Using surprise and humour to gain attention as a new entrant in a crowded market

How an underdog launched in the US by shifting from short termist performance ads to bold brand marketing, waking up singles from the nightmare of modern dating and gaining high quality app users in the process.

Overview

Jigsaw is an anti-superficial dating app where every profile picture is initially obscured by a jigsaw puzzle. After matching based on personality, it then takes a real conversation to reveal your match’s face from beneath the puzzle. This functionality is intentionally designed to slow the gamified snap judgements that power other dating app experiences. 

Founded in the UK in 2016 by best friends who were frustrated with superficial dating apps, Jigsaw quickly grew a loyal audience in London. In 2020 the decision was made to turn attention to the US market, knowing that 70% of American singles find dating apps shallow and superficial, and 67% are sick of being judged on their looks. 

We were then invited to work with Jigsaw to oversee an annual marketing plan that would help them launch in new US markets in 2021, resulting in a brief for an attention-grabbing brand campaign.

We faced two challenges

A performance-only approach was seeing rising CPAs

A short-termist click strategy was no longer leading to efficient downloads. What’s more, by chasing the cheapest downloads the app was being filled with low quality users.

Despite a distinct USP, marketing wasn’t driving emotional appeal

In a noisy category full of clichéd tropes Jigsaw had a unique point of view, but was caught up in functional messaging explaining how the app worked. They weren’t showing why people should use the app and they weren’t producing memorable creative that could build emotional appeal and support long term growth.

Insight

A dating app offers no value unless there are enough potential dates in your local area who are looking for the same kind of connection. We needed to craft a launch campaign that would capture attention across a diverse singles audience and drive usage from people who are sick of the superficial and are in the same geographic area.

This meant figuring out the best place to launch. We analysed dozens of markets across the US based on data covering age, gender, values and even proximity to other markets that would help word of mouth spread most effectively. This indicated a need to saturate an open-minded, young and well-connected city. Austin, Texas stood out as the answer – known for its progressive population, counter-cultural attitude and growing tech scene. 

Audience research indicated huge dissatisfaction with current dating apps and pointed to a sense that ‘the apps’ had taken dating to a point of no return: namely, a growing reliance on algorithms, an ever greater focus on looks not personality, and a lack of real human connection. It was clear what story we needed to tell – that, left unchallenged, dating was headed for disaster, full stop. The world needed a new disruptor to steer dating away from a sense of inevitable shallowness and set us on a different course. And we needed to show that this challenger was Jigsaw.

Strategy and approach

‘We’re changing the face of dating’

We formulated an overarching idea that would speak on both an emotional and rational level:

1. Jigsaw’s purpose to save singles from the wider cultural context of superficial dating app culture
2. Jigsaw’s unique functionality where faces are hidden from view behind puzzle pieces.

Media

To communicate this we knew our media approach needed to favour placements with storytelling potential – YouTube, audio ads and TikTok were key targets. 

Creative

As a new, small challenger our creative had to stand out and communicate with users in a totally new way, unlike any dating app out there. We decided to commit to a confident, cheeky and unapologetic tone of voice. To cut through the noise, smaltz and clichés, we insisted on humour and comedy as a key requirement of our strategy and given the focus on Austin we were keen to lean towards the surprising and weird too.

A series of six films, three long, three short, set in the year 2069. Each video transported viewers into a shocking satirical future where we imagined how Gen Z might be dating as eternally-single septuagenarians in a world where Jigsaw didn’t exist. A little Black Mirror, a little First Dates.

Brand perception rose across TikTok and YouTube, resulting in brand awareness lift in over 50% of the target audience. 

In the quarter that the campaign ran Jigsaw captured 5.8% of a hugely competitive dating app market where Bumble is headquartered. 

We drove sticky users too. In comparison to an initial test, the campaign increased weekly active users by 482% and daily active users by 733%.