A look at the Bumble Marketing strategy, as the brand creates new campaigns to tread the trying waters of COVID-19, keeping the social activity of dating, virtually alive.
At a time when people were craving meaningful connections, social media and dating apps came to their rescue. One of the brands that aim to empower relationships across Gen Z and millennials is Bumble India who kicked off campaigns in-line with the thought-process. A look at the Bumble Marketing Strategy.
Leveraging the buzzwords and standing for values such as equality, love, first move, and more, Bumble launched, ‘For your eyes only’ campaign post a series of videos in 2020 based on its positioning of 'Make your first move'.
Objective & Rationale
According to the brand, the objective behind the campaign was to encourage millennials and Gen Z in India to make the first move while navigating the new rules of dating in 2020 and the days to come. Breaking taboos, the campaign highlighted how it is okay for women to make the first move in the changing times.
Samarpita Samaddar, Bumble India, PR Director said, “With our campaign, we want to support our Bumble community in navigating the new rules of dating, and encourage them to make the first move because falling in love is still an exciting possibility."
The idea was to give users an understanding of the fact that even though 2020 was trying and dating could be bumpy, Bumble’s got your back.
Creative Thought Process
The year 2020 brought many changes, but the need to make meaningful connections remained. The brand shares, “We’ve learnt from our recent study that one in two people in India are ready to go on an in-person date now. This inspired our campaign’s creative process which touches upon various aspects in the five unique digital films, capturing different stories of virtual and socially distanced dating.”
With the campaign - a series of 5 films, showcasing the first move made by women at varied circumstances aimed at creating an open but safe haven of dating for new-age males and females.
Be it associating with celebrities and influencers, or speaking out loud across social media handles on pertinent topics associated with misogynistic behavior and inequality, the Bumble India marketing strategy especially on social media has been in-line with the brand’s positioning and purpose of empowering women.
“Apart from our five digital films, we have partnered with a robust set of social media influencers across India to share various insights around making the first move to forge meaningful connections, and share tips and tricks around how to navigate this new world of dating in 2020”, the brand highlights.
Further, the brand was also visible in OTT content integration campaigns and placements (organic or no) across series such as Indian Matchmaking.
Apart from social conversations and moment marketing, the brand is also active on its YouTube with newer short-format content pieces such as ‘Dating these days’; videos are in-line with the Making the first move ideology. The content creators and celebrities also attempt to decode dating for millennials in 2021.
On Twitter, the brand has a support page to solve grievances and share success stories from the Bumble India community.
The brand ensures a culturally relevant brand narrative across varied touchpoints including social media, print, and OOH. OOH advertising includes branding in shopping malls in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Pune.
To continue with taking COVID-safety-measures, Bumble launched three new dating badges in India to help people communicate how and what kind of dates they would like to go on: virtual, socially-distanced, or socially-distanced with masks.
Recently, the brand introduced socially distanced benches for IRL meetings in Bangalore and Goa with the message - “We love healthy boundaries”.
The social media posts of the brand showcase catchy one-liners with the brand hues of Yellow and Brown with a balanced division of dynamic and static posts across social media platforms.
Making a Difference?
The online dating industry in India is worth ₹2,394 crore+ ($323 million), only behind the US and China. In a nation where online dating might still be a taboo in many regions, it will be interesting to see homegrown dating apps such as Bumble which forayed into the nation with Priyanka Chopra Jonas as its Brand Ambassador to build trust and affinity of people towards the dating app.
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