In April this year, the City Football Group partnered with dating app Tinder. Now, they are activating the partnership with Manchester City and New York City Football Club.

According to SportTechie, through the partnership, NYCFC is giving away 50 tickets for their final home match of the MLS regular season on Sunday – which happens to be the club’s ‘Fan Appreciation Day’ – to those fans who use Tinder. The first 50 to arrive at an as-yet unknown location on Thursday will receive an individual ticket for the game directly from an NYCFC player.

Meanwhile, Manchester City players Leroy Sané, Raheem Sterling, and Benjamin Mendy gave out “Tinder Tips” to a fan who enlisted the stars’ help to curate a better dating profile for the app. The 2018/19 Premier League winners helped the fan, Ben, with his pictures, his dress style, and his dance moves – then watch as he “pulls out all the stops” on his date with a new match!

Both City Football Group and Tinder are targeting younger audiences with their partnership. And as Tinder already reaches much of that group, this was presumably a motivating factor for City Football Group to want to work with them.

Whilst this is an innovative partnership in sport, Tinder has launched similar successful campaigns in the past. In March, singer Cardi B teamed up with Tinder for a “Swipe Off,” which was a competition for college students to win a free concert from Cardi B by swiping right on Tinder.

Students across the US downloaded Tinder just to swipe right on people for the competition, with many writing bios on their profiles that stated they were not interested in dating, and were only interested in winning the Cardi B concert – showing the levels of interest in the campaign went far beyond even the appeal of using the app for its normal purpose.

Teaming up with popular apps like Tinder is an interesting strategy for brands who want to target a younger audience. By utilising a medium that the audience is already familiar with and uses regularly, groups like the City Football Group can facilitate conversations and engagements with their fans. Many partnerships see the brands see partnerships with teams as a chance to put themselves in front of a sports audience. Here, the sports team is also leveraging the sponsor’s audience – in other words, it’s a true partnership.

.@Tinder swipes right on #NYCFC & @ManCity.

READ ➡️ https://t.co/23C89zZKEU pic.twitter.com/Axl5OwO5IB

— New York City FC (@NYCFC) April 5, 2018

Another buzzword at the moment is video, and this sort of content is another method companies are using to reach young audiences. With the rise of YouTube vloggers and social media creating a seemingly more equal connection between fans and celebrities or athletes, the interactions between actual players and fans in these activations is clever.

Fans and audiences have the ability to see deeper into the lives of influencers of all types than they ever have before, and that only leaves them wanting more. Videos that give insights on these influencers, such as the members of the Manchester City football team, are more effective in reaching younger audiences.

More than that, though, the “Tinder Tips” video gives Sané, Sterling, and Mendy the opportunity to show off their own individual personalities as well as group dynamic within their team, which many of the comments on the YouTube video reference. One user went as far as to say that “Sterling’s laughter is the best of the video.” Indeed, there’s something in this for fans of the clubs as well as the promotional aspect for Tinder.

So City Football Group and Tinder’s new partnership seems to be tapping into major trends right now in the ‘millennial market’, and it appears to be a mutually beneficial one helping both parties take their match to the next level.