Match: #LoveWithNoFilter

In a highly competitive industry, Match needed to exert its authority as a dating pioneer and demonstrate its commitment to giving singles the opportunity to start a real relationship. 1.6 million people in the UK have met their partner on Match, and we wanted to highlight this success by showcasing the couples who found their own happy ending. But happy endings aren’t always newsworthy, and sickly-sweet love stories don’t always appeal to singles…

We knew that singles find images of perfect couples dispiriting and social media has been a big factor in creating this feeling of resentment. Streams of #couplegoals has resulted in singles starting out on their dating journey feeling disillusioned.

We needed to show that it’s not always sunshine and roses, and that edited relationships on Instagram don’t always represent the whole truth. So we created #LoveWithNoFilter – an integrated campaign designed to champion a more honest depiction of love and relationships.

We created a three-day event in Shoreditch to fight back against these social media-fuelled expectations of love. Featuring talks from dating experts, anthropologists and influencer Tia Ward, as well as a gallery of couples who met on Match, the immersive event gave visitors a more realistic vision of love. A mural on the exterior of the building from well-known street artist Lakwena provided an Instagrammable backdrop to encourage Londoners to think about Match’s message.

The event was underpinned by a study of singles and couples, in partnership with Anna Machin, an evolutionary anthropologist at Oxford University, to contextualise the need for #LoveWithNoFilter. The event and research was then supported through media partnerships with Time Out and Refinery29, influencer partnerships, as well as a paid digital content campaign of Match’s success stories.

The campaign resulted in a combined reach of 350 million. The event alone saw over 10,000 visitors to the Match campaign page, 1,500 registrations on the Eventbrite page, and 600 event attendees across the three days. It secured 35 pieces of coverage across national, lifestyle and broadcast media, nine of which were of ‘gold’ standard. Our three influencer posts alone attracted almost 11,000 likes and comments, with influencer Tia Ward’s post securing double her average level of engagement. As the campaign was so recent, the number of resulting registrations to Match is still being tracked.