Case Study: Kindred Speed Dating ➡️ Kindred Social

What does it take to run a successful event?

For my friend Derick, pounding the pavement, partnerships, and pleading worked…kinda.

Derick is a co-founder of a new dating platform, Kindred Speed Dating.

He is also THE most social person I know.

Throughout the years, his friends have become my friends. He knows how to convince people to attend an event, then get them talking to strangers.

(He accidentally started an unofficial pickleball league. One day he wanted to play pickleball, so he called up 30 friends who all showed up. We reserved 4 courts and started rotating. We meet weekly during the summers.🥒)

Despite his natural proclivity as a superconnector, Derick had a problem last month.

His investors were close to cutting a check.

But they had one condition: To see a successful, well-attended Kindred speed dating event.

The tickets sold. Within hours of the launch, they had 3x the amount of tickets needed.

There was one problem.

The men weren’t sold.

Out of the 75 registrations, only three were men…

Derick flew from Atlanta to Dallas to start hustling. He turned on his charisma to chat up single dudes asking if they wanted to meet with any of his 72 ladies ready to meet Mr. Right.

He couldn’t give these event tickets away.

His problem was the market’s association with the product came in conflict their self-identity - AKA…

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No man wants to admit he needs help finding a date.

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(If he doesn't want to go for free, there's little chance he'll pay for a ticket.)

They ended up taking a loss on the event and only hosting an intimate group of 10 women and 10 men.

Now, the Kindred Speed Dating team has gone back to the drawing board.

Derick and the team are now rebranding to "Kindred Social".

If I was Derick, here’s the marketing approach I’d take for Kindred 2.0's event marketing.

1. Run social media ads targeted to their single men demographic
   1. Buy high quality stock video of high-energy events. Add their new branding and a compelling message to get a group of guys to see this event as not only a great place to hang out, but a place to meet quality people.
2. Run ads on radio stations, retarget them on social media.
   1. Their initial demographic was targeted to Christians, who might be one of the few demographics who still listen to radio. Find 3 Dallas Christian radio stations and buy airtime via an ad or get a spot on the events segment.
   2. Then, re-target those same radio station listeners with Meta ads. You can do this by targeting the age range and the Facebook page of the radio station.
3. Partner with the venue for distribution.
   1. If the venue is open to promoting the event, leverage their distribution channels — email lists, social media posts, website, posters inside, etc.
   2. This organic approach shouldn’t be the primary method, but many times is the only approach event marketers try (often because it’s free).

If you’ve ever heard Whitney Wolfe Heard tell the story of how she helped launch Tinder (and then Bumble years later), you already know Derick's in person hustle is standard for the dating app world.

As a marketer, courting two unique target audiences is hard work (especially when they have to work together for your product to work correctly). Kindred’s problem so far has been courting both the hetero women-market and the hetero men-market.

Here's what we can take away from Kindred's first event:

• Audience research is an ongoing process, not something that happens once.
• Preserving self-identity can be more powerful than the cold hard facts (sorry fellas).
• The hesitation might not be your product, it might just be the name you call it by.

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If you’re curious about how Kindred is progressing (or know any single men in Dallas, TX), check out their website here.

P.S. If you liked this case study story style, let me know!