Knowledge-driven storytelling is on the coronary heart of profitable buyer love. However like Cupid’s arrow, it will possibly both be a success or an costly miss.
That will help you craft the right love story between information storytelling and model, we interviewed Michael Kaye, OkCupid and ARCHER’s director of brand name advertising and marketing & communications. Michael is a communications strategist and purpose-driven marketer acknowledged by Enterprise Insider as a High Tech PR Professional, PR Web’s Marcomms Most Influential, PRWeek’s 40 Below 40, and a Ragan Sport Changer.
Dive in for a wealth of sensible takeaways about fostering model authenticity, amplifying queer illustration, and standing out from the competitors. Michael additionally shares some golden nuggets on sturdy localization and profitable model collaboration.
This interview is a part of G2’s Skilled Highlight collection. For extra content material like this, subscribe to G2 Tea, a e-newsletter with SaaS-y information and leisure.
Heat-up questions
What’s your favourite beverage?
An espresso martini.
What was your first job?
I used to be a camp counselor. I spent my childhood attending day camps, and in highschool, I grew to become a counselor in coaching (CIT). I continued as a camp counselor all through highschool and faculty, primarily working with boys within the first and second grades.
What’s your favourite software program in your present tech stack?
Presently, ChatGPT is the one which has remodeled my workflow. Though I is likely to be a little bit of a late adopter, it has been invaluable. For my e-newsletter, Blurring The Traces, I conduct stay interviews, file the audio, after which convert it right into a transcript. Utilizing ChatGPT to scrub up the transcripts by eradicating filler phrases and repetitive content material has saved me numerous hours every week. It is really been a lifesaver.
What issues at work make you need to throw your laptop computer out the window?
I haven’t confronted this problem lately, however a significant frustration comes from my communications background, significantly when coping with storytelling alongside journalists. It is exasperating when headlines do not match the narrative we meant or once they’re overly detrimental, but such issues typically lie past my management. As somebody who likes to have management over each side, these conditions could be fairly difficult.
Deep dives with Michael Kaye
Are you able to inform us about your journey of turning into a model advertising and marketing and communications chief for ARCHER and OkCupid?
Completely. I have been on this trade for about 10 years. I began with 5 years at numerous communications corporations, working with purchasers throughout various sectors like world tech platforms, client items, fast service eating places, and leisure programs. In 2019, I joined Match Group to guide PR for OkCupid within the U.S., which shortly changed into a worldwide position. I launched the model in international locations like Australia, Germany, Israel, Turkey, and the UK.
Over time, I took on extra advertising and marketing features, initially dealing with social media for OkCupid after which transferring into creator and influencer partnerships. By 2022, I began engaged on ARCHER, Match Group’s first LGBTQ+ particular courting app, which is a social-first platform for homosexual and queer males within the U.S. As head of brand name, I now lead creator partnerships, communications, PR, model partnerships, occasions, and social media for each apps.
Considering again, my position has developed considerably in the direction of advertising and marketing, which was fairly a giant shift from my earlier profession focus. When this transition started, I confronted a number of imposter syndrome, regularly questioning my very own expertise and match for the position. However then I noticed that on the coronary heart of it, every part is about storytelling — whether or not by way of collaborating with a creator on a social video or participating customers at an occasion. That realization shapes every part I do now.
Since becoming a member of OkCupid, the model has seen the best quantity of press ever, together with a White Home press launch point out. What are some finest practices you’ve harnessed to realize world in addition to home-ground success?
There are three key practices which have pushed our success.
First is information storytelling. Not like some other courting app on this planet, OkCupid matches individuals on what issues to them by way of 1000s of in-app questions which have been answered greater than 10 billion instances since we launched. These questions cowl matters associated to courting, relationships, and intercourse but additionally spotlight all the problems which are on the high of the minds of Gen Z and millennial daters. These insights actually assist me inform tales on a neighborhood, nationwide, and world stage with tailor-made angles for every market.
That leans into the second apply: localized, personalised narratives. Journalists immediately will not be on the lookout for a regurgitated press launch; they need a narrative with a singular angle related to their particular viewers. I can phase the info by individuals in New York Metropolis, Florida, France, and so forth. to uncover data-driven insights about how individuals are feeling not nearly courting and relationships but additionally about tradition and politics at a worldwide in addition to native stage.
“All these finest practices mix into one another. I do not assume a narrative must be considered one of them. An ideal story is all of them.”
Michael Kaye
Director of brand name advertising and marketing & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
The final piece is emotion. Our tales must resonate on a human stage. You may lean on the info to help your narrative, however what’s the private aspect of that information? We’ve got to humanize the numbers.
Measuring emotion is a really tough and delicate knack. How did you try this?
I am really going to return to the info for the emotion piece as a result of what’s fascinating about our questions is that every one is non-compulsory. If individuals are answering a number of questions on a given matter, it alerts a connection they’ve with the respective matter as a result of they do not should reply it. Going past simply answering our questions, customers can rank how necessary a query is to them. These issue into our algorithm and the way we join individuals.
For instance, whereas many individuals may love horror films, the info alerts assist us perceive layered info. For instance, it may not be a giant precedence for them, or they may not have a giant connection to that matter. However, what they do have a powerful connection to is reproductive rights. This implies so much to a lot of our daters. The message turns into clear that daters do not need to be matched with somebody who does not imagine that folks have the fitting to decide on what to do with their very own our bodies.
Our information actually does inform us so much about human habits and the emotional connections our daters have to those main points which are urgent for Gen Z and millennial daters.
We additionally actively have interaction with our daters. We do not sit in an workplace and by no means work together with our customers. We’re speaking to daters on a month-to-month foundation.
“Individuals DM me asking for recommendation on courting or constructing a profile. There’s a lot of dialogue between our staff and the precise app customers, which is superb as in addition they assist inform product options and model campaigns. We’ve got a very shut connection to the individuals on our apps.”
Michael Kaye
Director of brand name advertising and marketing & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
How do you differentiate your communication technique for ARCHER and OkCupid from its rivals like Grindr, Hinge, and Tinder? And from one another?
To distinguish our communication technique for ARCHER and OkCupid, we focus closely on product schooling. On ARCHER, each profile exhibits a face, which is a giant distinction from our rivals. The place they’re all about anonymity and secrecy, we’re about celebration and displaying your truest self. OkCupid, then again, makes use of intensive matching inquiries to match customers primarily based on what issues most to them.
“All the things we do tries to drive again to that USP and remind individuals why we’re totally different from a product perspective.”
Michael Kaye
Director of brand name advertising and marketing & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
Our advertising and marketing and brand-building methods for ARCHER and OkCupid differ in nuance as every model has very totally different challenges.
ARCHER is a model new app geared in the direction of a distinct segment demographic of homosexual and queer Gen Z and millennial males. Our major goal for ARCHER is first model consciousness after which model affinity. Our technique focuses on constructing model consciousness and affinity by way of each on-line presence and in-person occasions. Over the previous 12 months, we have tapped a whole lot of creators and influencers, however we have additionally hosted and sponsored dozens of in-person occasions throughout the nation.
We have already examined our first model integration on Ru Paul’s Drag Race International All Stars, and that exercise really drove double-digit progress and downloads the weekend our episode aired in comparison with the weekend earlier than.
You will discover that whenever you take a look at the advertising and marketing mixture of what we’re doing for ARCHER, it is hitting each potential lever. We’re not simply leaning into PR or creators; we’ve got to do all of it to ensure that when a homosexual man leaves his condominium in New York Metropolis, he sees us on a billboard, after which he opens Tiktok and an ARCHER advert comes up. After which, after work, when he goes to a homosexual bar together with his mates, he sees ARCHER-branded napkins, and he is continuously seeing this model identify.
OkCupid is a very totally different ball sport. It’s a 20+ year-old OG courting app with hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide. Opposite to ARCHER’s area of interest demographic, OkCupid is actually for everybody, no matter how they determine. For OkCupid, our problem isn’t model consciousness however model notion — being seen as a courting app for an older demographic.
Once I joined OkCupid, I bear in mind asking my youthful cousin in her 20s, “Have you learnt OkCupid?” And he or she mentioned, “Yeah, in fact. I do know OkCupid. It is a courting app for older individuals.”
Combating the affiliation with an older demographic and concentrating on Gen Z and youthful millennials is necessary as a result of we need to hold bringing in youthful customers. We have been leaning into collaborations with manufacturers that Gen Z and millennials love.
Certainly one of my favourite model collabs occurred most lately.
“OkCupid collaborated with the AI photograph enhancing app Photoroom to create a device known as the Ex-Terminator. This was primarily based on the perception we gained from customers stating that about 6 in 10 (55%) Gen Z daters have images the place they need to erase a former companion.”
Michael Kaye
Director of brand name advertising and marketing & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
After a breakup, individuals typically need to get again into courting. The issue is that their finest images embrace their ex, which is not ideally suited for a recent begin on a courting profile. The Ex-Terminator device lets individuals simply erase their ex from these photos. As soon as that was carried out, individuals may dive again into the courting scene with their OkCupid ex-free profile. And it was such a powerful marketing campaign for us.
Supply: OkCupid Weblog
14%
Was the spike in matches on OkCupid brought on by the marketing campaign launch. This progress was in comparison with the identical month final 12 months. The marketing campaign was pushed by PR, social media, and influencers.
OkCupid and Photoroom groups are in ongoing discussions for brand spanking new plans for 2025.
We’re leaning into model partnerships and constructing on the fandoms of different firms.
We’re additionally talking with a very large espresso chain right here in the US as a result of 8 in 10 daters on OkCupid love espresso dates. So there’s so much brewing over right here. Pun meant.
I believe somebody must be overtly homosexual to be on the ARCHER app, proper? Is there a manner by way of your technique or by way of ARCHER as a corporation to help people who’re on that coming-out journey?
Our method with ARCHER is certainly for people who find themselves overtly homosexual and able to categorical their true selves. Whereas this may not initially embrace everybody, we’re dedicated to supporting these on their journey once they’re prepared.
To help this, we provide the ARCHER Well being Hub characteristic, obtainable each on-line and on social media. It is a useful resource geared toward educating and informing homosexual and queer males, no matter the place they’re of their life journey. We created this to deal with the gaps our nation’s schooling system has which are failing the LGBTQ+ neighborhood as an entire.
Every month, we characteristic new content material specializing in essential points. Subjects embrace coming-out journeys, residing with HIV, variety in courting, and dealing with rejection. Written by each exterior contributors and myself, these items are formatted as “how-to” advice-driven articles to deal with robust, uncomfortable, real-life conversations.
OkCupid has been round for some time in comparison with its rivals. How do you retain the model feeling recent and related?
In addition to the model partnerships, our storytelling has been laser-focused on matters that our youthful daters care about most. These embrace conversations round local weather change, moral non-monogamy, psychological well being, reproductive rights, and so forth. Having the ability to authentically join our model to those conversations has catapulted OkCupid again into the cultural zeitgeist of Gen Z and younger millennials.
From being focused as consumers to being the parents working behind manufacturers and companies, how have you ever seen the state of queer illustration in advertising and marketing change?
There’s positively been progress, however there’s additionally work to be carried out. There’s an unimaginable LGBTQ+ equality non-profit group known as GLAAD that works to form the narrative and lead cultural change for the queer neighborhood by way of dynamic media. In line with GLAAD’s 2023 report, LGBTQ+ individuals are nonetheless underrepresented in mainstream promoting. Queer individuals solely seem in 3% of advertisements and obtain lower than 2% of display screen time.
At OkCupid, and clearly, Archer, as a result of that is an app for queer males particularly, we totally help the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, together with non-binary and transgender customers.
Over time, I’ve actually appreciated this about our firm, particularly OkCupid. It is technically a mainstream app, and we actually imagine there must be extra trans inclusion in promoting and advertising and marketing.
We’re proud to have labored with trans activists like Dylan Mulvaney or bisexual, homosexual, and pansexual fashions in our model campaigns. It is our accountability, particularly after we’re doing a model marketing campaign, to spotlight all the attractive identities of the daters we see on OkCupid.
All of us need to see ourselves mirrored in a model we love, a product we use, or a present or film we watch. So I’d say, sure, there’s progress, however there’s a lot work that also must be carried out.
“Manufacturers have a number of energy. Even when not all of us have large advertising and marketing budgets, we do have advertising and marketing budgets and big platforms. Companies have a accountability and a possibility to actually shift and propel tradition.”
Michael Kaye
Director of brand name advertising and marketing & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
Are there any client developments you’re seeing develop into outstanding or emerge relating to consuming branded content material? What’s your recommendation to PR professionals and entrepreneurs on the whole proper now?
Do the sudden whereas staying true to your model’s id. There’s an organization I have been talking with for the previous couple of months a few partnership with OkCupid, and they’re to this point out of our typical realm of partnerships.
I bear in mind going into that dialog saying, “That is going to be a waste of my time. I do not even know why I am entertaining this name.” Quick ahead half-hour, I left the decision extremely enthusiastic about what this partnership may develop into as a result of it was so sudden. And I believe it is a kind of moments the place individuals are going to say, “What the hell are these two manufacturers doing collectively?”
Such sudden collaborations can captivate audiences and spark conversations. My recommendation to PR people and entrepreneurs can be to ensure you’re not aligning your self with an organization with drastically totally different morals and values. I would not try this. However look past what individuals would actually anticipate from an organization inside your given class.
“Do the sudden, however keep genuine. Look past the plain, however stay constant together with your core rules.”
Michael Kaye
Director of brand name advertising and marketing & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
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Our CEO Godard has talked about imagining G2 because the place the place software program consumers and sellers fall in love, which makes me think about a G2 model of OkCupid. What’s one characteristic you assume G2 may take inspiration from OkCupid?
Our deal with localization and personalization is one key takeaway for G2 from OkCupid. This isn’t a characteristic however an method. On OkCupid, a person’s expertise is tailor-made to their location, whether or not they’re in New York, Berlin, London, Montreal, or Tel Aviv. We have developed localized matching questions for over 30 markets globally, making the app really feel like a neighborhood product wherever you employ it.
We have interaction with native groups to know cultural nuances and incorporate these insights into our app. For instance, in Israel, we’ve got individuals on the bottom that we’re at all times speaking to, who’re our eyes and ears for what’s occurring in tradition and politics. We convey these conversations and formulate them into questions for the OkCupid app. That is one a part of OkCupid that I’ve at all times cherished.
“This stage of personalization, together with tailor-made questions for queer communities, creates a deeply private expertise that I discover outstanding and unparalleled in different tech merchandise.”
Michael Kaye
Director of brand name advertising and marketing & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
What’s your subsequent profession step? What are you striving towards or hoping to study sooner or later?
As we converse, I simply bought this thrilling information that we hit 1 million downloads for ARCHER inside 1 12 months of launching, which is such an unimaginable milestone. I am pleased with everybody throughout product, finance, advertising and marketing, and information for this group effort.
My rapid focus is on reaching the subsequent million downloads for ARCHER and cementing the model within the homosexual cultural zeitgeist.
Personally, I’ve a powerful ardour for steady studying. I maintain a grasp’s in strategic communications and have accomplished numerous certificates applications in communications and social media advertising and marketing. I am desperate to dive deeper into advertising and marketing to discover and experiment with AI.
My purpose for 2025 is to broaden my experience, develop and study as a marketer, and see wherever my profession takes me.
How do you steadiness all of it and keep sane?
Balancing every part comes right down to time administration and sacrifice. I acknowledge that I can not do all of it, so I am snug saying no to sure issues to make sure I may give 100% to what I select to interact with. It is necessary to prioritize high quality over sheer amount in my commitments.
I additionally make it a degree to carve out private time, typically shocking individuals with how offline I could be. Every week, I dedicate time to actions like SoulCycle, studying, listening to podcasts, or strolling in Central Park. These breaks assist me disconnect from work and recharge, sustaining my psychological well being and creativity. Amidst our always-online world, discovering moments to be offline is essential for staying balanced and sane.
What position has mentorship performed in your journey?
I am lucky to have had actually unimaginable mentors at each stage of my private {and professional} journey. At the beginning are my grandparents, who’re my adoptive dad and mom. They created a life higher than something I may have ever imagined. My dad taught me the significance of a powerful work ethic. I realized the worth of networking by way of each my dad and mom as a result of they have been at all times the most well-liked individuals I knew. I would not be anyplace with out them. Any new position, promotion, or award is devoted to them. I at all times thank them first.
Over my profession, I have been influenced by highly effective ladies. Two come to thoughts. First is Maryam Ayromlou, a former colleague and Emmy-winning TV information senior producer turned communications government. Maryam is at present the managing director of storytelling & content material at Ruder Finn. She taught me a lot about consumer administration, expectation setting, and storytelling.
The second is Melissa Hobley, the chief advertising and marketing officer at Tinder. She’s the previous CMO at OkCupid, and he or she is the one that employed me right here. We didn’t know one another prior, and Melissa has at all times been a fierce advocate for me. She helped pave a brand new profession trajectory for me and has supported me on a private {and professional} stage for years. I’ve realized a lot from her about private branding and storytelling.
I’ve additionally realized about empathy and displaying up for somebody within the office past their conventional methods.
Melissa’s handled ageing dad and mom on the identical time that I’ve handled ageing dad and mom and has been a help system for me to lean on and navigate as a result of, for somebody my age with older dad and mom, it may be a really isolating expertise. She’s been my shoulder to lean on which fits nicely past what her job description is. I realized so much about empathy from her, too.
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