Most wanted is a dating concept that plays with current standard dating models and puts a price tag on users.
Again, the Sun offers up the perfect audience.
In the past, standard dating architectures have failed within this News International digital property. They have failed because they misunderstood its users' expectations from the The Sun brand.
The Sun brand does not excert authority in the sense that a Times or Guardian brand does. It revolves around lite entertainment: a dating solution needs to be more flirty and fun if it is to be in context. Sun readers know better than to take The Sun brand too seriously.
The 'Most Wanted' architecture elevates its users to a celebrity status. The more you click on a user the higher its price tag. [There are other factors that contribute to the fluctuation of a user's price].
Here's an example of how the service could be integrated. It recycles internal promotion space to advertise its 'most expensive users'.
The structure is simple. User slide-show. A price tag. A graph that plots the price [popularity] of that particular user.
The standard business model for dating sites revolves around: "I like you, in order to properly communicate with you I need to pay." Most Wanted does not reinvent the wheel. Its users buy Lovebites, which is the Most Wanted currency, and use it to communicate with other users. The currecny can also be used to send gifts.
This past year I have delved deep into digitally mediated dating territory, coming up with different user experience architectures and business models.
Most Wanted was developed with Simon Rohrbach and is in a concepting phase.