Tinder Adding Verified Blue Ticks To Branded Movie Profiles

When it first started advertising, mobile dating giant Tinder introduced its branded profile cards as a way for businesses to get their brand seen by millions of singles on the dating app.

The setup is simple – Tinder adds branded cards in amongst normal profiles, and if the user swipes right, they match and are sent promotional information and a link to a web page.

Some of these are clearly branded, such as the recent profile for Captain Morgan, and some less so.

Last year, the marketing team behind sci-fi film Ex Machina set up a profile of a 25-year-old named Ava who matched with users at SXSW.

When she was matched with and messaged by Tinder users, after a brief question & answer exchange they were sent a message from Ava saying: “You have passed my test,” with a link to an Instagram account and further information about the film.

And recently, as noticed by a poster on Reddit, Tinder has started using its celebrity “verified” profiles, which like Twitter & Facebook come with a blue tick, to entice users to swipe right on branded profiles.

One doing the rounds at the moment features actress Aubrey Plaza, whose profile bears the name of Tatiana, a character from upcoming film Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.

The profile has a blue tick, indicating it is a real verified celebrity account – a feature Tinder introduced back in July 2015.

When the Hollywood app released the verification, it said the blue tick would be given to certain “public figures, celebrities and athletes”.

Since then, however, despite rumours of high profile celebrities using the app, reports of users seeing actual verified “blue tick” profiles have, unsurprisingly, been scant.

So it seems Tinder has instead decided to use, or at least test, the feature as a way of hopefully boosting the swipe rate on branded profiles.

This particular profile for Tatiana says: “You swiped right. I respect that. Know what’s #RespectableAF? Taking your date to Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, in theatres on July 8th.”

There are also others for different Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates characters, including for Anna Kendrick’s character Alice.

When asked about the profiles, Tinder said: “If a user matches with a branded profile card, it’s clear it’s an ad based on the promotional message sent to them after they swipe right. In the case of ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,’ the primary profile photo is also marked with the movie logo.”

Read more about Tinder’s verified profiles here.