Knowledge-driven storytelling is on the coronary heart of successful buyer love. However like Cupid’s arrow, it will probably 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 name advertising & communications. Michael is a communications strategist and purpose-driven marketer acknowledged by Enterprise Insider as a Prime 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 sequence. 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 turned 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?
At present, ChatGPT is the one which has reworked my workflow. Though I may be a little bit of a late adopter, it has been invaluable. For my e-newsletter, Blurring The Traces, I conduct dwell interviews, file the audio, after which convert it right into a transcript. Utilizing ChatGPT to wash 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 difficulty lately, however a significant frustration comes from my communications background, notably when coping with storytelling alongside journalists. It is exasperating when headlines do not match the narrative we meant or after they’re overly unfavourable, but such issues typically lie past my management. As somebody who likes to have management over each facet, these conditions might be fairly difficult.
Deep dives with Michael Kaye
Are you able to inform us about your journey of changing into a model advertising 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 numerous sectors like world tech platforms, shopper items, fast service eating places, and leisure techniques. In 2019, I joined Match Group to guide PR for OkCupid within the U.S., which rapidly was a worldwide function. I launched the model in nations like Australia, Germany, Israel, Turkey, and the UK.
Over time, I took on extra advertising capabilities, 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 relationship app, which is a social-first platform for homosexual and queer males within the U.S. As head of name, I now lead creator partnerships, communications, PR, model partnerships, occasions, and social media for each apps.
Considering again, my function has developed considerably in the direction of advertising, which was fairly a giant shift from my earlier profession focus. When this transition started, I confronted numerous imposter syndrome, steadily questioning my very own expertise and match for the function. However then I noticed that on the coronary heart of it, all the things is about storytelling — whether or not by means of collaborating with a creator on a social video or participating customers at an occasion. That realization shapes all the things 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 greatest practices you’ve harnessed to attain world in addition to home-ground success?
There are three key practices which have pushed our success.
First is information storytelling. Not like another relationship app on the earth, OkCupid matches folks on what issues to them by means of 1000s of in-app questions which were answered greater than 10 billion occasions since we launched. These questions cowl subjects associated to relationship, relationships, and intercourse but additionally spotlight all the problems which might be on the prime of the minds of Gen Z and millennial daters. These insights actually assist me inform tales on an area, nationwide, and world stage with tailor-made angles for every market.
That leans into the second observe: localized, personalised narratives. Journalists right now usually are not on the lookout for a regurgitated press launch; they need a narrative with a singular angle related to their particular viewers. I can section the info by folks in New York Metropolis, Florida, France, and so forth. to uncover data-driven insights about how individuals are feeling not nearly relationship and relationships but additionally about tradition and politics at a worldwide in addition to native stage.
“All these greatest practices mix into one another. I do not assume a narrative must be one in all them. A terrific story is all of them.”
Michael Kaye
Director of name advertising & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
The final piece is emotion. Our tales have to 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 to humanize the numbers.
Measuring emotion is a really tough and delicate knack. How did you try this?
I am truly 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 numerous 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 folks.
For instance, whereas many individuals may love horror motion pictures, 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 lots to lots of our daters. The message turns into clear that daters do not need to be matched with somebody who does not consider that folks have the precise to decide on what to do with their very own our bodies.
Our information actually does inform us lots about human habits and the emotional connections our daters have to those main points which might be 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.
“Folks DM me asking for recommendation on relationship or constructing a profile. There’s a lot of dialogue between our staff and the precise app customers, which is superb as additionally they assist inform product options and model campaigns. We’ve a extremely shut connection to the folks on our apps.”
Michael Kaye
Director of name advertising & 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 exhibiting your truest self. OkCupid, alternatively, makes use of intensive matching inquiries to match customers based mostly on what issues most to them.
“Every little thing we do tries to drive again to that USP and remind folks why we’re totally different from a product perspective.”
Michael Kaye
Director of name advertising & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
Our advertising 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 predominant goal for ARCHER is first model consciousness after which model affinity. Our technique focuses on constructing model consciousness and affinity by means of each on-line presence and in-person occasions. Over the previous yr, we have tapped tons of 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 World All Stars, and that exercise truly drove double-digit progress and downloads the weekend our episode aired in comparison with the weekend earlier than.
You will discover that if you take a look at the advertising mixture of what we’re doing for ARCHER, it is hitting each potential lever. We’re not simply leaning into PR or creators; we now have 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 along with his mates, he sees ARCHER-branded napkins, and he is always seeing this model title.
OkCupid is a totally totally different ball recreation. It’s a 20+ year-old OG relationship 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 relationship app for an older demographic.
Once I joined OkCupid, I keep in mind asking my youthful cousin in her 20s, “Are you aware OkCupid?” And she or he mentioned, “Yeah, after all. I do know OkCupid. It is a relationship app for older folks.”
Combating the affiliation with an older demographic and focusing on Gen Z and youthful millennials is necessary as a result of we need to maintain bringing in youthful customers. We have been leaning into collaborations with manufacturers that Gen Z and millennials love.
One in all my favourite model collabs occurred most lately.
“OkCupid collaborated with the AI picture modifying app Photoroom to create a device referred to as the Ex-Terminator. This was based mostly on the perception we gained from customers stating that about 6 in 10 (55%) Gen Z daters have pictures the place they need to erase a former companion.”
Michael Kaye
Director of name advertising & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
After a breakup, folks typically need to get again into relationship. The issue is that their greatest pictures embody their ex, which is not supreme for a recent begin on a relationship profile. The Ex-Terminator device lets folks simply erase their ex from these photos. As soon as that was executed, folks may dive again into the relationship 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 attributable to the marketing campaign launch. This progress was in comparison with the identical month final yr. The marketing campaign was pushed by PR, social media, and influencers.
OkCupid and Photoroom groups are in ongoing discussions for brand new plans for 2025.
We’re leaning into model partnerships and constructing on the fandoms of different firms.
We’re additionally talking with a extremely huge espresso chain right here in the US as a result of 8 in 10 daters on OkCupid love espresso dates. So there’s lots brewing over right here. Pun meant.
I feel somebody must be brazenly homosexual to be on the ARCHER app, proper? Is there a means by means of your technique or by means 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 brazenly homosexual and able to specific their true selves. Whereas this may not initially embody everybody, we’re dedicated to supporting these on their journey after they’re prepared.
To help this, we provide the ARCHER Well being Hub function, 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 handle the gaps our nation’s schooling system has which might be failing the LGBTQ+ group as an entire.
Every month, we function new content material specializing in essential points. Matters embody coming-out journeys, residing with HIV, range in relationship, and dealing with rejection. Written by each exterior contributors and myself, these items are formatted as “how-to” advice-driven articles to handle powerful, 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?
Moreover the model partnerships, our storytelling has been laser-focused on subjects that our youthful daters care about most. These embody conversations round local weather change, moral non-monogamy, psychological well being, reproductive rights, and so forth. With 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 patrons to being the parents working behind manufacturers and companies, how have you ever seen the state of queer illustration in advertising change?
There’s undoubtedly been progress, however there’s additionally work to be executed. There’s an unimaginable LGBTQ+ equality non-profit group referred to as GLAAD that works to form the narrative and lead cultural change for the queer group by means of dynamic media. In line with GLAAD’s 2023 report, LGBTQ+ individuals are nonetheless underrepresented in mainstream promoting. Queer folks solely seem in 3% of adverts and obtain lower than 2% of display time.
At OkCupid, and clearly, Archer, as a result of that is an app for queer males particularly, we totally help the LGBTQ+ group, 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 consider there must be extra trans inclusion in promoting and advertising.
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 might say, sure, there’s progress, however there’s a lot work that also must be executed.
“Manufacturers have numerous energy. Even when not all of us have large advertising budgets, we do have advertising budgets and large platforms. Firms have a accountability and a possibility to really shift and propel tradition.”
Michael Kaye
Director of name advertising & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
Are there any shopper developments you’re seeing turn into distinguished or emerge with regards to consuming branded content material? What’s your recommendation to PR professionals and entrepreneurs normally proper now?
Do the surprising whereas staying true to your model’s identification. There’s an organization I have been talking with for the previous couple of months a few partnership with OkCupid, and they’re thus far out of our typical realm of partnerships.
I keep 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 turn into as a result of it was so surprising. And I feel it is a type of moments the place individuals are going to say, “What the hell are these two manufacturers doing collectively?”
Such surprising collaborations can captivate audiences and spark conversations. My recommendation to PR people and entrepreneurs can be to be sure 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 folks would actually anticipate from an organization inside your given class.
“Do the surprising, however keep genuine. Look past the apparent, however stay constant together with your core rules.”
Michael Kaye
Director of name advertising & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
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Our CEO Godard has talked about imagining G2 because the place the place software program patrons and sellers fall in love, which makes me think about a G2 model of OkCupid. What’s one function 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 function 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 an area product wherever you utilize it.
We have interaction with native groups to grasp cultural nuances and incorporate these insights into our app. For instance, in Israel, we now have folks on the bottom that we’re at all times speaking to, who’re our eyes and ears for what’s taking place in tradition and politics. We deliver these conversations and formulate them into questions for the OkCupid app. That is one a part of OkCupid that I’ve at all times liked.
“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 name advertising & communications at OkCupid and ARCHER
What’s your subsequent profession step? What are you striving towards or hoping to be taught sooner or later?
As we converse, I simply bought this thrilling information that we hit 1 million downloads for ARCHER inside 1 yr of launching, which is such an unimaginable milestone. I am happy with everybody throughout product, finance, advertising, and information for this staff effort.
My fast 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. I am desirous to dive deeper into advertising to discover and experiment with AI.
My objective for 2025 is to broaden my experience, develop and be taught as a marketer, and see wherever my profession takes me.
How do you steadiness all of it and keep sane?
Balancing all the things comes all the way down to time administration and sacrifice. I acknowledge that I am unable to do all of it, so I am comfy saying no to sure issues to make sure I may give 100% to what I select to have interaction 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 folks with how offline I might 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 function has mentorship performed in your journey?
I am lucky to have had actually unimaginable mentors at each stage of my private {and professional} journey. Initially are my grandparents, who’re my adoptive mother and father. They created a life higher than something I may have ever imagined. My dad taught me the significance of a powerful work ethic. I discovered the worth of networking by means of each my mother and father as a result of they have been at all times the most well-liked folks I knew. I would not be wherever with out them. Any new function, promotion, or award is devoted to them. I at all times thank them first.
Over my profession, I have been influenced by highly effective girls. Two come to thoughts. First is Maryam Ayromlou, a former colleague and Emmy-winning TV information senior producer turned communications government. Maryam is at the moment the managing director of storytelling & content material at Ruder Finn. She taught me a lot about shopper administration, expectation setting, and storytelling.
The second is Melissa Hobley, the chief advertising officer at Tinder. She’s the previous CMO at OkCupid, and he or she is the one who 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 discovered a lot from her about private branding and storytelling.
I’ve additionally discovered about empathy and exhibiting up for somebody within the office past their conventional methods.
Melissa’s handled getting old mother and father on the identical time that I’ve handled getting old mother and father and has been a help system for me to lean on and navigate as a result of, for somebody my age with older mother and father, it may be a really isolating expertise. She’s been my shoulder to lean on which fits effectively past what her job description is. I discovered lots about empathy from her, too.
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