In Australia, Sydney Mardi Gras is a massive annual celebration of love, diversity and inclusion. The festival draws hundreds of thousands of attendees every year and has the vocal backing of hundreds of brands.

However, due to high cost and long distances, Sydney Mardi Gras is also highly inaccessible for young LGBTQIA+ Australians – and especially those living in faraway regional areas, where lack of visibility and community connection can leave many feeling isolated.

As the leading dating platform for LGBTQIA+ Aussies in regional areas, Tinder believes Pride and belonging is for all, always. Our brief was to cut through the rainbow clutter during Mardi Gras and demonstrate Tinder’s support for regional rainbow communities, to strengthen love for the brand.

While hundreds of brands showed up for a week of Mardi Gras in Sydney, Tinder turned to the countryside, creating the first permanent landmark for regional LGBTQIA+ visibility and inclusion. Inspired by more than 150 ‘Big Things’ found all over regional Australia, ours was the first big Australian landmark to represent and celebrate Pride, far and wide.

Beyond being a fabulous, inclusive monument, the Big Rainbow was also turned into a virtual landmark on Tinder, allowing LGBTQIA+ Australians anywhere to bypass their normal in-app radius and set their location to the Big Rainbow, for the first time giving them the ability to connect with thousands of LGBTQIA+ users anywhere in Australia.

While many brands activate in meaningful ways during Sydney Mardi Gras, the overwhelming perception is that brands turn up for a week, paint their logo rainbow & go back to ‘normal’ afterwards. As the leading dating app for LGBTQIA+ Australians in regional areas, Tinder had a powerful opportunity to create something meaningful for remote rainbow communities, beyond flashy one-offs.

By standing “for Pride far and wide”, the ‘Big Rainbow Project’ set out to raise awareness & ignite Pride for those who rarely get noticed. Through heart-warming social content, paid creators, new in-app functionality & of course the Big Rainbow monument itself, we got communities & press all over the country excited & engaged in sharing stories of regional Pride, with thousands pitching their hometowns to receive the landmark & voting for its final home, keeping media coming back to the story multiple times for over a year.

As Mardi Gras 2022 wrapped up, we unveiled a 6m x 15m rainbow monument & kicked off the search for its permanent home.

At the same time, a virtual Big Rainbow appeared on Tinder, where isolated LGBTQIA+ Aussies from all corners of Australia could ‘meet’ at an in-app location with nationwide radius, thus removing the barrier of distance & connecting thousands who were previously too far apart.

Through content, regional Australians shared what the landmark could mean for remote rainbow communities. A Snap filter helped people visualise the rainbow in their local area, while paid creators & earned PR encouraged Australia to submit which regional town should become the monument’s future home, at BigRainbowProject.com.au

After extensive community consultation & a public vote, the town of Daylesford, Victoria officially became the ‘Home of the Big Rainbow’, as 25,000 people flocked to the small town for a huge celebratory festival & unveiling.

The Big Rainbow Project had dramatic effects for the Tinder brand.

PR: Over 224 million earned impressions across 671 placements, with every major national news channel & (more importantly) hundreds of regional news outlets spreading the message.

100% positive PR sentiment

Social: Over 57 million organic impressions across TikTok, Snapchat & Meta

Perception (vs 2pts objective):

“Is for people like me” +10pts

“Is inclusive” +14pts

“Helps me meet people for many different connections’ +11pts.

Total brand lift: 10.83pts (avg across all perception metrics)

144,380 unique site visitors & 16,631 high-quality submissions at BigRainbowProject.com.au

Regional community organisations, the public & even local MPs rallied in support of their towns becoming the home of The Big Rainbow, with one town Mayor even campaigning for his hometown by taking out an ad in the local paper.