Bumble: #CarniLoveStories

Telling stories of connections to celebrate The Notting Hill Carnival during lockdown through a newly created #CarniLoveStories

Task

Following the delivery of our Bumble Cultural Strategy, we delivered a project to celebrate a key London moment.

Notting Hill Carnival is the one of the biggest cultural moments of the year, where Londoners and day-trippers from other cities head to West London to celebrate Caribbean culture.

Since NHC 2020 was moving online due to the pandemic, Platform13 identified an opportunity to celebrate the spirit of Carni and connections made there, uplifting the community with some much needed joy.

Approach

Fully concepted and produced by Platform13, we wanted to find and tell the true love stories of Carnival.

We did a call out across Platform13 and Bumble UK instagram channels, which was re-shared widely through our network's channel, eventually selecting 3 couples with a deep connection to this much loved milestone of the year. This included the first same-sex couple to appear on Bumble UK's Instagram channel - paving the way for a much more inclusive future for the brand.

We commissioned Terry Paul to direct and Danika Magdelena to take portraits and BTS shots of the real life couples.

Output

The content went live over Carnival weekend, rolling out the episodes consecutively from Saturday to Monday on Bumble UK's IGTV, telling the stories of our couples - Rose and Twiggy / Camille and Hector / Yiga and Seyi who either met or celebrate there together.

Episode 1: Rose + Twiggy

Rose and Twiggy are all-out Carnival lovers, sharing their passion for Soca dancing, floats and Caribbean food, whether it’s together in Berlin or Notting Hill.

For their story we shot outside Jay Dee’s Catering - a Caribbean staple based in Notting Hill , since food was an important part of their Carnival experience and how they connect as a couple.

Ep 2: Hector and Camille

Camille and Hector were celebrating their Carniversary in August, after catching eyes last year at the Deviation stage then meeting properly later on.

For the shoot we took them back to Powis Terrace, and alongside some of the iconic Notting Hill streets and houses that are the backdrop for Carni.

EP 3 YIGA AND SEYI

Yiga and Seyi connect over music, making Carnival the perfect moment to celebrate together. We shot them rooting through People’s Sound Records - an iconic Notting Hill record shop that would usually have set up their sound system outside during Carnival to play Reggae from their massive collection.

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