What it had to solve
A summer brand campaign reminding Australian women they can do whatever they like, starting with making the first move, and that dating is meant to be fun.
How it works
High-energy creative produced by TBWA\Melbourne, directed by Courtney Brookes at women-owned and women-run production company Eight, with women making up 63% of the crew; running on YouTube, catch-up TV, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, supported by Havas Melbourne.
What it did
The campaign rode into peak season backed by Bumble's platform numbers: Australian women had made the first move over 75 million times, nearly 1 billion messages had been sent in Australia, and 2020 alone saw 305 million messages and nearly 42 million matches. No campaign-specific metrics are given.
Background
In December 2020, Bumble released 'Girls will be Girls', a brand campaign built by TBWA\Melbourne in close partnership with the app and directed by Courtney Brookes at Eight, flipping traditional gender norms by focusing on the power of women making the first move.
The origin was conversational, per Bumble APAC's Lucille McCart: why is the freedom in 'boys will be boys' rarely given to women? So what would 'girls will be girls' look like? The answer — women doing whatever they like, starting with the first move, with the energy reminding everyone that dating is meant to be fun heading into the Australian summer.
The production choices matched the message: Eight is women-owned and run, and women made up 63% of the shoot crew. Brookes credited Bumble and TBWA\Melbourne for valuing 'authenticity and the lived experience of women — especially the not-so-glam moments'.
The campaign launched into measurable momentum: 52.8 million messages sent on Bumble in Australia between Christmas 2019 and Valentine's Day 2020; Australian women making the first move over 75 million times; 305 million messages and nearly 42 million matches from January to mid-November 2020; and more than 20% of users 'new dawn daters' emerging from pandemic breakups, with 86% interested in IRL dating.
Why it lands
The line does the strategy: one borrowed phrase reframes the app's women-first rule as freedom rather than restriction.
Casting a women-owned production company with a 63% female crew made the message verifiable in the credits, not just the script.
Launching into peak season with fresh pandemic-behaviour data (new dawn daters, IRL appetite) timed the media spend to demand.
It extends Bumble's core positioning into a tone — fun, chaotic, high-energy — beyond the platform's earnest feminist origins.
What you can take
The sharpest repositioning tool can be a phrase your audience already knows — take the excuse culture grants one gender and issue it to the other.
Since then
The campaign ran across YouTube, catch-up TV, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram into the Australian summer of 2020-21; the source records no follow-up results.
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