Guest speaker: Sonia Oblitey
Sonia is a passionate and dynamic senior-level brand marketing leader with over 20 years of experience launching and positioning brands in markets around the world. In her current role as Global Marketing Director at OkCupid, she oversees the development and implementation of global brand strategies and marketing programs in key markets outside of the U.S., ideating and launching initiatives that drive awareness, revenue and app installs for OkCupid in these key markets.
Previously, Sonia worked for Fortune 500 companies including Estée Lauder and Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Episode summary
This episode features an interview with Sonia Oblitey, Senior Director of Global Marketing at OkCupid. Sonia is a passionate marketing leader with 20 years of experience launching and positioning brands in markets around the world.
In this episode, Kailey sits down with Sonia to discuss personalization tactics of online dating, reaching people globally, and being an advocate-focused brand.
Key takeaways
Cultural relevance is critical when crafting marketing campaigns for online dating. Campaigns in Berlin may not exactly translate to folks in Tel Aviv, for example. Marketers must do their research to find out what singles across the world are looking for and create targeted campaigns.
One way to help users find a successful dating match is by continuously optimizing your algorithm and managing your data. This rigorous approach leads to more trust with customers and more impactful results.
In online dating, it’s critical that people across the globe can understand and use your product. In-app questions need to be accurately translated and culturally relevant to ensure users get the most out of their experience.
Speaker quotes
“We're constantly optimizing the algorithm and working on new ways to manage the data. So, it could be through CRM that you have a compatibility rate with someone who's at 95%. [...] And not only do you answer questions on OkCupid but you also get to weight your questions.” – Sonia Oblitey
Episode timestamps
*(01:58) - Sonia’s career journey
*(06:31) - Industry trends in customer engagement in online dating
*(12:40) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey
*(16:29) - How Sonia defines “good data”
*(24:52) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Uber, DoorDash, Dove, Nike)
*(29:44) - Sonia’s favorite data-based marketing campaign
*(32:18) - Changes in the next 6-12 months in customer engagement
*(35:06) - Sonia’s recommendations for upleveling marketing strategies
Resources & links
Connect with Sonia on LinkedIn
Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn
