paird launched with hand-cut papercraft couples - love is handmade, not stock

Launch a new dating app against a category of glossy stock-photo couples, positioning paird as the app for people willing to put in the work.

Every launch asset is a meticulously hand-built cut-paper collage - handmade, layered and perfectly imperfect, like the people and effort real dating takes.

Illustrator Ashley Barron built each scene by hand: peanut butter and jelly on a bread-couch binge-watching Netflix, burger and fries on a dinner date, a third scene held for Valentine's Day. In-house digital media led by Rita Steinberg pushed it across social and search, leaning on local Toronto media for awareness.

The campaign launched January 21, 2022 to back the app's debut, aiming to grow the database of hopeful singles; LBB reported no user or performance figures.

For the official launch of new dating app paird, independent agency FUSE Create developed an animated papercraft campaign in partnership with Toronto illustrator Ashley Barron. In a world obsessed with fast and easy, paird wanted to bring back the human element of digital dating - so everything in the 'Get paired with paird' campaign is handmade through a cut-paper collage technique.

Each sketch is meticulously designed and built, letting people notice the small details and giving a well-rounded picture - 'the same goes for dating', as the agency put it. 'Rather than stock photos of happy couples, we used papercraft, which is uniquely handmade and perfectly imperfect. It's layered, detailed and has depth, not unlike people and their personalities,' said Patrice Pollack, creative director at FUSE Create.

Each papercraft scene depicts a fun, unexpected perfect pairing in a romantic setting: peanut butter and jelly on a bread couch binge-watching Netflix, burger and fries on a dinner date, and a third scene launching on Valentine's Day. The media plan, handled in-house by digital media director Rita Steinberg, leaned into local Toronto media for awareness and used social and search to grow the database of hopeful singles.

Stock-photo happy couples said nothing new; papercraft's visible layers made 'depth' literal.

Unexpected pairings - PB&J, burger and fries - showed 'perfect pairs' in a way anyone instantly gets.

The handmade imperfection mirrored the app's promise: connection takes work, not a swipe.

Local Toronto craft and media grounded an app launch in a real community.

Craft is positioning: when your message is 'dating takes effort', making every asset by hand proves the point before a word of copy does.

The 'Get paired with paird' campaign launched on January 21, 2022, backed by an in-house digital media plan across social and search, with a third papercraft scene reserved for Valentine's Day. Pollack framed the craft as the message itself; LBB's report gave no download or growth figures.