The client
WooWho (woowho.co.uk) was a singles dating and social portal, built as a NetDecisions joint venture with The Carphone Warehouse for 25- to 45-year-olds with no patience for tired "hearts and flowers" positioning. The promise was "zero-pressure dating": sociability first, perfection nowhere.
The brand launched on Valentine's Day 2000, in the same wave as the UK's other dot-com dating and reunion plays, but with a deliberately lighter tone, early mobile channels (web, WAP and SMS) and a B2B white-label database offer alongside the consumer product.
We led UX and art direction through our design team, and as NetDecisions / Agilisys we owned the wider build: technical implementation, hosting and venture delivery. Branded (Philip Ley) ran a brand mapping workshop; Wolff Olins delivered the identity system. This was a startup brief worked shoulder to shoulder with tier-one brand partners, not a conventional client-and-supplier arrangement.
The challenge
UK online dating was growing fast, but still culturally awkward. Sites felt like classified ads with a flirt filter. WooWho needed a credible brand and product experience that could:
- feel social and low-pressure, not desperate;
- work across web and early mobile (WAP, reverse-bill SMS, voicemail);
- support distribution partnerships (including Carphone Warehouse) on a revenue-share model;
- stand out in a market where global players such as Match.com were already established.
What we did
- Brand strategy inputs: Branded led a full brand mapping workshop (Philip Ley, with Paul Follins) that shaped the proposition, positioning and naming direction.
- Identity: Wolff Olins delivered the visual identity system.
- Product and experience design: our design team owned UX and UI end to end: site structure, interaction design and art direction for the consumer experience.
- Build and operations: as NetDecisions / Agilisys we delivered technical implementation, hosting and venture operations around that experience.
Our approach
Strategy before pixels. The Branded workshop nailed down what WooWho stood for and how it laddered from product attributes to brand essence before a single screen was designed. That discipline stuck: it is a direct ancestor of the Brand Map methodology New Brand Media uses to structure brand strategy work today.
Collaboration at the top of the market. Wolff Olins shaped the identity; our team translated it into a usable, likeable product surface; and we shipped a multi-channel dating venture in the first UK dot-com wave, not a brochure site.
Channels as product. Dating was never desktop-only here: subscription, reverse-bill SMS and voicemail sat alongside the web experience, with distribution partners on a typical 50:50 revenue share.
Outcome
By September 2002, WooWho had 37,000 registered members, and Match.com was reported to be finalising a deal with NetDecisions to take woowho.co.uk and woowho.com, migrate members ("a safe harbour" for the community, in Match.com's words) and redirect traffic to its own service. Joe Cohen, Match.com international vice-president, confirmed it as a commercial agreement with NetDecisions.
WooWho did not endure as a standalone brand, but it sits in a strong line of NetDecisions ventures from the same era (TheFirstResort, madaboutwine, produxion.com): early UX leadership on a category-defining brief, delivered alongside Wolff Olins and Branded.
Why it still matters
WooWho is an early example of product UX at venture pace with tier-one brand partners, years before "dating app fatigue" was a phrase anyone used. And the Branded brand mapping workshop still echoes in how NBM structures brand strategy work today.
Context & coverage
- Match.com tipped to buy rival's assets (Campaign, 25 September 2002): 37,000 members; 85% NetDecisions ownership; Valentine's Day 2000 launch; Match.com domain and member migration.
- Zyra archive: woowho.co.uk: period tagline for zero-pressure dating, 25–45 age group.
- NetDecisions capability brochure (July 2000, ingested in repo): woowho.co.uk as a Digital Ventures JV with Carphone Warehouse; web, WAP, SMS; B2B white-label.
