An online dating agency for married people surprised Spaniards on Friday Juky 1st with a public claim about King Juan Carlos – and a marketing coup de théâtre too.
Update: I found the TV commercial
The company put up a large advertisement on the central Gran Via street, showing pictures of the king, Britain’s Prince Charles and former US president Bill Clinton.
‘What do these ‘royals’ have in common?’ the ad asked, answering its own question: ‘They should have used Ashley Madison.’
The US agency offers online dating services to people who are married or in a relationship, encouraging them to have ‘adventures.’
The advertisement was removed soon afterwards, the daily El Mundo reported on its website.
Ashley Madison offers you the chance to be unfaithful in the most discrete way possible, without leaving a trace and at the modest price of 49 euros, which allows you to make 20 contacts.
The company says it already has 47,831 members in Spain, and over 10 million in the world.
Founder Noel Biderman has said that they hope to reach 250,000 members in Spain by the end of this year.
Last Sunday they showed their first TV ad in Spain with the message, ‘Life is short. Have an adventure’.
This may be a long-term marketing strategy since October 2010, when Ashley Madison launched its services across Europe.
Back then, Toronto-based businessman Biderman said, as reported on Canadian Money:
“There’s no doubt in my mind that infidelity affects both genders and crosses every socioeconomic group and every ethnic group,” he said.
Biderman said the European response has been “mind-blowing” with 600,000 clicks on the German site and 100,000 members already signed up to the U.K. service.
“By all accounts and by every measure both regions are going to outperform Canada and on a per capita basis the U.S.,”
Biderman founded Ashley Madison in Canada on Valentine’s Day in 2002 after discovering that 30% of people on singles dating services were actually already in a relationship and lying about their status.
Online dating market value exceeded $1.9 billion in 2010.
As OnlinePersonalWatch reports, the online dating and matchmaking industry grew 2.3% between 2008 and 2011, with 2.8% more growth expected annually through 2016, according to IBISWorld. The number of people employed in the field is expected to increase from 15,606 in 2011 to~17,000 by 2016.
By the Numbers:
19.5 – Annual profit percentage for an online dating company, according to IBISWorld
14,427 – Number of online dating and matchmaking enterprises in the United States in 2011
15,621 – Number of enterprises expected to exist in 2016
18,285 – Number of people expected to be employed in the field in 2016
2.8% – Projected annual revenue increase for the online dating and matchmaking industry from 2011 through 1016
Users seem a lot more faithful to online dating services than to their partners…
Update: here’s the TV commercial
[Via CNN, TypicallySpanish and Money CA]
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