• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, August 21, 2024

Inspired by the recent boom in romance literature and the popularity of BookTok, Hinge is diving deep into storytelling. The new “No Ordinary Love” campaign is no ordinary advertising effort: Rather than the short snippets favored by many brands, it’s hired six contemporary literary figures, including Roxane Gay and R.O. Kwon, to profile real-life couples who met on Hinge. The result is an 80-page zine produced by Dazed Studio, highlighting six love stories' false starts, plot twists and hiccups. Jackie Jantos, Hinge’s chief marketing officer, tells Marketing Daily about the new campaign.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Marketing Daily: Romance literature is hot right now, and this “true romance” approach is fun. Dating apps always use success stories in marketing, but not many spin them out for 80 pages. What was the inspiration?

Jackie Jantos: This is part of the “Designed to be deleted” campaign platform. Everything we do at Hinge is designed to help people get off the app. We want to be useful to Gen Z, our core audience.

We’ve always told stories about successful couples who have met on Hinge. In many ways, these stories are being told without us as we grow -- we get wedding invitations every day.

We wanted to tell these six stories to encourage people to be open-minded and dispel myths about what meeting someone might look like. Culture has this narrative about fairy-tale first meetings, and that’s not always how it works. We wanted to bring these six stories to life with all that honesty, their twists and turns.

Marketing Daily: Conventional marketing wisdom says that Gen Z can’t pay attention for longer than the average TikTok. What makes you think they’ll read this?

Jantos: There is a desire for realness and honesty with this group. In this work, bringing real stories to life requires more of the story itself. We wanted to disrupt this notion that there is a perfect beginning. We also know that this audience is fascinated with romance lit and loves BookTok. We know they are reading long-form content and short stories. It made us think this would be a fun format to experiment with. We also have a history of engaging with creators in new and innovative ways.

Marketing Daily: Such as?

Jantos: Look at our social channels, for example. We don't use them in any capacity. If you look at Hinge on Instagram, you'll find just one tile. Our stories come through the narratives of creators we partner with. And this was a fun opportunity to work with modern literary figures like Roxane Gay and John Paul Brammer.

Marketing Daily: I get that Gen Z daters have reached the point where they’re too realistic to fall for a “happily ever after” storyline. How many do you think will go online and read the zine or the print copies you’ll distribute?

Jantos: We are distributing 10,000 zines across New York and London, and we have the website. We are also pulling pieces forward in different mediums, like out-of-home. The goal is to inspire people to consider a relationship and be open-minded to what that might look like. We're encouraging people to be in the company of another person and explore a relationship.

Marketing Daily: Using print these days is a pretty radical move. Isn’t Gen Z the most digital audience ever?

Jantos: Yes. This audience has been spending significantly less time together with people, and it’s been well documented through things like the Surgeon General's report on loneliness. We also have a strong social impact program. The reason they spend less time together is primarily because of technology, and they were in lockdown during critical developmental years.

By using a print zine, we put things into the real world. It’s an artifact that encourages people to consider being present with one another. We want to encourage people to spend time off of devices. This is an experiment. The zine is beautiful and fun to flip through.

Marketing Daily: You’re distributing them in New York and London. Why?

Jantos: We are the most downloaded dating app in the U.K., and have been for some time, and depending on the month, we are either the second or third most downloaded dating app in the U.S., after Tinder. London and New York are epicenters for creativity and culture and the changing dynamic of relationships, which is a part of Gen Z's lives.

Marketing Daily: Last month, Match, your parent company, reported that Hinge revenues are up 48%, the healthiest performance within the group. What’s behind that success?

Jantos: We have this principle within our marketing team that we build Hinge with our customers and not for them. We are in service of Gen Z. We are in service of LGBTQI-+ audiences. When we create a marketing program, we look around the room and say, “Do we have enough representation as we go on this journey?” If we don't, we are successful in bringing in partners and creators to do that work with us. That differentiates us in the category.