MEETIC ANIMATIC

BRAND BRIEF

BACKGROUND

• Business objectives

• Recruitment of users (take into account that, contrary to what happens with other recruitment companies-ie: banks, insurance companies, which need to have a long term relationship, in Meetic we want users to “come and go” once they have found their love).Thus, we need constant “coming of users”.
• Maintain brand awareness.
• Build brand.

• Brand maturity Founded in 2001 in France and launched in Spain in July 2002 (second country in importance and profitability), Meetic is present in 15 countries, including Asia & Latam. The brand is at a different stage in its life cycle in each market.
  In France, the brand has reached its highest level of maturity and is the leader of its sector; in the Spanish market, it´s starting to become mature since there are many powerful companies in the sector and more and more the site is getting popular: the difference with other countries is the need to convert the potential users who understand and have heard about Meetic into actual clients.The brand awareness in Spain at this moment is 82%, data extracted from a research study done by TNS in January 09.

THE MARKET PLACE (annex 2)

• What is the competitive context?

At a glance, the “dating scenario” in Spain is as follows:

Mainstream: dating sites like Meetic, the leader, followed by Match (its main market is the US) and Friendscout24 (part of Deutsche Telecom). Meetic has just bought the European part of Match.com

Affinity matching sites: Parship and Be2, which offer a mandatory affinity test to find the compatible love. Meetic Affinity, which will be launched in October in Spain, competes directly with these two sites, although they also recruit clients that could be Meetic´s.

Casual dating sites: those which are used both to find friendship and love; the targeted audience is usually younger (18-30 years) and the services are free: El Planazo, Yunu and Salimos are the most well-known.

Media dating sites: sites which are operated by big portals using their names but powered by dating sites, such as Yahoo Encuentros by Meetic, MSN Amor y Amistad (Match) or Queda conmigo from Hispavista (Match).

Social networks: like the name itself, they´re networks were people reunite with their friends and relatives to exchange info, pictures, videos, etc. Although their business is different from dating, we take them into account for its importance in the online world. The main social networks in Spain are: Myspace, Facebook, Tuenti, Badoo, Hi5, Wasabi…

• Market data

Online dating is one of the growing phenomena in the internet. It’s the category leader among the paying websites (except for sex and lottery- Comscore 2005, Online Publishers Association).

There are more than 1.000 online dating sites worldwide and with a turnover of $ 2.500 million in2007, expected to grow in 2008 to $3.000 million.

In Spain, the turnover in 2007 was of € 42 million expected to reach €50 million this year.

Meetic is the leader with more than 5.5 million registrations, 2.7 million unique users, and an audience of 28.6%, 60% higher than other sites (Nielsen Netratings January 2008).

• History of the brand

Founded in France in 2001 by Marc Simoncini, an internet visionary who also cofounded iFrance and iEspaña, Meetic started being profitable only 6 months after its launch. It is in Paris stock market since October 2005. It’s the third world’s dating site (without having an active presence in the US).

Currently Meetic is present in 15 countries in 12 different languages; the establishment in each country has been done through the start up of Meetic or by buying out other local dating sites; in 2006, Meetic entered the Chinese market and reached the leadership by acquiring Yeyoo (www.yeyoo.com), later the same happened in the Netherlands with Lexa (www.lexa.nl) and in Brasil with Parperfeito (www.parperfeito.com.br).

The next year, in 2007, Meetic acquired the leader in the British market, DatingDirect, with 4.5 million users (www.datingdirect.com), followed by the jump to Latam (Argentina, Mexico and reinforcement in Brasil) as well as the takeover of Neu.de and Partner.de in Germany (www.neu.de). The same year, Meetic launched its version 2.0 in Spain (www.meetic.es).

Meetic global turnover in the last 3 years is 43 € million (2005), 78.8 € million (2006) and 113.8 € million (2007). The Meetic team worldwide is composed of 400 people, from which more than 75 are dedicated to Client Services.

In February of 2008, there were more than 35 million users and an audience of 28.6, 60% more than its main competitor, Match.com (Nielsen Netratings, February 2008). Google Analytics in April 2008 stated that Meetic has a total of 2.6 million of unique users, which gives the site the leadership in online dating.

Meetic was launched in Spain in July 2002, one year after its birth in France. José Ruano is the Country Manager for Spain and Portugal. The Spanish office in Madrid employs 10 people with marketing, PR and Client Services departments.

The key figures for Meetic.es: more than 5.5 million registered profiles; number one in total users; the third internet advertiser (Infoadex source) with an estimated budget in 2008 of 11 € million. The average visit time of the site is 35 minutes (double than Match.com-Nielsen Netratings, Jan 2008). The average age of the user is 32. Average daily registration is 6.000.

Cobranded channels: Terra, Yahoo, Lycos, Orange, Yacom, Movistar, Vodafone, Vocento, Grupo Zeta, Lastminute, Telecinco, Antena3… and coming soon KissFM.

Strong TV campaign last July (the 4th TV campaign in the Spanish market) with 900 GRPs. 350 Meetic Lives (parties ad hoc for Meetic users) with 30.000 tickets sold. More importance of PR actions, resulting in deals with culture & music partners.

• Pricing

Meetic´s services are paying (registration is free but non-paying users can only interact with the other users if these - subscribers- have a Premium pass); the paying options are Basic and Premium for 1, 3 or 6 months.

The strategy is to be in the medium-high level to transmit the quality and the importance of having subscribers to be a more compromised service with more compromised users; it competes directly with Match.com, with similar pricing structures, although Match hides the need to also purchase the Basic when buying the Premium pass (Meetic´s price for this option includes both).

Be2 is the most expensive, followed by Parship as their business is targeted to an older and higher audience who search for a stable relationship; thus, they offer affinity tests and personality analysis as well as coaching; this is what Meetic Affinity will have coming soon (replaces Ulteem with some changes). The cheapest is Friendscout24.

The most sold pass is the 6 months and there are more men among the subscribers.

AUDIENCE

• What is the target audience?

The marketing core target is single internet users from ages 30 to 60.

Women are harder to attract than men, but for the general communication we have to talk to both. We cannot alienate either gender.

• What are the current client’s perceptions?

The results of a focus group done by Added Value for Meetic.es in April 08 listed the spontaneous perceptions as: prestigious, leadership, efficiency, expertise… At a communication level, the fact that the ATL campaigns are uncommon among the players, Meetic is the beneficiary with an 83% spontaneous awareness after the TV campaign of July 08 (Millward Brown annex 2).

BRAND PLANNING

• Key products

Meetic: core business of the Meetic Group.

Meetic Affinity: live in Spain from October 08, it’s the site which replaces Ulteem, as the next step on on-line dating (through personality tests, the site matches people with affinity who search for a stable relationship). lt offers new features and services such as the first site with telephone coaching.

• What are the priorities of products within the brand?

• The current core product within the brand is Meetic and we will continue to support this brand.
• The priority of the group for 2009 is successfully launching Meetic Affinity.

• What is the seasonality in sales of the brand?

Seasonality isn’t really appreciated within the Meetic activity. However, usually the best months are in the spring and summer. On the contrary, fall months and Christmas time is slower so it should be pushed in the advertising calendar.

• What are the key objectives of the brand in the coming year?

• The key objective in sales is to make new acquisitions.
• We also have an objective of building the brand.

TOTAL COMMUNICATION

• Are there any other brand activities in place?

The main brand activity is online (90% of the budget including advertising campaigns & partnerships/cobrandeds); PR actions are gaining importance (sponsorships of ad hoc events such as theater & concerts, press releases, presence in TV shows) and, in order to reinforce the brand awareness, in certain moments of the year we do ATL campaigns (TV and coming soon radio campaign in Kiss FM). Other actions include street marketing and other special actions. The BTL and PR actions usually involve a bartering model where the partner gets advertising on Meetic’s site.

PROMO: Last summer a very aggressive and innovative promotional offer was launched: “Amor con Garantía” and the claim “Enamórate o te devolvemos el dinero” with certain requirements for the client. This offer has been communicated in the last TV and online campaigns; it doesn’t expire as it is another option for subscription and a way to prove that the service really works. However, this communication won´t be the focus in the next quarter. However, this communication is not the focus of the brand anymore.

• What other communication activities are planned for the brand?

We plan to launch a new TV campaign this year; the idea is how to connect the Match.com acquisition, if needed. This is the work to be done (main concept, communication and visuals mockups if possible).

ANIMATIC