3. OkCupid Background
• Leading online dating site,
launched in 2004
• Exclusively organic growth
• 10,000,000+ registered
users
• 500,000,000+ messages
sent each year
• Acquired by Match.com
Our brand has become synonymous with data.
“The Google of online dating” – Boston Globe
3
4. 4 Math Majors Started a Dating Site?
• Fundamental belief in data.
• Why do people date online?
• What kinds of data can we collect?
4
5. The Three Uses of Data
• User experience (making better matches)
• Marketing (PR)
• Sales (targeting ads more effectively)
The combination can build a powerful brand.
5
7. A Unique View Into Consumers
• Sure, Amazon has deep purchase data
• And Facebook has deep social data
• Dating sites – and especially OkCupid – have
– Demographic data
– Psychographic data
– Lifestyle data
– Consumption data
Whom would you share your most
personal info with?
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8. What Are We Optimizing?
• What’s our definition of success?
– A 3-way.
• Key elements:
– Distribution of messages
– Recipient’s interest in the message
– Keeping reply rates high
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10. We have data. Now what?
• Goal: Use data to build our brand
– Leverage our data
– Create buzz
– Engage authentically
• First we tried traditional PR
• Then we started blogging…
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13. Largest Group of Dating Sites
• Powerful combination
of reach, depth, and
data.
• Not only use data to
target campaigns…
• But also to turn data
into the campaign itself.
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17. The Retailer’s Core Customer
• Female
• Between 25 – 45 years old
• In these zip codes:
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18. Ok, Cupid?
• This retailer had many data sources
– Ad agency
– Customer surveys
– Focus groups
– Market research
• We analyzed the 490,439 active OkCupid
members that fit these criteria.
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32. The Older Mass Retail Shopper
• She is competing (for men, possibly jobs) with women
much, much younger than herself.
• Perhaps counter-intuitively, she is much more confident than
her younger competition.
• She has two weapons: her attitude & her looks.
• This should influence communication and merchandising.
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49. Do My Date & I Have Long-Term Potential?
1. Do you like horror movies?
2. Have you ever traveled
around a foreign
country, alone?
3. Wouldn’t it be fun to chuck
it all and go live on a
sailboat?
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50. What Else Can We Learn?
Men Women
1. In a certain light, wouldn't 1. Do you like the taste of beer?
nuclear war be exciting?
2. Assuming you were in the
position to do so, would you
launch nuclear weapons under
any circumstances?
3. Could you imagine yourself
killing someone?
Will You Have Sex on the First Date?
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