Tinder and Bumble have been sponsoring frat parties and events in order to gain notoriety and new app users.
In an unprecedented and kind of genius marketing move, Tinder and Bumble have been partnering up with different frat houses in colleges with prominent Greek life, sponsoring events and parties while ensuring that party goers have their apps installed on their phones.
This phenomenon of blending online dating and college life has only started occurring recently, with students reporting that, no matter if they’re in a relationship or have never downloaded the app, frat events require guests to show their Tinder University profile in order to gain entry.
The Houston Chronicle spoke with several students, parents and Tinder representatives, discussing how the partnerships work and what both parties get out of these deals. “The dating apps provide money to cover production costs for parties, branded signage and swag. The frats provide access to thousands of potential new users,” explains the article.
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Although Tinder and Bumble have declined to specify the amount of colleges they’re currently involved with, they confirm that they have these sort of partnerships with universities across the country.
Dating apps are a big deal for most people but have a particularly strong presence within the 18-24 demographic, which makes up over half of Tinder’s userbase. Even though there’s something sketchy about partnerships between students and multi billion dollar corporations that force people to download an app, Tinder claims that it’s not all about parties and increasing their visibility.
“In addition to our Tinder U product experience, which connects users with other students first, we operate a student marketing internship program that focuses on on-campus partnerships, creative marketing activations and social media management. Through the program, we sometimes sponsor events with different social organizations on campus, which helps introduce — or reintroduce — our brand to new groups of people,” says a Tinder spokesperson.
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It’s too early to make assumptions or to judge the positive or negative effects of these partnerships, but it’s safe to assume that there will be an even larger and more dominant presence of online dating in our day to day lives.
