OkCupid CMO Discusses Political Advertising Campaign

OkCupid CMO Melissa Hobley has been interviewed by AdAge India to talk about the DTF marketing campaign.

It was the company’s first venture into national advertising and, according to in-house data, the controversial nature of the content resulted in OkCupid’s social media mentions growing by more than 50%.

The second wave of billboards were rolled out earlier this year and included more politically-charged slogans such as ‘DTFight About The President’ and ‘DTFilter Out The Far Right’.

Hobley explained her team noticed that, due to the current climate, more millennials were becoming interested in politics. One of the questions on an OkCupid profile asks if a user would prefer ‘great sex’ or ‘sane politics’, and young women were often answering ‘sane politics’.

She said to AdAge India: “If you’re passionately progressive and you stumped for Bernie or Hillary, that’s an essential part of your life.

“When we were planning the campaign, #MeToo was having a moment, people were gearing up for the Women’s March again. There was so much happening with young women in particular, and obviously a lot of that was driven by what was happening in the political arena and in the current administration.”

DTF has received a degree of criticism and negative feedback for being overtly political and sexual. Transport services in Washington, New York City, Chicago and Portland have all banned various images from the campaign.

Read the full interview here.