Digital agency Dept has helped Amsterdam-based dating app Inner Circle with a rebranding campaign that aims to promote honest and real connections for singles who want to avoid ghosting and non-serious dating.

The campaign is credited for boosting the app’s membership numbers to 2.5 million in June 2020.

Dept’s executive director, René Verbong, said: “Launching a rebranding campaign for a dating app in the current context is a statement to say the least. However, we truly believe that Covid has actually highlighted the need for more meaningful connections, and that is exactly why this campaign is so relevant in a landscape full of non-serious dating.”

Dept chose to feature 10 real users in the global rebranding campaign, which was dubbed ‘Meet Your Match’. They were photographed in their homes, wearing their own clothes, and talked about themselves and their personalities. 

The campaign aims to promote social distancing through headlines such as ‘Filter out time-wasters’ and ‘We’ll save you from the same old’, to encourage singles to seek deeper connections rather than immediate physical attraction, and to suggest that dating can be satisfying even at a 1.5-metre distance. 

Inner Circle’s CMO, Sanneke Boesveldt, said: “The ‘Meet Your Match’ campaign is the first of many ways we plan to address how much we encourage people to take dating seriously. It starts with the screening. We filter out fake profiles, scammers and people who aren’t putting in the effort. But there are many more ways we challenge our users to be their best and true selves on our platform. Since we believe only then will you be able to meet your match. And not just any match.”

The rebranding campaign has been advertised on social and digital platforms, as well as through promoters and influencers. It is being promoted in London and Amsterdam, and is due to be launched soon in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. 

Inner Circle was founded in Amsterdam in 2012 and is now available in Barcelona, London, Milan, Paris, Stockholm and Berlin. In 2018 it won the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, with a 3,460% revenue growth and it was ranked as one of the fastest companies in Europe by the Financial Times in 2020.