How OkCupid’s new ‘Climate Change Badge’ is increasing dating prospects for users: Datacenter Weekly

Welcome to Ad Age Datacenter Weekly, our data-obsessed newsletter for marketing and media professionals. Reading this online? Sign up to get it delivered to your inbox here. Leak probe “Facebook is under investigation in Europe for a leak that exposed the personal data of 530 million global users of its services,” CNET’s Katie Collins reports. “The Irish Data Protection Commission, the watchdog responsible for ensuring Facebook abides by European privacy laws, announced on Wednesday that it was opening an inquiry into whether the leak constituted a breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).” See also: “Facebook could have stopped 10 billion impressions from ‘repeat misinformers,’ but didn’t: report” (subhead: “A study raises questions as to why Facebook did not stop the spread of misinformation in the 2020 election run-up”), from Salon. The competitive edge What happens when your competitor ups its advertising spend? As Ad Age’s Bradley Johnson notes in the inaugural edition of “Just a Minute”—Datacenter’s new series of quick takes on the latest marketing intelligence—Analytic Partners is out with a new report that finds that “If a single similarly sized competitor were to double their advertising and promotion budgets, the average brand would stand to lose 15% of its overall business that year.” Keep reading here. Playing the field “Nearly one-third of U.S. brands may be contemplating switching up their ad agency in the next six months,” Ad Age’s Ethan Jakob Craft reports, citing data from Atlanta-based Setup. The self-described “marketing matchmaker” firm’s third-annual Marketing Relationship Survey, out today, takes the temperature of more than 300 marketers across brands (IBM, WarnerMedia, Duracell, etc.) and agencies (including Publicis Groupe’s Razorfish, Morrison and Modo Modo). Essential context: “Perhaps contributing to the instability of some agency-brand relationships is a lack of transparency and communication,” Craft writes, noting that the survey “found 65% of brand-side and 56% of agency-side marketers want to improve communication in their professional relationships.” Keep reading here. Green hearts OkCupid, the dating site/app, has launched its first-ever global badge in honor of Earth Month. The new Climate Change Badge lets users quickly add a “Climate Change Advocate” designation to their profiles by answering “Yes” to the question “Do you want a profile badge to show you care about climate change?” The badge only formally launched on April 8, but already, OkCupid tells Datacenter Weekly, 9 out of 10 users have opted in. There’s a feel-good marketing aspect at play here for OkCupid—the company is donating $25,000 to EarthDay.org as part of the initiative—and, of course, for users. Branding yourself as a “Climate Change Advocate,” it turns out, is good for your dating prospects on the platform. So far, users with the badge are getting 44% more likes and 72% more matches than non-badged users, according to the latest data OKCupid shared with Datacenter Weekly. They’re also having 27% more conversations than non-badged users. Keeping users engaged on OkCupid was part of inspiration for the badge launch. The company’s internal research has been showing that its users are “increasingly concerned about climate change and other environmental threats” and that green causes “are big conversation-starters on our platform,” OkCupid’s Senior Global PR Manager Michael Kaye tells Ad Age. Essential context: “Why more brands are making environmentalism central to marketing,” per Ad Age. The recovery quantified In “Fast food over fine dining: What spending data tells us about the pandemic recovery,” published this morning, Recode’s Rani Molla offers a brisk take on new findings from Earnest Research, which, she notes, “uses de-identified credit card, debit card and mobile geolocation data to track spending and foot traffic at businesses in the United States.” Among the insights, as Molla reports: Restaurant recovery varied by type, though none is booming. Sales at fast food and fast casual restaurants—think Chipotle and Chopt, where you can pick up food but don’t necessarily dine in—are above 2019 levels. Meanwhile, sales at restaurants where people typically dine in, both fine dining chains like Capital Grille or Sugarfish and casual chains like Applebee’s and California Pizza Kitchen, remained depressed. Molla also serves up granular Earnest data regarding supermarket sales, apparel (e.g., athleisure brands spiked during the pandemic), retail foot traffic across various sectors, travel spending and more. Keep reading here. Just briefly • Pandemic windfall: “CEO Pay Surged in a Year of Upheaval and Leadership Challenges,” per The Wall Street Journal. • Riding out the recession: “Rolls-Royce hits new sales record in the first quarter as the wealthy demand luxury cars,” CNBC reports. • Forgive and forget: “$50K of student loan forgiveness would wipe out federal debt for 36M, new data shows,” Politico reports. • Rebound: “Social media ad costs are rising as consumer confidence returns,” from Ad Age. • ICYMI: “Digital ad revenue increases more than 12% despite pandemic headwinds: IAB,” from Ad Age. • And finally ... there’s still time to enter: “Small Agency Awards entries are now open,” also from Ad Age. The newsletter is brought to you by Ad Age Datacenter, the industry’s most authoritative source of competitive intel and home to the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers, the Ad Age Agency Report: World’s Biggest Agency Companies and other exclusive data-driven reports. Access or subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter at AdAge.com/Datacenter. Ad Age Datacenter is Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Catherine Wolf. This week’s newsletter was compiled and written by Simon Dumenco.

How OkCupid’s new ‘Climate Change Badge’ is increasing dating prospects for users: Datacenter Weekly

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