situation

GoFriendly is an app for women to make friends. It was started in Sweden in 2014 and quickly cornered the market, becoming a go-to destination for females to meet friends across different life stages.

After saturating its home base, the brand set its sights on growth abroad. It saw an opportunity to bring its uniquely Swedish brand of friendship to the world stage.

PROBLEM

No one wants to admit they’re lonely

Friendship apps have an inherent problem - people don’t want to admit they don’t have friends, even to themselves. There’s a deep stigma around loneliness – 42% of under 34s are embarrassed to admit they’re lonely, and ⅓ of women said they are more afraid of loneliness than a cancer diagnosis (!!). Even worse if you’re turning to the internet to change that - “sad”, “lame” and “desperate” are just some of the phrases people used to describe making friends on the internet.

Challenge

Reposition GoFriendly from a badge of shame to a community women were proud to join.

The digging

We spoke with women across 3 continents, seeking to understand their take on friendship, online relationships and category brands. We dug into the psychology of loneliness and relationships.  We studied the cultural forces working for and against the brand. And we became avid users of competitors’ apps, going on dozens of friendship meet-ups to understand how the online translates into the real world.

What we learned

People want to appear interesting

Instead of starting from a position of shame, we leaned into a point of pride for these women - their multi-facetedness. Their lives were a rich tapestry of interests, hobbies, cultures and identity points. And they saw meeting women around these passions as extending their social circle - not a desperate bid for friendship. Plus this positioning had the added benefit of appearing interesting to others, while simultaneously convincing yourself that you’re not “one of those” (lonely people searching for friends online ::horror emoji::).

STRATEGY

Connect around shared passions

The brand shifted from a focus on “making friends” to meeting women who share their interests. The new positioning became the North Star for the brand, guiding everything from product design to the founder story. The idea came to life in a creative campaign which lived on digital and social.

idea  

Friends for every occasion

ReSULTS

GoFriendly successfully launched in 4 new markets - India, the U.K., U.S. and Germany, growing their user base by 32%.