Bumble Bets on Love to Revive Its Struggling Brand

Bumble is preventing to win again fatigued daters by turning to a advertising and marketing message already adopted by its friends: real love is actual, and you will discover it on a relationship app.The beleaguered relationship app, searching for a turnaround amid job cuts and declining income, has launched a worldwide marketing campaign that spotlights actual {couples} who met on Bumble. As proof mounts that Gen Z is souring on relationship apps, “For the Love of Love,” executed by Bumble’s in-house artistic studio, Particular US, and Area Media, makes the case for Bumble’s means to facilitate actual, significant relationships. The corporate has additionally refreshed its app, with new options together with photograph verification, customized suggestions, and a relationship recommendation hub that includes greater than 40 items of content material from relationship specialists like Jillian Turecki, Shan Boodram, and Kier Gaines.Working globally from late August till early December, the marketing campaign will comprise out-of-home adverts with pictures by photographer The Collective You, who captured actual Bumble {couples} from around the globe. To emphasise the significance of in-person connections, the model will host invite-only singles nights in cities like New York, Mexico Metropolis, London, Berlin, Madrid, and Mumbai. Further immersive installations will showcase handwritten letters, marriage ceremony invites, and child photographs from former customers who discovered love on the app. The marketing campaign will even function tie-ups with podcasts together with The Mel Robbins podcast, Goop, and We Can Do Laborious Issues, in addition to editorial partnerships with The New York Occasions and Vogue.All through, Bumble is showcasing findings from a survey performed with YouGov, which revealed 55% of individuals consider relationship apps can result in actual love, and 45% know somebody who’s discovered love on a relationship app.“This marketing campaign is a reminder that love is price believing in,” Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO of Bumble, informed ADWEEK in a press release. “‘For The Love of Love’ is our manner of honoring those that proceed to point out up with hope—for one thing sincere, deep, and actual. We wish to make house for that sort of connection.”Bumble’s comeback attemptBumble has a steep hill to climb in rebuilding its model, after the corporate axed 30% of its workforce in June. Its inventory has misplaced 90% of its worth since going public in 2021, in keeping with CNN, whereas its second quarter income declined by 7.6%.Wolfe Herd, who based the app in 2014, returned to Bumble as CEO earlier this yr to assist flip across the enterprise.  Bumble’s model additionally took successful final yr after a rebrand and adverts that sparked backlash for making mild of celibacy. The model later apologized for the marketing campaign. For this new marketing campaign, Bumble took a distinct method after connecting with its group, mentioned Neela Pal, senior vice chairman of worldwide advertising and marketing.“Through the years, discovering love on-line has shifted,” Pal informed ADWEEK. “It marks a renewed give attention to what issues most: serving to individuals discover actual love, in all its depth, uniqueness, and risk.”The relationship app problemBumble’s challenges mirror these of the broader sector, as growing numbers of customers report relationship app fatigue. Match Group, proprietor of relationship apps together with Tinder and Hinge, reduce 13% of its workforce earlier this yr. A 2025 survey from Forbes Well being and OnePoll discovered 78% of all customers and 79% of Gen Z have skilled relationship app burnout. To sort out this situation, Bumble goals to point out the way it “brings individuals nearer to like, prioritizing a member expertise that drives curiosity, ignites confidence, and sparks pleasure each step of the way in which,” Wolfe Herd mentioned. “We’re utilizing the whole lot we’ve discovered: the nice, the imperfect and the sincere, to reimagine what significant relationships seem like on this subsequent chapter,” she added.Bumble’s opponents have additionally doubled down on advertising and marketing that emphasizes romance and IRL connections. In adverts additionally launched this week, Tinder is celebrating the distinctive feeling of getting a crush. Earlier this month, Hinge continued a marketing campaign telling real love tales that started on its app.