Tamika Young is an experienced communications professional with a career spanning the music, tech and media industries. She brings a broad skill set across publicity, social media, entertainment, digital media, event planning and PR, making her no stranger to getting people talking.
Three years ago Young matched with Hinge, joining the dating app as its global communications lead before working her way up to chief marketing and communications officer. In her role she is poised with a unique task: getting daters to delete her app.
Now into our second season of B&T’s CMOs To Watch, presented by Zenith, Kent joins the ranks of visionary marketing leaders redefining the playbook. This series celebrates those who balance bold ideas with business impact and have a whole lot of fun along the way.
We sat down with Young to discuss how she can take the brand to the next level, why she has accepted her role of making people feel connected and less lonely and why Hinge is exploring cinema advertising to get more Gen Z to utilise the app to find a partner.
B&T: Let’s get to know you… What three things would you take to a desert island?
Tamika Young: A photo of my family – they are a driving force for everything that I do, a satellite phone because I would immediately be trying to figure out how to get off the island. And On Beauty, by Zadie Smith. It’s one of those books that I come back to over and over because it says so much about people, relationships, and the complexity of how we move through the world.
B&T: What is your passion outside of work? If you weren’t a CMO, what would you be doing?
TY: Interior design. I’ve always been fascinated by how spaces make people feel. A great room isn’t just beautiful, it creates comfort, connection, conversation and memories.
In many ways, that’s not too different from marketing.. Where you are thinking about emotion, experience and how people interact with the world around them. I just love the idea of creating environments that bring people together and make them feel at ease.
B&T: What was your favourite campaign of all time?
TY: I don’t think I have a favourite one, but what stays with me are campaigns that make people feel something, drives conversation, and creates a lasting impact.
One that stands out to me right now is Nike’s ‘Dream Crazy’ campaign from 2018. It stood for something bigger than selling a product. The most memorable campaigns are one that connect to a deeper human truth. They create an emotional response and remind us of what’s possible.
B&T: Now let’s talk shop. What is your brand’s top priority for the next 12 months?
TY: When I came into this role, I spent a lot of time listening. And what I kept hearing — from daters, from the team — is that the foundation is solid. So the question for me is how to make what we already believe land harder, and how to speak even more honestly about what dating looks like today.
Daters don’t experience Hinge in silos, so our approach to creativity, tone, scale, and cultural context must all align around one cohesive story — our mission to inspire intimate, in-person connections. The way I think about it is through the three Cs: Clarity, Cohesion, and Consistency. Across all of our channels, we ask ourselves: does this feel honest? Does it feel like us?
That’s the spirit behind ‘Can’t Believe We Met on Hinge.’ This campaign doesn’t skip past the hard parts – the frustration, the self-doubt, the low expectations. It lets those emotions breathe, and then shows how love finds a way anyhow. That coexistence of struggle and hope is what makes it feel real. And when people see their own experience reflected back at them honestly, it helps them feel less alone in the process.
B&T: What channel is exciting you the most and how do you split your marketing budgets between long/short and channels mix?
TY: We’re really excited about the potential for cinema as a channel. It’s a medium where people put their phone down, lean in, and let stories wash over them. That level of intentional engagement is increasingly rare, and for a brand whose whole mission is about meaningful, in-person connection, it just makes sense.
What makes it even more compelling for us is Gen Z — our biggest audience — loves going to the movies. We’re showing Can’t Believe We Met On Hinge in theaters, and there’s something fitting about real couples, telling their story in their own words, landing in a space where the audience is already primed to feel something.
More broadly, the way I think about channel mix is less about splitting budgets across a fixed formula and more about following where trust lives. Creators are a much larger part of our marketing plan than traditional channels because they connect with audiences in a way that feels human and credible. And cinema, right now, is resonating with young adults.
B&T: What is the biggest challenge you currently face in the marketplace?
TY: Many of us are feeling lonelier, more burned out, and increasingly distrustful of digital spaces that were supposed to bring us closer. That context shapes everything we do, because Hinge sits right in the middle of it.
As CMCO at Hinge, my focus is on metrics that reflect real-world outcomes: in-person connection, community well-being, and helping daters show up more honestly, not just impressions or engagement. In 2026, marketing and communications leaders are being asked to show not just how big their reach is, but how meaningful their impact is. And as AI becomes part of everyday work, the brands that stand out will be the ones that maintain a strong human point of view through clear storytelling, empathy, and purpose.
And then there’s the challenge every marketer is facing right now: as AI makes content easier to produce, how do you stay human? For us, the answer is the same as it’s always been: tell real stories. “Can’t Believe We Met on Hinge” works because it comes from real daters in their own words, talking about the uncertainty, the nerves, the second-guessing that comes with first dates. Audiences know when you’re painting a fairytale. In a world where perfectly packaged content is everywhere, emotional honesty is what cuts through.
B&T: What are you most excited about in the marketplace?
TY: I’m excited by how marketing and communications are becoming more interconnected, because audiences no longer experience brands through separate channels or functions; they experience one story. That’s a big reason why my role at Hinge spans both marketing and communications.
Dating is deeply personal. People are trusting us with some of their most vulnerable moments, which means it’s even more important that how we build, speak, and show up all feel aligned and rooted in our values.
And with AI accelerating how much content exists in the world, the brands that will stand out are the ones that feel most human. I actually think this is a moment for our industry to rise to. As audiences get more selective, we have to get clearer, more consistent, and more thoughtful about the stories we choose to tell and how we tell them. That’s what I’m building toward at Hinge, and I think it’s the most exciting creative challenge in marketing right now.
B&T: Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
TY: I hope I’m still learning. Every meaningful move in my career has come from following my curiosity rather than chasing a title, and I don’t see that changing.
Professionally, I’d love to continue building brands and teams that have real impact on people’s lives.
Personally, I hope I’m spending more time with my family and continuing to experience the world through the eyes of my son as he grows up.
B&T: Speaking hypothetically what’s one brand, product or category you’d like to sink your teeth into right now as a marketer?
TY: Travel is fascinating to me right now. People are not just buying trips anymore – they are looking for experiences and lasting memories. It’s one of the few categories where emotion, identity, culture and aspiration all intersect. There’s so much opportunity to tell richer stories beyond destinations and itineraries.
B&T: Zenith believe there is untapped media potential we need to uncover. What is your prediction for media this year?
TY: The metric that defined the last decade of media was reach. How many people saw it, how fast it spread. I think 2026 is the year that starts to shift. Marketers are increasingly being asked to show not just how big their audience is, but what they actually did for them.
The organic, trusted voice — a real creator, a real story, a real person with lived experience — is becoming more valuable particularly in the age of AI. The brands that figure out how to pair the efficiency of AI with a truly human point of view are going to be the ones that build real relationships, not just impressions.
And the other shift I’m watching is from transactional to relational. We’ve spent a long time thinking about marketing as a series of moments: whether its campaigns, drops or viral posts. What I hope we move toward is treating the connection between a brand and its audience as something personal and ongoing. When you get that right, you stop chasing attention and start earning trust.
