Hinge Is Bucking Dating App Burnout With Marketing That Caters to Gen Z

A message with longevity

Compared to peers Tinder and Bumble, Hinge has the longest-running brand platform and came out ahead with a claim to facilitate meaningful connections. The tagline “Designed to be Deleted” debuted in 2018, with an ad campaign in 2019, and continues to endure across the brand’s communications.

By sticking to that promise, Hinge has been able to establish a reputation as “an app in service of highly intentional daters,” said Jantos.

“We are not incentivized in keeping you on the app; we are actually incentivized in getting you off the app to date, which is differentiated in a world of many different kinds of apps, be them social or dating,” Jantos said.

Hinge has evolved that messaging to be more multidimensional and relatable, most recently with the “It’s Funny We Met on Hinge” campaign. The aim is to stand apart from “archaic representations of love and relationships that can feel really unachievable,” Jantos said.

“Dating is really hard, and someone’s story, with all the twists and turns, can be really humanizing and give people some hope. Some of these love stories aren’t perfectly successful, which is what makes them even more honest,” Jantos said. “Ultimately, the authenticity and truth of those stories is what people connect with.”

Leaning into creators and inclusivity

Hinge spends less on advertising than its peers partly because it invests more in creator-led marketing, said Jantos. Creators are “by far” a larger part of its marketing plan than traditional channels, she said, declining to specify the exact spend.

Instead of producing its own social media content, Hinge relies on creators and influencers. While it maintains official @hinge accounts on Instagram and TikTok, those profiles are blank apart from a post on the former with the “Designed to be deleted” tagline.

“We only tell stories of Hinge through creator partnerships,” said Jantos. “Gen Z seeks authenticity. Brands showing up in digital are better served doing that in partnership with like-minded creators.”

And at a time when many brands are bending to political pressure and rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, Hinge maintains that its “values are firmly grounded in inclusion and being a dating app for all,” Jantos said.