OkCupid Is Totally DTF…No, Not Like That
You’ve seen them. Either on your way to work in the morning or during your evening commute home from spin class, you couldn’t help but to notice the brightly colored OkCupid ads adorning the NYC subway. Let’s be honest; it’s hard not to notice “DTF” in bold text plastered throughout your subway car. The millennial colloquialism, “DTF” — or as Pauly D and The Situation would eloquently put it, “down to f*ck” — is being turned on its head thanks to OKCupid.
This online dating site, which predates Jersey Shore, is totally DTF (down to fix dating) and its entire campaign was created by Wieden+Kennedy around the premise that “dating deserves better.” In each pop-art style ad, “alternative F’s” are coupled with over-the-top imagery to produce more refined possibilities, such as “down to fall head over heels” and our personal office favorite, “down to ferment kimchi.” The point is simple: OkCupid is the best platform to “find someone who’s down to do the same things you are.” In one word, the campaign can be described as “provocative.” While OkCupid gets creativity points for the eye-popping imagery, the campaign has evoked an array of emotions with consumers.
It’s clear that the company’s goal here is to go beyond the purely physical angle, leveraging growing consumer frustration with the hot-or-not, swipe-left-or-right style of choice prevalent on apps such as Tinder and Bumble. To be frank, many people are fed up with the “hookup culture” that is prevalent on most millennial dating apps. In fact, “60% of female Tinder users say they are looking for a match, not just a hookup.” A study claims that as recently as 2015, “50% of the U.S. population consisted of single adults.” With this huge population spending an average of 5 hours a day on their smartphones, it’s no wonder that dating applications are becoming increasingly popular. The same study also claims that over 40 million Americans currently utilize online dating services. However, what’s important to note is that while only 49% of people who use online dating “say they are looking for someone with physical characteristics they are attracted to,” 64% of respondents desire someone with whom they have something in common with. Enter OkCupid.
OkCupid’s creators believe that “you’re more than just a photo,” and that you should “get noticed for who you are, not what you look like.” In efforts to provide consumers with more meaningful connections, the company collects and uses data from the slew of questions that users must answer upon sign-up. Users answer questions, indicate how they’d prefer someone else to answer that same question and finally, detail how important the question is to them. With this information, OkCupid’s patented algorithm is able to assign a percentage score to potential matches, indicating the likelihood of compatibility. Yeah, you read that right. OkCupid is using big data and algorithms to spice up your love life. Or get you a date to your uncle’s wedding that you don’t even want to go to in the first place. Ya know, whatever floats your boat.
Despite all the great work OkCupid and Wieden+Kennedy did on this campaign, they majorly dropped the ball by trying to insert themselves into the larger conversation around feminism. In a kickoff video launched during the ChedHER takeover, OkCupid CMO Melissa Hobley makes several valid points, yet the integration seems forced. While brands can benefit from tapping into pertinent conversations their consumers are having, in this instance, it feels like a cheap ploy to jump on the bandwagon while the topic is still relevant. There’s nothing organic about empowerment anywhere within the ads, which leads one to believe that the feminist angle was never a part of the actual campaign, but merely an afterthought. Women’s empowerment shouldn’t solely be tied to a woman’s sexuality; it’s SO much more than that! Yes, we need more feminism in dating, but there isn’t any supporting evidence of that thinking in the ads themselves. At Whisper Mob, we’re all for female empowerment, but not just as a means to improve one’s bottom line.
If nothing else, the ads are effective conversation starters. Let’s be honest…when was the last time anyone was talking about OkCupid? The campaign definitely piqued people’s curiosity, which will certainly assist in their goal to generate new subscribers. However, some of the photographs used in this campaign (read: the photo used in the DTFloss ad) are downright disgusting.
In addition, there were some who were offended by the campaign and couldn’t overlook the company’s use of such a vulgar term like “DTF.” OkCupid was launched in 2004. If OkCupid’s goal was to reposition their brand to be appealing to millennials, there are myriad ideas for a cheeky campaign that wouldn’t offend an older demographic or alienate their already existing user base.
As an agency, we took away four major lessons from the OkCupid campaign. Firstly, it’s always important to stay true to your brand, ensuring that all of your marketing and advertising campaigns highlight what it is that makes your service, brand, product, or company special and unique. Ultimately, you must be able to answer two questions: What benefit are you providing for consumers and why should they care? Secondly, companies must be aware that the “shock and awe” approach to marketing campaigns is a 50/50 bet in realizing return on objectives. This strategy is not recommended for legacy and/or emotion-centric brands. Companies must also consider that prior to a rebranding effort, a comprehensive list of reasons and a long-term strategy must be created. When you reintroduce your company to the public, the brand should have undergone a facelift, and not a complete personality change, as was evident in the OkCupid campaign. Finally, if you want to attach your brand or marketing campaign to a public or complex social issue like women’s empowerment, you must be sure that you are committing to that issue throughout all of your efforts and not just on the surface, hoping to leverage trends with stereotypes and polarizing language.
We live in a world where nothing is as it seems due to photoshopped faces, filtered vacations, and profiles of distorted proportions. The world of online dating is no exception, as we live in a culture where we swipe on a potential life mate based on the look of their face or their assumed lifestyle. In a dating world full of misrepresentation and disappointment, OkCupid stands out from the crowd by using data-rich analytics to provide more meaningful connections. Sadly, this message wasn’t clearly communicated through this campaign. Do we agree that the OkCupid ad campaign was visually interesting and exciting? Yes. Do we think it was wise for OkCupid to attempt to launch this campaign alongside the platform of women’s empowerment? Definitely not. Do we acknowledge that the biggest winner in OkCupid’s campaign is the much forgotten Jersey Shore phrase “DTF”? Absolutely.
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