The dating wars.

If you are on LinkedIn regularly then i'm 99% sure that you would have seen the work that Thursday are doing. Thursday, is the new dating app with a key point of difference that is only available on a Thursday. It's fun it's fresh and very reminiscent of early days Brewdog and a beautiful example of a challenger brand in action.

Credit: Thursday

There is also another dating app that is coming on the scene The Sauce. They are also looking to disrupt the dating scene but are more conventional than Thursday, as they are available every day of the week, although they do use video to hook people in.

A few weeks ago, The Sauce bought a billboard and declared a dating war with Thursday. And whilst the majority of the internet (LikedIn) thought this was brilliant, I controversially did not.

Credit: The Sauce

Don't get me wrong, I love the tone, I love the spirit of oneupmanship, I love the line, but I think this misses the trick.

Thursday have done a phenomenal job in a short time frame of creating noise, they have thought about the share-ability of their executions- everything they have done is designed to envoke a reaction with the consumer to spread the story of their brand to more people. But most importantly everything that they have done has been grounded into the consumer and their challenges in the dating world.

However we do need to remember that whilst Thursday has been plastered across LinkedIn, it is an echo chamber and the likelihood is that the vast majority of people in the real world will have not heard about it- yet. (I am sure this will change very quickly)

If we were 2+ years down the line and everyone knew who Thursday was this would have been great, however in reality they don't and therefore this joke will be lost on many people. They would have been far better at finding a way that addresses the problem of the customers and why The Sauce is the one to solve it.

This is a really good example of why you need to obsess about your customer and not the competition.