THE DATING GAME

We didn’t know a lot about the world of executive dating agencies until approached for some advice for a new startup one.

The art of a successful agency is to convince women to sign up first. Then the men follow.

For this reason, we felt that the proposed name ‘Dalliance’ and tag-line ‘Tres Chic Liaisons’ could use some fine tuning.

A lot of conversations later, we found that many women were looking for friendships first. If it developed beyond that, great, but if not, that’s fine.

Professional women dreaded the ‘great expectation’ first date, the expensive candlelit dinner with no possibility of escape. ‘Keep it casual’ was the message.

From the men’s perspective, the existing agencies communicated in the sort of reassuring, ‘we understand your problem’ tone that doctors use for sensitive issues. No sense of fun there.

The brand positioning ‘friendships for professionals’ set a clear course away from the ‘looking for lurve’ approach of others.

From this came the name ‘Pencil You In’ , implying low-pressure catch-ups for busy professional people.

A micro-budget newspaper and bus campaign launched the brand so successfully that it was bought out by a competitor within 12 months.