Bumble, the women-first dating app, has unveiled a brand identity overhaul, including a new app identity, to herald in its second decade, promising a new era of better dating for women. The campaign and app refresh were both led by Bumble’s in-house creative studio.
Part of the rebrand was an expansion of the app’s Make The First Move functionality with the launch of Opening Moves – an option for users to set a question that their matches can respond to.
Locally, Bumble’s APAC communications director, Lucille McCart, told Mediaweek that “our creative is focused on how the new Opening Moves feature will help women in Australia and New Zealand find meaningful connections and have fun while dating.”
The ANZ launch was supported by a fully integrated campaign, she said, “including large and small format OOH, BVOD, TikTok, Meta, YouTube, Pinterest and audio.”
According to McCart, the decision to revamp the brand was driven by Bumble’s global research that found 75% of women say the look and feel of a dating app is important to their overall experience, while 65% say that the visual identity of a dating app can make it easier to use.
“By updating our brand look with a bolder yet simplified design across the app, it helps us usher in the next era of making dating better for women,” she said.
McCart explains that since Bumble launched in 2014, the dating world has changed significantly, with this latest iteration a reflection of the app’s community’s most recent feedback, “and it’s the first of many exciting updates we are making to address our community’s needs, and make dating better for women, both online and offline.”
She continued: “We know that women want to have control over their experience but we’ve also heard that women feel like they are doing all of the work on Bumble. So we’re introducing new ways to make the first move which offers more choice in how women connect while staying in control.”
Leading up to the launch, a mini teaser campaign drew on Renaissance imagery, playing off themes of weary women, recognising the apathy many feel towards online dating. This was broadcast via AR, short-form content, projection mapping of the ads onto landmark locations, and social media memes.
The final, global campaign announcing the brand and product evolution was centred on the hero messaging: “We’ve changed so you don’t have to.”
The campaign involved a marketing mix of high-impact digital and physical out-of-home (OOH), as well as a film that positions Bumble’s women-first approach as an antidote to the exhaustion experienced by some women towards the modern, online dating world.
Despite the changes, McCart stated that “our core mission remains the same – women have always been at the centre of our experiences. This evolution isn’t taking the control away from women, but rather giving them more choice and control in how they make the first move.”
Bumble’s chief marketing officer, Selby Drummond, added that “with this new global campaign, we wanted to take a fun, bold approach in celebrating the first chapter of our app’s evolution and remind women that our platform has been solving for their needs from the start.”
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Top Image: Lucille McCart