Hinge has spent the last five years marketing itself as the “dating app designed to be deleted.” The campaign that launched that phrase in 2019 put a furry app mascot, Hingie, through the paces with an ad that boasted, “Hinge wants you to meet someone great, even if it kills us.” A refreshed campaign earlier this year took the next logical step, sending several Hingies to the afterlife, where they were greeted by The Oracle (“I Think You Should Leave” actress-comedian Patti Harrison).
Despite a through line of dark humor, this year’s effort marked a change of pace for Hinge, as the ads, for the first time, featured stories inspired by real couples who had used the app. A commitment to advertising actual success stories continues with the dating platform’s latest marketing push.
“No Ordinary Love” revolves around an anthology of love stories written by contemporary literary figures — Roxane Gay, John Paul Brammer, R. O. Kwon, Isle McElroy, Oisín McKenna and Brontez Purnell — that are inspired by six real-life couples who met on Hinge. The anthology goes live with a dedicated website Wednesday and will exist as an 80-page print zine available in New York and London starting Sept. 9. The campaign was produced and creatively directed by Dazed Studio, the in-house creative agency of lifestyle magazine Dazed.
“The authenticity of our work is what helps us encourage young adults to try Hinge,” said Hinge CMO Jackie Jantos. “I think doing that in a way that leans into content formats they’re curious about is another way for them to be exposed to some of those stories.”
Jantos joined Hinge as chief marketer in 2021 after stints at Dashlane, Spotify and Coca-Cola. The executive spoke with Marketing Dive about what inspired the campaign, the brand’s approach to marketing to Gen Z and more.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
MARKETING DIVE: How does “No Ordinary Love” fit into the “Designed to be Deleted” platform?
JACKIE JANTOS: Everything that we do at Hinge is built to help daters get off our app and into great dates. That’s really what “Designed to be Deleted” stands for externally as a piece of communication. Internally, it’s a guiding force for how we design our product experience. We are always trying to celebrate the interesting ways that people meet on Hinge, and we love telling stories that are real and honest about how couples met.
We recently covered a different campaign built around a zine. What drew you to that format for “No Ordinary Love?”
Meeting looks different for different kinds of couples. We wanted to show the imperfect ways that people can meet in a format that allowed for that level of honesty. We are also really fascinated by the rise in romance lit. If you’re following #BookTok [TikTok’s influential community for discussing books], there are really dynamic conversations happening around literature and romance literature, specifically. The long-format storytelling approach of a zine was really interesting to us, and we wanted to lean into trying to work with creators in a new way.
App marketing is closely related to digital and social media. What does this type of content marketing do that other advertising doesn’t?
We have a really rich history, at least over the past three years, of experimenting in the types of work we do and the types of formats we create. We’ve created physical objects before. We do a lot of interesting work with creators. This was our first time working with longer-format authors.
It’s an interesting way to keep the story fresh, show people that there are lots of opportunities for meeting on Hinge and show people that we are a brand that is in service of Gen Z and young daters. In many ways, we’re always innovating in how we reach this audience, how we engage with them and how we’re useful to them.
What is the measure of marketing success for a campaign that’s pushing users to delete its app?
We’re always trying to drive curiosity and encourage people to date. Whether it’s the product experience and trying to focus a dater’s conversation and get them into a date, or whether it’s celebrating the different ways people can meet. That’s what this work is doing.
One of my favorite stories in the anthology is a piece written by John Paul Brammer that tells the love connection story of John and Maura, a couple who matched on Hinge, did not end up on a date, and about a year later, matched again on Hinge. We wanted to celebrate the diversity of different ways people meet on Hinge and just be really honest and authentic.
