The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Kyle O'Brien, Creative Works Editor

November 12, 2018 | 4 min read

Gay dating app Chappy has announced a partnership with leading LGBTQ advocacy group Glaad, called ‘Chats for Charity’ designed to raise money for the organization with each chat session initiated on the app.

This feature will become a fixture of the app in 2019, but Chappy will begin donating immediately. This philanthropic endeavour aims to mobilize the community around a common interest to support global gay voices and influence gay culture to be tolerant, respectful, inclusive and non-discriminatory. Chappy – Bumble’s gay dating app – will also partner with Glaad on a national and local level to sponsor events and community outreach initiatives throughout 2019.

“Every time Chappy users chat and connect with each other, they will be supporting Glaad’s culture-changing LGBTQ work,” said Zeke Stokes, vice president of programs at Glaad. “Chappy is making a powerful commitment to LGBTQ acceptance and we are proud to partner with them on this initiative as well as their broader work to build community.”

Chappy also announced the appointment of Adam Cohen-Aslatei as its new managing director, the company’s first, to be based in the company’s New York City headquarters.

Chappy Glaad

“The new partnership with fellow community advocate Glaad will enable both brands to reach a wider community, raise awareness for important issues, and raise funds while also building stronger community relationships,” said Cohen-Aslatei.

Cohen-Aslatei joins Chappy from Jun Group, where he was vice president of marketing. He formally ran ad operations, business partnerships, and marketing for the Meet Group, most recently gave a keynote at Advertising Week New York and received the President's Award from the Advertising Club of New York earlier this year.

He told The Drum that the timing was perfect to move to Chappy and help a brand he “completely respects” grow, especially since Jun Group was acquired by Advantage Solutions in September.

Cohen-Aslatei knew the dating space well, having spent five years with Meet Group, the home of human connection apps like Meet Me, Lovoo and Hi5.

Though he has been with Chappy for just over a month, he has helped make rapid changes, including helping orchestrate the Glaad partnership. “I wanted to restructure how business (is run) internally. The whole ethos of Chappy is to be at the center of gay culture…it strengthens the global gay community,” he said, adding that working with Glaad and its robust global programming will help affect cultural change.

He stated that the cultural change Glaad has helped usher in has “led to the vast changes in views about gay people…The programming they put on is so powerful. They walk the walk,” he added.

Chappy brand ad

The collaborative fundraising with Glaad is just the beginning of Chappy and the organization’s work together. Aside from the in-app promotion, the work is also part of an ad campaign, which Glaad is promoting on its channels. They are also working together on research to help impact the mainstream view of the LGBTQ community and help change cultural perceptions. To do so, Cohen-Aslatei said Chappy would survey its daters – over 650,000 registered users globally – inside the app. The focus, he said, is on expanding Chappy’s US presence, which it will do with paid media, digital elements, out-of-home, “interesting activations” as well as influencer and ambassador promotions.

“Everyone in the community deserves to have an elevated relationship,” he said.

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