STOP 01 OF 12 · MAY 2008
NO APP YET
ERA 01May 2008
A website first. Plentyoffish.com sold free online dating from Vancouver, under a header that told you to put away your credit card.
FIELD REPORT 09 · BRAND · PLENTY OF FISH, MATCH GROUP
Three brands
and a Webby
Plenty of Fish was my home brand at Match Group. I was on its marketing team through three brand eras and owned paid acquisition for it. The 2022 relaunch opened with a gallery of portraits of men named Richard, and that campaign won a Webby for Best Growth Strategy.
7awards for the launch
campaign, Webby included
campaign, Webby included
3brand eras,
one team
one team
THE NAME: PLENTY OF FISH2022 ONWARD
#FFA18A
01 THE BRIEF
The name got shorter, then longer again.
Plenty of Fish started in Vancouver in 2003 and has been part of Match Group since 2015. It was my home brand at Match. I rose from Digital Marketing Manager to Senior Digital Marketing Manager on it, a double promotion, and owned its paid acquisition across Meta, Google and Apple Search Ads.
The brand has worn three looks. In August 2011 PlentyOfFish moved to pof.com and shortened itself to POF. In September 2019 a flat angelfish replaced the glossy blue fish and the full name came back to the logo; the store listing followed within months. In October 2022 Plenty of Fish relaunched with a new identity, a new tagline and a launch campaign that won a Webby.
Agencies made the creative and they are credited here by name. This report covers the team side: what each era looked like, how the launch worked, and what I did in paid and in PR.
ROLEDigital Marketing Manager to Senior, a double promotion
OWNEDPaid acquisition on Meta, Google, Apple Search Ads
ERAS2003 to 2019, 2019 to 2022, 2022 onward
RESULT7 awards for the launch campaign
02 THE BRAND TIME MACHINE
Eighteen years of the same fish.
Twelve stops from 2008 to today. Each shows the homepage and the store listing as they were archived, with the icon and the logo of that moment. Pick a date, use the arrows or your arrow keys, or swipe the screen.
● BRAND TIME MACHINESTOP 01 OF 12 · MAY 2008
STOP 02 OF 12 · JUN 2010
APPS LAUNCH THIS YEAR
ERA 01Jun 2010
The glossy PlentyOfFish banner. The first iPhone and Android apps arrived this year.
STOP 03 OF 12 · DEC 2011
STOP 04 OF 12 · JUN 2013
ERA 01Jun 2013
The app years in the POF look: glossy icons, and a store listing called POF Free Online Dating.
STOP 05 OF 12 · JUN 2017
ERA 01Jun 2017
Flat design arrives. The store pitches free messaging and swiping, and the icon wears a FREE page curl.
STOP 06 OF 12 · AUG 2019
ERA 01Aug 2019
The last month of the POF look: turquoise, a white fish with a heart, and a pitch built on conversations.
STOP 07 OF 12 · NOV 2019
ERA 02Nov 2019
The angelfish launched on September 17, 2019, and the full name came back to the logo. By January the store listing read Plenty of Fish Dating.
STOP 08 OF 12 · JUN 2021
ERA 02Jun 2021
The homepage says Dating for grown-ups. On Google Play, flat illustrations and Plenty of lines show up a year before the relaunch.
STOP 09 OF 12 · OCT 2022
ERA 02Oct 2022
The last week of the angelfish: The way to date, #BESINGLENOTSOLO. The October 17 capture already shows the new site.
STOP 10 OF 12 · NOV 2022
ERA 03Nov 2022
The relaunch: salmon, a serif wordmark, Plenty of lines in the store, and a bar on the homepage pointing to the virtual gallery.
STOP 11 OF 12 · AUG 2023
ERA 03Aug 2023
Settled in. The virtual gallery bar is still on the homepage in August 2023, and the store keeps the Plenty of lines.
STOP 12 OF 12 · 2026 TODAY
ERA 03Today, 2026
From Plenty to one. The wordmark, the salmon and the fish in the P all hold, and the homepage headline rotates one word: welcoming, friendly, sociable, playful, relaxed, fun.
Homepages are rendered from Wayback Machine captures at 1440 by 900 and show the first screen a visitor saw; older fixed width sites are cropped to their content. Store screenshots come from the brand's own App Store and Google Play listings on the capture dates shown. Every date links to its source.
03 AT A GLANCE
Ten logos, six icons, three eras.
Every mark here is the brand's own file, archived from pof.com and its store listings. Read left to right, top to bottom.
The logo
- 2008Plentyoffish, with a photo of a couple
- 2010The glossy PlentyOfFish banner
- 2011POF takes over the header
- 2013PlentyOfFish, still served by pof.com
- 2014POF in gradient blue letters
- 2017POF in white, Free Online Dating
- 2019The angelfish on its own
- 2019Angelfish and PlentyofFish
- 2022The serif wordmark on salmon
- 2022The same wordmark in salmon
The app icon
- 2013Glossy fish with a heart
- 2016Flat fish, FREE page curl
- 2019White fish on turquoise
- 2020The angelfish
- 2023Serif P, fish in the bowl
- TODAYUnchanged since the relaunch
PlentyOfFish, then POF
- #6DC5DFAQUA
- #45A5BEDEEP AQUA
- #498C9BTEAL
- TYPE
- Chunky rounded letters with a glossy gradient. No typeface was ever named; the site ran on Arial.
- VOICE
- “Free Online Dating.” In 2008 the header added: “100% Free. Put Away Your Credit Card.”
PlentyOfFish grew up as a website. In August 2011 it moved to pof.com and the logo shrank to three letters. Online Personals Watch covered the switch that November; its author, who counted POF as a client, argued that a short name is easier to remember and pass along.
THE GROWTH SIDEEight years is long enough for a short name to live in people's search habits. The store subtitle still carried POF in 2021 and 2023, and brand search had to answer to both names long after the logo changed.
The angelfish
- #E70F89FUCHSIA
- #00DCDATURQUOISE
- #17265CNAVY
- TYPE
- A flat angelfish built from overlapping circles, beside a clean sans wordmark that runs the name together. The site set text in Open Sans, later Poppins.
- VOICE
- “Meet someone new today.” Later on the homepage: “Dating for grown-ups.”
On September 17, 2019 the glossy fish gave way to the angelfish, and the full name came back to the logo. Plenty of Fish's own launch post said the new fish redrew the original from overlapping circles in colorful layers, with bright colors meant to feel welcoming and low pressure.
THE GROWTH SIDEA store rename splits brand search. People kept typing POF while others started typing Plenty of Fish, so I kept both names covered in brand search and watched the query mix move. The angelfish then carried my paid creative until the 2022 relaunch.
Plenty of Fish, relaunched
- #FFA18ASALMON
- #000000BLACK
- #FFFFFFWHITE
- TYPE
- A condensed, high contrast serif wordmark with a fish hidden in it: its outline joins the top serif of the F to the dot of the i. The site pairs Nib Pro, a serif, with Moderat, a sans.
- VOICE
- “How Dating Should Be.” The store plays on the name: Plenty of options, Plenty of likes.
Mrs&Mr rebuilt the identity with Plenty of Fish's internal designers. In a category full of pressure and performance, Plenty of Fish took the relaxed side: warm illustration and a playful voice, so meeting someone feels closer to real life. The launch release said the salmon pops on phones and in app stores, which is a growth argument as much as a design one.
THE GROWTH SIDENew identity, same launch day in paid: the salmon look went into the Meta, Google and Apple Search Ads work I owned, next to the store assets those ads point to. Then two early reads, brand search for the name and conversion on the new look.
04 THE LAUNCH CAMPAIGN
Every Dick in the gallery is named Richard.
A rebrand needs a reason for people to look at it. The new mission was a more welcoming kind of dating, so the launch went after the least welcoming habit in online dating: explicit photos nobody asked for.
ONE23WEST answered with a virtual art gallery of dick pics. Every one is a tasteful portrait of a man named Richard, Richie or Dick. The gallery had themed rooms, a gallery statement, a history section and a gift shop. The joke carried a rule, and the rule shipped in the product as a No Dick Pic badge for profiles.
● THE EXHIBIT AS A FLOOR PLANSCHEMATIC · DRAWN FROM THE AGENCY'S DESCRIPTION
- WAYS INOut of home in New York, connected TV, social and video, influencers, PR, a pop up gift shop
- 01 · ENTRANCEThe gallery statement
- 02 · HISTORYA short history of the dick pic
- 03 TO 05 · ROOMS 1 TO 3Portraits of Richards, grouped by typeThe way galleries hang work
- 06 · GIFT SHOPCandles, t-shirts, posters
- WAY OUTThe app: a No Dick Pic badge for profiles
A schematic. The real gallery was a 3D website built by LNG Studios, with out of home in New York and a pop up gift shop in the real world. Rooms and route are drawn from the agency's description, not from the site's actual layout.
05 THE AWARDS WALL
Seven wins. Two shortlists, labeled as shortlists.
All from the 2023 award season. Both Webbys are in Best Growth Strategy: one chosen by the judges, one by public vote.
- THE WEBBY AWARDS · 2023WINNERBest Growth Strategy
- THE WEBBY AWARDS · 2023PEOPLE'S VOICEBest Growth Strategy
- MIA · 2023GOLDBest Launch/Relaunch
- ADCC · 2023BRONZEInteractive Social
- ADCC · 2023BRONZEInteractive Experience Design
- APPLIED ARTS · 2023WINNEREntire Promotional Design Program
- MARKETING AWARDS · 2023BRONZEIntegrated Digital Campaign
- SHORTLISTSTRATEGY AWARDS · 2023Shortlisted
- SHORTLISTTHE ONE SHOW · 2023Digital Installations
Award list as published by the campaign's creative director at ryansemeniuk.com. The awards went to the agency and the brand for the campaign. I was on the brand's team.
06 MY PART
The agencies made the work. I carried the brand into paid.
Credit first. Mrs&Mr designed the 2022 identity with Plenty of Fish's internal designers. ONE23WEST made the launch campaign, LNG Studios built the gallery, and Crafted Communications ran PR as the brand's agency of record.
My resume line is short: contributed to an award winning rebrand and a Webby winning growth strategy. Below is what that meant day to day, at the claim strength it deserves.
The 2022 rebrand
- Mrs&MrStrategy, wordmark, palette, illustration, voice. Designers included Holden Kao.
- Plenty of Fish designersIn house, working with the agency
The Gallery of Dick Pics
- ONE23WESTCampaign creative and media strategy
- LNG Studios3D gallery and website
- Crafted CommunicationsPR agency of record
Plenty of Fish marketing
- Brand, PR and growthOne marketing team inside Match Group, with a PR department inside Marketing
- Earned media I worked onThe annual dating trends campaign, the Dine and Dish series, No Dick Pics
Paid acquisition
- Meta, Google, Apple Search AdsI owned paid acquisition for the brand across all three
- One brand in every adThe brand people met in an ad was the brand in my accounts, through the angelfish years and the 2022 relaunch
OWNED mine, start to finish
WORKED ON part of the team that did it
CREDIT the people who made the creative
What that meant around each brand change
CARRIED EACH IDENTITY INTO PAID
Paid is where many new users meet a brand first, so paid creative had to change when the brand did. The new logo, palette and voice went into the Meta, Google and Apple Search Ads work I owned, next to the app store assets those ads send people to.
KEPT BOTH NAMES IN BRAND SEARCH
A rename splits brand search, because people type the name they remember. When the store listing went from POF Dating to Plenty of Fish Dating, and again when the 2022 relaunch put the full name everywhere, both names stayed covered while the query mix shifted.
READ SEARCH AND CONVERSION AROUND EACH LAUNCH
Two early reads after a launch: are people searching for the new name, and does the new look convert in the store and in onboarding. Brand search moves within days, so it is the first honest signal.
WORKED ON THE EARNED MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
Match ran a PR department inside Marketing. I worked on Plenty of Fish's annual dating trends campaign, the Dine and Dish series, and the No Dick Pics campaign.
07 WHAT CARRIES OVER
A rebrand is a growth event with a launch date.
A new user meets the brand four times before the first match: an ad, a store listing, an icon, a first screen. If one of them lags on launch day, the journey shows two brands. Pick a scenario and count the seams.
● LAUNCH DAY JOURNEYILLUSTRATIVE · THE 2022 SWITCH FROM THE ANGELFISH
- PlentyofFishPlenty of Fish01 · THE ADMeta, Google, Apple Search Ads
- 02 · THE STORE LISTINGIcon, name, screenshots
- 03 · THE ICONOn the home screen
- 04 · THE FIRST SCREENOnboarding
SEAMS IN THE JOURNEY0Places where the brand changes under the user's thumb.
WHERE IT BREAKSNOWHEREAd, listing, icon and first screen all show the new brand.
WHAT A NEW USER THINKSONE APP, START TO FINISHThe look they tapped on is the look they get.
Illustrative. The four surfaces are the real ones a new user passes through. The scenarios are examples of what goes wrong when one surface lags, not incidents from the 2022 launch.
01
Ship the store listing, the icon and the paid creative on the same day as the logo. A new ad that lands on an old listing looks like a different app.
02
Keep the old name in brand search until people stop typing it. They search for the name they remember, often for years.
03
Read brand search first after a launch. It moves within days and tells you whether the new name has landed before any survey does.
Dates and design details come from the launch press release, trade coverage and the agencies' own pages, listed below. Logos are public files and product shots are the brand's own store listings, archived. There are no private figures on this page; raw numbers stayed with Match Group.
08 CREDITS AND SOURCES
The creative belongs to the agencies. Here is who made what.
The work
- The Gallery of Dick Pics, 2022ONE23WEST for Plenty of Fish. Full credits at ryansemeniuk.com and one23west.ca.
- The 2022 rebrandMrs&Mr with Plenty of Fish's internal designers. Kate Wadia, CCO. Daniel Wadia, CSO. David Zoppi, art director. Arian Franz, Austin Welch and Holden Kao, designers. See holdenkao.com.
- PRCrafted Communications, agency of record for the launch.
- The launch filmPlenty of Fish x Dick Pics, published on Plenty of Fish's official YouTube channel. Campaign by ONE23WEST.
Images
- Homepages, 2008 to 2023pof.com and plentyoffish.com, rendered at 1440 by 900 from Wayback Machine captures of May 14, 2008, June 14, 2010, June 19, December 16, 2011, June 15, 2013, June 16, 2017, August 15, November 5, 2019, June 2, 2021, October 11, November 6, 2022, August 16, 2023.
- Homepage todaypof.com, captured live on September 29, 2026.
- Store screenshotsThe brand's own App Store listings, captured May 25, 2013, August 2, 2016, June 11, 2019, January 7, 2020, August 8, 2021, October 31, 2022, October 4, 2023 (Common Crawl) and live today, plus Google Play on September 4, 2021. Files from Apple's and Google's image servers.
- App iconsFrom the same App Store listings, 2013 to today, and the 2022 icon on pof.com. The journey section uses pof.com's 2020 angelfish icon.
- Logos2008 and 2011 cropped from the homepage captures. 2010 banner, the site's logo as once filed on Wikipedia. Served by pof.com: 2013 wordmark, 2014 letters, 2017 logo, 2019 lockup. 2019 angelfish from the launch post. 2022 wordmark on Wikimedia Commons, identical to the file on pof.com. 2022 salmon wordmark from the launch release.
- MarketingGoogle Play feature graphics of 2018 and 2020, the pof.com sharing image of 2022 and a pof.com illustration of 2022.
- The campaignGallery entrance image from the launch release, Plenty of Fish via PR Newswire. The launch film is on Plenty of Fish's official YouTube channel; its poster is the film's own YouTube thumbnail. Campaign by ONE23WEST.
- The 2022 salmon#FFA18A is the theme color in pof.com's own page code, read in September 2026.
Dates
- 2003, founded in VancouverWikipedia
- August 2011, pof.com and POFWayback captures of pof.com and plentyoffish.com, July 30 to August 17, 2011, Online Personals Watch and Dating Sites Reviews.
- 2015, joins Match GroupMatch Group release, July 14, 2015
- September 17, 2019, the angelfishPlenty of Fish blog, Techcouver and Brand New.
- June 2019 to January 2020, the store nameApp Store captures: POF Dating on June 11, 2019, Plenty of Fish Dating on January 7, 2020.
- October 17 and 18, 2022, the relaunchThe identity went live on October 17, per Dating Sites Reviews and the pof.com captures of October 15 and 17. Press release, PR Newswire, October 18, 2022. Identity details: Marketing Communication News, November 15, 2022.
- 2023, the awardsryansemeniuk.com