OPW CEO INTERVIEW -- July 1 -- Cupid.comprobably has the best dating domain in the industry. Who else can
claim 2,000 years of branding history? Cupid offers a fast track
sign up process, does a great job of displaying real pictures of real
users on their home page, and has successfully integrated Predating
(the world's largest speed dating company) into Cupid.com. Mark
Brooks, Editor of Online Personals Watch, interviews Eric Straus,
Cupid.com's CEO and co-founder.

What lessons from your radio station owner days have you applied to your time as Cupid's CEO?
Our
advertising is done almost exclusively through our partner radio
stations so I have used a lot of the radio knowledge I have when I've
pitched them on Cupid.com. Beyond that, running a business is
running a business and personnel issues are personnel issues,
regardless of whether you're running a radio group or an internet
company.

What would you have done differently had you known better?
I
would have gotten the Cupid.com domain a lot earlier so I didn't have
to pay through the nose for it. We would have started our
localization campaign and we would have gone into the events business
earlier as well. I think our radio and our local focus are very
related. Localism is our niche so having local events in our
markets is our competitive and branding advantage over other dating
sites.

How do events help?
If
you go to Cupid.com and type in your zip code, in addition to finding
local singles you also find all these local events that are near
you. And we're rolling out more coordinators in more
cities. They will become our singles experts in those
markets. Our ability to do local events and have local experts is
our advantage. The singles experts will provide additional local
content; local advice, places to go on dates etc. This
speaks to our localism.

Are you still glad you acquired Predating?
Yes.
We feel our whole selling proposition is localism. Match.com has
mass. eharmony has scientific matching. We have
localism. The acquisition of Predatingreally helped in those efforts. We have 70 people on the
ground and well soon have 100 on the ground, and that's not something
any other dating site has. There will be other opportunities down
the road for other events such as lock and key parties. Well
offer larger singles events, which we think would be especially
attractive to our radio station partners.

Cupid is built on radio affiliate marketing, how did you get away with that?
While
I was still owner and manager of my radio stations in upstate New York
many of my radio advertising clients said they were having trouble
recruiting people. I thought a local job site promoted by my radio
stations could help them fill their openings. I approached Steve
Bywater (now CTO) and Bob Chieffo (now COO) and we built RegionalHelpWanted.com.
We had 1,800 radio stations on the Regional Help Wanted side, and many
asked for a second product. We thought radio was the perfect marketing
medium for a dating site. I mean, what medium reaches
single adults more consistently than radio? The internet space is
crowded enough as you can see when buying keywords and online
advertising. It made sense as a business model for our radio
partners. This is where my experience as a radio station owner
comes into play. I'm able to talk the talk with these guys.

Cupid is typically around the 12th largest online dating site according to Hitwise. What are your goals for growth?
We
would love to be in the top five. We're looking at possible
acquisitions right now and doing some online marketing.
Well do more work with radio stations and further improve our
conversion rates, even though they're very good right now.

What do you think of True background checks legislation?
I
think this legislation is totally bogus. A brilliant play to get
PR. It probably won't pass. It shouldn't, but if it does,
more power to them. As a businessman I have a lot of respect for
what they are trying to do. I respect them for giving it the old
college try. A lot of guys (other dating companies) think how
could they do such a thing? They have to worry about their own
business. If this legislation passes it puts them in a great
situation. I don't think it will, but more power to the
guys at True.com for thinking this up.

What do you think of eharmony?
The
concept is total b.s. and the marketing plan is brilliant, and I wish
I'd thought of it first. Scientific matching is total
unadulterated b.s., but I think it is brilliant mktg. Dr Warren
is a marketing genius. I don't think he does any better job at
matching than Cupid.com or any other dating site. He just came up
with a great marketing ploy. He designed a great way to solve the
problem of women being inundated and guys being ignored that you (Mark
Brooks) highlighted for us. Also, because of the perceived value
of this scientific matching hocus pocus, they're able to charge
double. I can tell you from the emails we get from customers,
there's a lot of dissatisfaction. They complain its a pain in the
ass to do. Users have told us they like to quickly be able to
get, do searches and open communication. I don't think you can
scientifically decide the best matches. There are 10,000 women
out there that are right for you and its up to timing and circumstance
to get together with them. I can't emphasize enough I think its a
genius marketing ploy. If you asked me if I'd consider
dating a Republican female, I'd say no. I'm a liberal, Jewish and
a democrat. However under the right circumstances I might.

Just take James Carville, Clinton's campaign manager and Mary Matilin
who was campaign manager for Bush. They were arch rivals
but they fell in love and got married.

We
work with a professor at MIT who explained to us something very
interesting. If you look at relationships as a continuum, with
the far left end representing never having met someone before, or
talked, and the right end representing getting married, how far along
the line do you thing online dating gets you? eharmony
proposes they get you much further along. I would argue
neither eharmony or Cupid get you far along. Meeting face to face
is what gets you further along. eharmony suggests you can
do more. Face to face is where it counts; how they smell, how
they laugh. There are a lot of little things you cannot do
online. Online dating allows users to learn a few things about
each other. The eharmony concept is, in my view bullshit.

Mark Brooks:
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