A Realm of Swipes and More: In Conversation With Taru Kapoor, Tinder
Dating app Tinder has unlocked a universe of possibilities for all the youngsters gaping for a fitting match. The platform has recently come up with an ad campaign ‘Adulting Can Wait’ which garnered a lot of positive reviews. We at Agency Reporter reached out to Taru Kapoor, GM-India, Tinder & Match Group to share details regarding the thought process involved while ideating and executing the campaign. Excerpts:
Tinder’s latest campaign ‘Adulting Can Wait’ has already gained massive attention. What was the thought process behind the campaign since it was in complete contrast to Tinder’s first commercial for India that released around Mother’s Day?
In India’s social narrative, there has always been a lot of focus on ‘goals’ and ‘successes’ – the perfect life partner, the settled career path, the house, the car or whatever it is that one aspires to. However, we want to celebrate the journey of getting there – the messy, fun, sometimes confusing, but ultimately very memorable phase of life that is unique for everyone. We want to celebrate the little milestones and showcase empathy towards the struggles, dilemmas, worries and wins of this life stage without judgment. We believe the journey is just as important to celebrate and cherish as the destination.
Adulting Can Wait is about the experiences that happens along the journey through crucial formative years: the exploration and self-discovery, the wonderfully memorable stories, the unadulterated joys and the indescribable lows that one has on the inevitable path of growing up.
The film, which showcases a maze of experiences, metaphorically captures the spontaneity of youth and the joy of navigating this life stage, stumbling upon experiences, adventures and meeting a variety of people that ultimately become a part of our life stories. Tinder represents endless possibilities where each right swipe opens up a new world of unique possibilities. Every swipe is a new opportunity, a new connection, a potential epic memory or a valuable lesson in self-discovery. The film captures all the potential connections and social interactions, which eventually shape our world views as well as self-identity, that Tinder can facilitate.
Tinder is a companion and champion as we celebrate this life-phase and navigate all its unique dilemmas and problems.
In the last two years the category has been growing with many new players foraying into this segment. Please speak about the competition in the dating app segment and how Tinder is exclusively leading among rest of the players.
We are and have always been focused on our members, on making their experience better and continuing to be the innovation leaders we have always been. When you think about it, Tinder is one of the most defining companies in recent history. We pioneered the swipe feature and double opt-in (where both users must indicate interest in connecting before they can message one another) which dramatically changed the category and made the experience significantly superior for users, esp women, who particularly value the choice, control, the judgement-free community and the absence of unsolicited messages.
Tinder launched a new category for relationship social discovery in 2012. Before that young people were not meeting on apps. We look at competition as an indication that we’ve done something that has made others take notice, but we know that the secret to success is and has always been focusing on understanding our users and making the experience continually better for them. Our members are and have always been our best advocates.
Can you help us know about the USP of Tinder? Are there any new features the company is soon going to add in the dating app.
Tinder as a product is intentionally simple. It’s purposefully so and perhaps one of the reasons we have become such a global phenomenon. It takes a lot of effort and thought to make something so simple and intuitive to use. Anywhere you go in the world, regardless of your language or cultural background you can open Tinder, and intuitively know how to use it. We are about adding value for users and making sure that they’re able to make the most of the time they spend on Tinder. Aside from making the dating experience accessible via mobile, we invented the double opt-in so that two people will only match when there’s a mutual interest. No stress, no rejection and no unsolicited messages. On a design / UI level, the Swipe changed the world. Swiping right has entered into the global vocabulary.
Share with us the new or upcoming developments at Tinder.
While we can’t share new developments as of now, I can tell you that we are focused on creating the best experience for our users and are looking forward to 2019 as an exciting year.