Tracing social media presence of OkCupid's #FindMyKind

In the past year, OkCupid has garnered over 20 million unique downloads worldwide. It caters to over a million users in India and has recently launched their first digital campaign here, #FindMyKind, to woo them. 

With its first brand campaign in India, #FindMyKind, OkCupid is attempting to create a niche for itself in the hearts of the Indian consumers. The brand rolled the campaign across digital/social, print, television and outdoor, ensuring two objectives were met — they would reach the right audiences and give people time to absorb it.

Among the social media platforms, the brand concentrated on Instagram to reach people in the digital world.

The dating application collaborated with digital content creators and stand-up comedians including Shivesh, Priyanka Paul, and Vimal Chandran, among others, to convey the brand’s take ahead to their fans.

“As a brand, we’re keen to remind single Indians not to compromise on what they’re looking for in a relationship and to find their kind of person — someone who celebrated them for who they are,” says Melissa Hobley, CMO, OkCupid. 

Currently, Indian users on the platform plan about 25K first dates and engage actively, per week.  Most of their users reside in major cities including Mumbai, Bangalore, and New Delhi with a comparable volume of registration and active usage.

Social Media Strategy

OkCupid’s strategy involves engaging young professionals on mediums they are familiar with. On Instagram, they had people who have chosen unconventional life (bakers, riders, travellers, artists, and actors) speak through their struggles to stand by what they believe in and talk about the value of meaningful relationships that would support these dreams.

Melissa tells us how they saw #FindMyKind art and music covers of the ad strewn across social media platforms, along with pictures of billboards people saw in public spaces. “In each share, like or comment was an expression that young, single Indians want to find their kind of person,” she says. 

Comedy evenings under My Kind of Funny were also organised, where comedians including Urooj Ashfaq, Prashasti Singh, Shreeja Chaturvedi, and Surbhi Bagga participated. The line-up at these events as all women. The topics chosen by them revolved around the different aspects of dating.

In the OOH advertising space, she tells us how their outdoor and print presence used wit to challenge the reductive descriptions and demands of Indian matrimonial listings to bring focus on finding a match over what matters and highlighting the difference in approach between millennials and their families.

The brand also took the meme way out, leaving traces of sponsored posts in the social media sphere for people to enjoy and share. These #FindMyKind memes were funny and were based on a tone that Millenials find relatable.

She further explains, “The idea is to reach our audience by presenting a relatable message that echoes this generation’s need for meaningful relationships and like-minded partners who share their values and celebrate their quirks. 

The brand doesn’t have any celebrity or influencer association in the pipeline. Melissa explains the stance saying, “We want to celebrate individuals rather than one ideal. OkCupid is a deeply loved brand and users reach out to us every day with their success stories of having found a meaningful relationship on the app. Our users, in that sense, are our brand ambassadors because they love the product and talk about it.” 

Creating a safe space

On OkCupid, users can choose from 13 sexual orientation and 22 gender options and the pronoun they wish to be addressed by. “We have built a robust support and moderation system, which includes human moderators and automated flags to point out potentially harassing or abusing language,” she says.

There is also a zero-tolerance policy at play to inspire confidence in users to report any untoward behaviour on the platform. “These reports are taken very seriously,” Melissa assures.