Behind Tinder’s Original EP Which Broke Up with Bots

Tinder has officially broken up with bots on the Canadian version of its app, thanks to sweeping policy changes implemented earlier this summer. Specifically,since June, the brand reports that nearly 100% of its active users – excluding Quebec – have completed a ‘Tinder Face Check™’, a system which requires them to submit a mandatory video selfie to ensure an additional layer of account confidence and security.

While the launch has already proven its merit, with just shy of 90% of Tinder’s national users earning a ‘Photo Verified’ badge, for the internal brand team, this occasion meant more than just a shiny new feature functioning as intended. As Caitlin Benn, senior marketing manager at Tinder Canada puts it, the “significance” and “industry-first” nature of this solution dictated that the rollout be more than a mere “one-and-done”, which is precisely why the team worked to produce a 360-degree campaign capable of driving awareness, sparking conversation, and keeping people engaged.

“Tinder Face Check™ is the first ever marketing campaign that we’ve done in Canada, and it centres on a feature that responds to a user problem young Canadian daters have been voicing: concerns about bots and scammers,” she says. “It’s been a great opportunity to show our commitment to the market, both from a product and marketing standpoint. Whether in the insights that drove the campaign ideas, or the execution of the ideas, we made sure to take a very Canadian lens, because we know this localised approach is a must to create resonance and relevance.”

The brand found itself in need of a worthy creative partner to fulfil such a vision. And this is where GUT’s Toronto agency came into play. Taking inspiration from the behaviours of heartbroken exes – and the frequency with which people turn to music when coping with such pain – the agency decided to position these newly-rejected bots similarly, launching a six-track breakup EP on Spotify, sung from their point of view.

“‘Bot Ballads’ felt like the perfect way to bookend our campaign,” explains Mat Cruz, creative director at GUT Toronto. “The introduction of Tinder Face Check™ always felt like Tinder’s way of breaking up with bots; it’s the classic, ‘It’s not you, it’s me’. And what better way to communicate that than in the universal language of breakup songs, in the voice of the very bots kicked off our platform… only this time, it’s bots experiencing heartbreak, while our users get to celebrate a safer, more authentic Tinder? Plus, we hid one-week Tinder Gold™ codes in the lyrics to help spark those real, human, connections.”

Such an endeavour was never going to be a small undertaking. As the industry’s composers consistently demonstrate, finding the right sound, lyrics and feel is of the utmost importance when creating a musically-driven campaign, which meant the GUT team needed to be on top of its game if this was going to land successfully.

Keenly aware of this, the agency’s creatives immediately established their want for ‘Bot Ballads’ to feel like a proper emulation of historic human heartache songs. So, before partnering up with the Brazil-based music studio Satelite, the decision was made to span an assortment of genres, from ‘80s power ballads and ‘90s R&B to screamo and gen z pop-punk, each of which would centre around the story of digital beings struggling to come to terms with the brutality of this new reality.

“Singing about heartbreak can be heard across almost all genres of music, and it was important for us to reflect that,” Mat continues. “Internally, there was a bit of self-reflection – what did we listen to when we were dumped? What do people listen to now, as well as back in the ‘80s? Once we identified the genres of music, we conducted a deep dive into song structures, and discovered common elements that we leveraged to write sad robot lyrics.”

The resulting EP featured the following tracks: ‘Didn't Know I Had a Heart... Until You Broke It’, ‘You Ctrl Alt Deleted Me’, ‘Screaming in Code You'll Never Read’, ‘Left My Love Buffering’, ‘Love Bytes’, and ‘Love's a Glitch’.

Immediately, they served as testament to GUT hitting its aim of creating a truly diverse, authentic-feeling breakup EP… but the work didn’t stop there. Instead, for the campaign to truly function as well-rounded, it was imperative that the team create some original album art for effective promotion, and release an ‘80s-style music compilation infomercial to better publicise the launch.

“From the moment we landed on the different genres, we also did a deep dive into various pieces of album art, mapping out common themes and design elements that existed across different artists in a single genre,” he says, explaining the first. “From there, we just swapped people for robots, and it immediately felt right.”

The infomercial, on the other hand, proved a bit more demanding, albeit equally fun. Shot entirely with a VHS camera – including the supers – the creative director calls the experience “insane” (but in a good way), before praising the role it played in the overall success of the rollout. “It was a great way to tell the full story,” he continues. “Not only that, but it also showcased all the elements of the campaign wrapped in this campy world that feels so true to the idea.”

This multifaceted strategic approach appears to have paid dividends. Looking at how everything has come together, Caitlin expresses pride at how the overall launch of Tinder Face Check™ has gone, noting that from a holistic point of view, the decision to utilise a series of blips across the past few months proved a real winner in communicating the brand story.

“From sparking buzz with our guerrilla-style PR stunt in Toronto, to building awareness through our online video campaign, and now keeping the momentum going with these ‘Bot Ballads’, every element of the campaign served a purpose and was intentionally designed to work together to truly resonate with our audience,” she says.

But, the marketing manager notes, things aren’t going to stop there. While Tinder Face Check™ is something the brand is excited to continue placing front and centre of its marketing efforts, the Tinder Canada representative teases a broader future with a simple “there’s lots more to come”, emphasising an overall aspiration to evolve with the needs of young daters, where and when possible.

At present, however, this is also an opportune moment for both Caitlin and Mat to take in what they’ve already created, and celebrate the silliness and catchiness of their new EP and complementary assets. Wrapping up by reflecting on their favourite elements of ‘Bot Ballads’, the pair opt for two very different but equally compelling track choices – songs readers are encouraged to listen to immediately.

“In terms of favourite tracks… that’s a tough one, but I will say that ‘You CTRL ALT Deleted Me’ plays on repeat in my head; it’s so catchy,” asserts the former, to which the creative director adds, “My personal favourite is definitely ‘Screaming in Code’. You can’t drop a heartbreak album without some 2000s emo.”