.

A few months ago, we launched an integrated campaign, Find Them On Bumble Bizz, featuring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and 25 inspiring women from Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore. We wanted to spotlight our Bumble Bizz community.

Most recently, we launched a multi-channel campaign, Find Real Friends. It was built around celebrating real friendships and was brought to life across various OOH and digital ads targeting consumers at places where women build friendships such as corporate parks, malls and high impact billboards on arterial roads. 

In your communication, how do you ensure that the three verticals on Bumble are communicated about separately and yet together? How do you find that balance?

India was the first market where we launched as a social networking platform with all three modes at once. We always focus on product education for each of our three modes with specific brand campaigns. The Find Them on Bizz and Find Real Friends are two such examples.

Could you tell us about the RoI achieved so far by expansion in India?

Women in India have made the first move over three million times and are sending twice as many messages as women in the rest of the world. In fact, about 30% of our users are women. The number of women on Bumble in India has grown more than 2x faster than men since launch.