In the radio ads, the couple spoke about how much they liked eHarmony’s Guided Communication process, how quickly they realised they were compatible, the first time they met, and what life is like now that they have found each other.
We will be casting for additional couples to take part in our marketing efforts over the course of 2010. These couples will join Marsha and Graham, who were featured in our London Underground ads, and now Tony and Mary.

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Held over two days in the UK, the eHarmony Labs and OII Symposium provided an opportunity for us to share initial findings with the scientific and media communities on a pan-international study looking at compatibility across cultures. Early indicators from this research show that whilst cultural backgrounds are often incredibly diverse, the ways in which we as individuals describe ourselves and what we desire in a relationship are often very similar.

When looking specifically at how compatible we are across cultures, the research shows there is a high correlation between respondents from certain countries when describing their personality, beliefs and interests. These shared beliefs and outlook indicate that people from certain countries are likely to be compatible in a romantic relationship, despite their cultural differences.

For example, I am pleased to say that people from the US and UK show high levels of shared personality traits, making people from these countries likely to be compatible. Similarly, people from Argentina and Spain, and Mexico and Brazil have high compatibility scores. The research also suggests that people from Mexico and Japan and China and India would potentially be less compatible due differences in personality and beliefs.

I’m afraid I can’t reveal any more at this time as the team at eHarmony Labs, supported by the OII, plans to conduct further research into compatibility across different cultures with an increased number of couples in 2010.  Once this research is complete I will share a full summary of our results.  Stay tuned.

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When I talk to people about eHarmony I always discuss eHarmony Labs, as our commitment to conducting relationship research is what makes eHarmony so unique and so successful.  The UK team decided we wanted UK consumers to have a better understanding of how our team of research scientists, led by Dr Gian Gonzaga, gain insight into finding and maintaining happy relationships.

The best way for us to show how the Labs works was to have a British couple’s relationship analysed. And so, I travelled to Pasadena with Laurence and Jackie Llewellyn-Bowen. Laurence and Jackie are incredibly well known TV presenters in the UK. They also have their own range of home furnishings, designed by Laurence, who is an interior designer by trade.  (If you think Laurence looks familiar, his hit UK TV show, “Changing Rooms”, was picked up in the US and renamed as “Trading Spaces”).

Laurence and Jackie arrived at the Labs in Pasadena having just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary, which made this the perfect test. Could our scientists tell them something about their relationship that after 20 years they didn’t know?

From the positive emotions they share with each other and their shared values and humour, to the way Laurence and Jackie discuss conflict, the couple were pleasantly surprised at how Dr Gonzaga was able to offer them insight into what makes their partnership so strong.

Laurence and Jackie have since appeared in the Daily Mail, a UK national newspaper, and conducted a number of radio interviews to share a first-hand account of their experiences at eHarmony Labs. In doing so, we hope that UK consumers will have a better sense of how eHarmony Labs works and how we use the knowledge gained from our research to constantly improve our services.

Laurence and Jackie Llewellyn-Bowen at eHarmony Labs with Dr Gian Gonzaga.

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In the UK, we joined forces with Touchstone Pictures to promote the Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds rom-com “The Proposal”.  Since the movie comes out on DVD today, it’s a great opportunity to discuss finding love in the workplace.

We thought it would be interesting to find out what UK consumers really thought about finding love at work so we conducted a study with 1,000 people and the results were quite surprising!

Our most interesting findings included:

•    Two thirds (66%) have had a relationship with someone they’ve met at work

•    1 in 10 (10.5%) people have married someone they’ve met at work

•    52% of people have felt a certain chemistry or attraction with a colleague

•    21% think office relationships can’t stand the test of time

•    Only 32% of people think work is a good place to find a  partner in the future

•    The top 5 drawbacks to having a relationship with someone from work are:

1.    Having to continue working together if the relationship ends
2.    Gossip/rumours
3.    Awkward atmosphere at work
4.    Potential damage to career
5.    All your work colleagues knowing

We had great fun discussing the findings from this survey in more depth with regional radio stations and their listeners. One theme that kept reoccurring from these conversations: Workplace romances may be more appealing if Sandra Bullock or Ryan Reynolds were colleagues!

This research was conducted for eHarmony.co.uk by Opinion Matters. It was carried out between: 10 / 07 / 2009 and 15 / 07 / 2009. Sample size: 1001 workers.

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I recently commandeered Marsha and Graham’s Sunday afternoon – thank you guys for letting us invade your home—to take some pictures of them for our UK marketing campaign.  It was so much fun to meet both Marsha and Graham in person and hear a little more about their incredible story. As always it made me realise what an amazing platform the Internet is. They actually lived half a mile away from each other when they were growing up, but had never met until eHarmony matched them!

The photography shoot itself was a great success. We took over 100 pictures in the course of the afternoon and I’ve included one for you to view along with the resulting tube advert.  We had a lot of fun taking these images and it was amazing to see a couple very much in love, thanks to eHarmony. It has to be said that Marsha is also a fantastic cook, and made myself and the crew chocolate cake – which was very much appreciated. So all in all it was a great Sunday afternoon.

Here's the result of Marsha and Graham's photo shoot: an advertisement that ran in tube carriages in London.

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These two couples aren’t the only ones who have shared their success with me recently.  I’ve also received a number of messages from people who are experiencing the excitement of getting to know one of their eHarmony matches and many who are in serious relationships with someone they met on eHarmony. Whilst it’s early days for a lot of our couples, we are delighted to hear about our first success stories and I can’t wait to hear from more couples over the weeks and months to come.

If you know of any eHarmony UK success stories, do get in touch!

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The Perfect Mixtape generator is free and open to all, so dust off an old tape from your youth or put together a new collection of the songs that move you now. All of the mixtapes created can be rated by visitors to the site and each week the creator of the highest rated mixtape, originating from the UK, wins an iPod Touch.

Curious to know what the top-rated love song is? Find out at www.perfectmixtape.co.uk.

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