Zoosk, a leading online dating company, launched the Joan Actually Dating Advice video campaign in December 2014, providing real, actionable dating advice to single men and women looking for relationship guidance. The video campaign served as a way to increase brand awareness and position Zoosk as the go-to destination for online dating tips on YouTube while offering both current and potential users access to complimentary, weekly dating advice. Zoosk's overall goal for Joan Actually Dating Advice was to curate at least 20,000 views per video, ultimately increasing brand exposure and subscribers to the company's YouTube channel.
With a large goal of 20,000 views per video, Zoosk had to create a comprehensive strategy outlining ideal posting times, generating consumer engagement, finding potential guests, and selecting SEO-optimized content all in a way that remained true to brand. With overall success of the videos determined by the number of views, Zoosk utilized data pulled from YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to identify the best time for posting. Joan Actually Dating Advice videos were uploaded each week on Tuesday mornings, Zoosk's highest traffic time on Facebook. This ensured the maximum number of followers would see the videos through social media, along with those receiving newsletter updates.
In addition to posting at ideal times, Zoosk also gained continuous support from and increased engagement with members by selecting the most popular Joan Actually videos and embedding them into newsletters sent to nearly 35 million Zoosk members. While views were high when videos were initially posted to YouTube, this tactic served as a way to gain additional traction for older videos and bring people back to the Zoosk YouTube channel. Zoosk also elevated the reach of the campaign through paid promotions on social media, which promoted the videos to specific targeted audiences who otherwise would not have known about the series.
To keep viewers interested in the Joan Actually Dating Advice series and provide compelling, versatile content, Zoosk ensured videos addressed specific user write-ins via email, Twitter and YT comments. Videos without specific write-ins still answered some of Zoosk members most frequently asked questions. Topics of Joan Actually Dating Advice videos ranged from how to write an online dating message, to cheap first date ideas, tips for turning someone down and more. Having a large assortment of issues—tailored to men, women and the gay community--not only provided guidance to those involved in the online dating community but also to those engaging in traditional dating and even people who were already in relationships.
Zoosk also created two mini-video series within the overall Joan Actually Dating Advice campaign. "How to Get a Girlfriend" and "How to Get A Boyfriend" were broken into five parts including approach, asking him/her out, best first date tips, the first kiss and becoming exclusive. These series provided continuous and ongoing content that drove users back to the channel looking for new tips week after week.
Since the launch of the series, Zoosk has created over 40 videos and continues to develop new content on a weekly basis. As a result, Zoosk has more YouTube subscribers than any other online dating service.
Since the introduction of the Joan Actually Dating Advice videos in December 2014, subscriptions to the Zoosk YouTube channel have increased by 165 percent as a direct result of click-through to channel subscriptions via the videos.
With 19,300 subscribers as of November 4, 2015, Zoosk has more subscribers and views on YouTube than any other online dating site, nearly 17x the amount of subscribers the site's leading competitor can claim. Overall, the videos receive the most views and engagement on YouTube and Facebook.
While the amount of viewers fluctuates for each video, Zoosk has exceeded its goals for video views with over 377,000 views on the How to Approach a Woman video and over 943,000 views for the How to Get a Girlfriend series on YouTube alone.
The campaign has been successful by all measurable metrics and accomplished its stated goals of increasing brand awareness and engagement for Zoosk.
