The ad presents his matrimonial site as the right place to find a committed partner.
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One knows things are serious if the founder of a matrimonial site has to descend and appear in his company’s ads. That’s Anupam Mittal, founder of shaadi.com and part-time shark at Sony’s Shark Tank, for you.
His cameo in the 38-second ad, made by independent creative agency Moonshot, is a jab at dating apps and how matches on them do not translate into marriages because one half of the couple is commitment-phobic.
“Run away from those who run away from commitment,” says Mittal to a lady whose partner of two years (they’d met on a dating app) flees from a restaurant date after she brings up the topic of meeting her parents and then marriage. “Try shaadi.com, find your green flag,” he urges.
Dating apps took the early millennial generation by storm. Still, Gen Zs, the incumbent it-generation and darling of marketers, and many millennials have become exhausted of these apps.
And Mittal is not a fan of them at all. Moneycontrol quoted his response to why he has not invested in dating apps from the Finance With Sharan podcast.
“Their revenues are not that big and the problem is in India, it’s very lopsided. Women always have too much to choose from so therefore you’ll see very few guys get all the demand and all the other guys who come on these sites don’t know what to say. They say the most obnoxious things and the women run away. So, I think there’s no real money to be made… This whole thing about millennials not using matchmaking sites is not quite correct, most of our audience is millennials.”
Adding to this, a Mint article from December 2023, quoted Mumbai-based dating coach Pratik Jain on the issue with dating apps: “There’s a great degree of jadedness with regards to dating apps because rarely does one find the right partner. Matrimonial sites, on the other hand, bring certainty about the other person’s intentions.”
NDTV, in May 2024, quoting a Forbes Health survey, said 79% of Gen Z are feeling fatigued from these apps. “When analysing this by generation, it became evident that young people are experiencing dating app fatigue as seen by the higher percentage of Gen Z (79%) and Millennials (80%) expressing feelings of exhaustion than Gen X (77%) and Baby Boomers (70%). Overall, 78% of participants stated that they were either constantly, frequently, or occasionally burnt out by dating apps.”
It is, therefore, not surprising to see Shaadi.com ramping up its advertising efforts, especially considering that popular dating apps like Bumble and Tinder have established their credibility through aggressive advertising in India.
Less than two weeks ago, Mittal’s brand launched VIPshaadi.com, an elite personalised matchmaking service. It, as per a press release, handpicks the profiles of the prospects, taking into consideration their lifestyle, core values, and familial environment, and arranges assured meetings. An ad starring television actor Ronit Roy drilled down this claim.
It is not the first time Mittal has starred in an ad. He, in 2022, starred in a Shaadi.com ad where he reenacted the company's 20-year journey.
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