If you’re single and looking to mingle these days, chances are you have at least one dating app on your phone, and it’s likely that Tinder is one of them. The addictive swiping like-it-or-hate-it program has become a staple on many people’s phones, and the company isn’t content in just making matches between love-hungry singles.
Recently, Tinder has started partnering with companies and media properties to bring fake profiles to the service, introducing them as if they were just regular people. It works like this: after dealing with the person in question (be it a musician, actor, or even a character), the company creates a profile and then inserts it into the Tinder ecosystem. From there, users will come across the profile (probably more often than they would any other random stranger—this is a promotion after all) and swipe left or right, depending on if they like what they see.
A shot from Jason Derulo's new video for "Want To Want Me".
Just last week, pop singer Jason Derulo became the first musician to use the new promotional strategy to launch a new single. In Jason’s case, a right swipe gave users a link to a YouTube page where they could watch the brand new video for his song “Want To Want Me”, which was simultaneously getting a huge push at radio. The campaign with Jason was a real success, as over 1.1 million people swiped right (meaning they liked him) in just three days. The company also claims that 14% of those that liked Jason also clicked the link in the profile, which brought them right to iTunes. The song quickly became Derulo's twelfth top 40 hit, and it's only getting started.
If you’re the type of person to shrug off dating apps—and the promotions that are now being test run on them—you may want to change your thinking. The right swipes that Jason received mean that people not only looked at the singer’s face, but that they made a meaningful connection with him. He came to them where they were, and they responded in an obviously positive way. Most of those people probably also read his profile and told somebody about their discovery, amplifying this promotion even further. How many advertising campaigns can claim stats like this while saying that they really grabbed an audience’s attention for a period of time, exciting them in the process?
In a statement about the unconventional release, Derulo said "I wanted to find a unique way to launch my video. I know my fans are tapped into social networking so what better way to launch my video?”, confidently ending with the comment “I know my fans will swipe right.”
