Roommate Stereotype Campaign

Sam Parr shares how he got 100,000 users for his roommate matching app through viral city-specific infographics.

"We launched in LA, Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco - 5 or 6 cities. We made an infographic called 'The Typical Roommates of San Francisco', 'The Typical Roommates of LA', etc. I had never even been to LA or New York or Boston.

Each infographic had 15-18 people representing different neighborhoods. For each person, we listed where they shop, where they eat, and funny quotes they would say. I would read Yelp to find the most reviewed restaurants in that area, see if people were making jokes about it being overhyped, and which stores were most popular.

We shared these infographics on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and tagged those restaurants and stores. Most people were like 'Oh this is so funny, they totally know us' - which we just stole from Yelp. They ended up sharing it and we got something like 100,000 users just from those 5 infographics. All the local newspapers of those regions shared it too.

For example, in Chicago we'd show a bro-y looking guy from Wrigleyville who went to Indiana University, wearing a Cubs shirt. We'd list the average rent savings with a roommate as '$310 per month or 20 Merkle's fishbowls.' We'd write things like 'You'll find them at Wrigley Field rooftops crushing Old Styles' or 'Secret spot: the back bar at The Stretch.' The key was to throw in as many local brands as possible - those are the people who would share it."