Tinder CMO on How to Reach Gen Z

Tinder’s Chief Marketing Officer Jenny Campbell has spoken to Forbes in a new interview, giving her take on Gen-Z and several other topics.

Opening with Tinder’s impact on society, she notes that the stigma around online dating has reduced dramatically since 2012. Before mobile apps, the users tended to be older and more secretive. Contrast that to today’s loud and proud Tinder demographic, with 50% aged between 18 and 25, and the difference is plain to see.

Campbell says the new generation is less concerned with social broadcasting than millenials, preferring instead to interact in smaller online communities. This empowers micro influencers, who can have a strong impact on an engaged subgroup’s behaviour.

On Tinder’s brand messaging, however, she makes the case that ‘IRL’ activations are the most promising way to reach the young audience. The promise of experiences, through recent additions like Festival Mode, can draw in consumers keen to get out in the world.

Value-driven brands can also be effective, so long as the messaging has plenty of authenticity. Campaigns that jump on bandwagons are less successful.

The CMO argues that Tinder can authenically support diversity and inclusion: “The way Tinder is designed as a platform  promotes so much diversity. There aren’t a lot of filters on our app: you can set your desired age range, your gender preferences and distance preferences. Those are the only filters that we have, and because of that it makes the app incredibly diverse and inclusive.

“The openness of the platform itself widens the possibility of our users seeing potential matches who are different from themselves. We’ve done a lot of research around people’s perceptions of Tinder, and we found that 70% of them say that Tinder is the number one most racially diverse dating app. In fact, 80% of Tinder users stated that they’ve been on a date with someone of a different race versus just 60% of non-Tinder users.”

Speaking to GDI in April, Google’s Paul Frantz outlined similar trends relating to Gen-Z. The Industry Director said value-driven brands work “in many markets”, because people “really care about” causes.

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