00

READER · 15 s

POV · 15 s

THE TOAST FIRST · 15 s

THE MATCH · 15 s

THE CUT · 15 s

SWIPE

Nobody here is invented.

Real people, cut for the feed: one real shoot became forty-five finished files for Tinder, in every length, size and opening. Swipe the phone.

01

One real shoot, thirty seconds, nobody invented.

This is the master every Tinder cut-down on this page comes from: a first date, two real people, one restaurant, a real camera. It is stand-in footage, licensed from Pexels, so the machine can be seen working. Tinder's own shoot goes here.

PRESS PLAY · SOUND ON

8

shots from six camera angles of one shoot

4096 x 2160

the source frames, 25 fps, so every crop keeps full resolution

30.0 s

with the end card; the sound is room tone and a bed made for the picture

02

Every length, every size, every opening: one real file each.

Tinder asked for six to thirty seconds in 9:16, 4:5 and 1:1. From the master the system cut forty-five finished files, each traceable to its source shot and timecode. Pick any combination and the player swaps to that file.

30-9x16-plain.mp4 · 1080 x 1920 · 30.0 s
loading the receipt…

45finished files from one master: three lengths, three sizes, five openings. Made September 18, 2026, in one working session.

THE RECEIPT · under the player: the file, its pixels, its seconds, and the shots it is cut from, with timecodes.

03

Change the first two seconds, keep the shoot.

The first two seconds decide whether a Tinder ad is watched. Each opening below is a different first two seconds on the same fifteen-second cut. TikTok's own guidance asks for three to five creatives per ad group, with big differences between them, and a supply to refresh.

THE CUT · him at the table, early, looking for the door

THE MATCH · a woman smiling at her phone, then the table

THE TOAST FIRST · the glasses, then the story from the top

POV · the line "POV: he got there early." over the first shot

READER · the line "Reader, it went well." over the first shot

TikTok for Business, creative best practices: "3-5 different creatives per ad group ... creatives with big differences, especially when testing."

04

Cut for where each app's interface sits.

Every Tinder asset here keeps its people, its line and its end card inside the area each app leaves clear. TikTok's zone is measured from TikTok's own safe zone file, the others from published guidance. Press a platform.

topbottomright

TikTokFrom TikTok's own In-Feed safe zone file: the top 12.5%, the bottom 34.4%, the left 11.1% and the right 27.8% carry interface.
Instagram ReelsMeta's 9:16 zone for Reels and Stories: about 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side kept free.
Snapchat1080 by 1920; logos and text out of the top 150 and bottom 150 pixels; audio required, targeted at minus 16 LUFS.
YouTube ShortsAs drawn from Google's reference images: the top 10%, the bottom 25% and the right 10% carry the interface.

Sources: TikTok's video ad specifications (the safe zone files) · Firstpier on Meta's zone · Strike Social on Snap's spec · V Digital Services on YouTube's. Re-measured before every delivery.

05

What stays real, what the system makes, and the five checks.

Tinder's rule is the rule of this page: no generated person, ever. What the system touches is everything around the people, and every file says where its people came from.

The peoplereal, on camera, every frame
The placea real restaurant, real light
The performancethe laugh, the handshake, the toast, as shot
The voicenone is generated; a real one would be recorded
The footagethe grain and colour of the shoot

The cuteight shots from six angles
The reframea hand-set crop per shot for each size, at full resolution
The openingfive first-two-seconds, two of them lines of type
The end cardthe wordmark and the line in the page's type
The soundroom tone and a clink made from the picture, a music bed; no voice
The countforty-five files with receipts, one session

Check 1no generated face
Check 2no generated body or hands
Check 3no generated voice
Check 4no synthetic extension of a real shot
Check 5every file lists its source shot and timecode

Shot	Source clip	In	Seconds	In the frame
S1	7339425	00:01.0	2.5	him at the table, early, looking for the door
S2	7339422	00:06.0	3.0	him on his phone, then he looks up
S3	7339425	00:27.0	4.0	she walks in at the back and comes to the table
S4	7339422	00:19.0	3.5	she comes up behind him, jacket in hand
S5	7339422	00:49.0	4.0	the handshake across the table, both laughing
S6	7339423	00:12.0	4.0	the two of them at the table, in profile
S7	7339498	00:00.5	3.5	the toast, two glasses of red, a rose
S8	7339422	01:01.0	3.0	her, close, smiling at him
M1	13929582	00:02.0	1.5	a woman smiling at her phone (THE MATCH opening)

Source clips are Pexels video ids from one photographer's series.

06

From twenty-five a month to fifty, without a second shoot.

Tinder gets 25 to 30 assets a month today and wants 50. One master gives forty-five, with the variety the platforms reward: different openings, sizes and lengths. Set the shoots a month and the openings.

1shoot

3lengths

9lengths x sizes

45files

45files a month from one shoot: three lengths, three sizes, five openings.

25 to 30

assets a month from the agency today, their words

50

the month Tinder asked for

45

from the one master on this page

07

Before a camera rolls, the shot list, with nobody invented.

For Tinder a shoot is planned on paper and in frames: which shots the month needs, which sizes each must hold, which openings each feeds. The window below is the actual crop of each size on a real frame. Press a shot.

9:16

S1him at the table, earlyholds all three sizes
S2his phone, then he looks upthe POV and READER lines sit here
S3she walks in at the back9:16 follows her, 1:1 keeps him
S4she comes up behind himholds all three sizes
S5the handshake, both laughingopens the :06; 9:16 keeps her and the hands
S6the table, in profile9:16 keeps her face
S7the toastopens THE TOAST FIRST
S8her, close, smilingholds all three sizes

08

How this differs from Pencil, in Pencil's own words.

Tinder asked on the call. Pencil is a self-serve generation platform; Ritual Ads is a studio whose engine cuts your real footage, with editors when you want them. The left column is quoted from Pencil's site on September 18, 2026.

Pencil, from trypencil.com

The only platform that aggregates every AI model, enforces enterprise governance, and turns production savings into media growth.
Pencil brings the best models from OpenAI, Google, Adobe, Runway, and Bria into one orchestration layer.
1 brief → 1000s of variations. Brief to finished ad in minutes. Hours, not weeks.
Self-serve plans sold by generations a month (50 and 250 on the published tiers), owned by The Brandtech Group.
An AI-generated brand featured in Google's Veo 3 launch.

Ritual Ads, for Tinder

Your real footage in, finished files out: the cut, the reframe, the openings, the end card, the sound, the receipts.
People are never generated. The system works around them, and every file lists where they came from.
Three ways to work: the Engine on your own, our editors inside it with you, or the month's family delivered as it lands.
The work on the record is cinematic: Reebok, Martha Stewart, EarnIn, Temple & Webster, with real people and real products.

Pencil quotes: trypencil.com, the platform page and pricing; ownership per Marketing Dive.

Do it yourself

The Engine on your desk: drop a master, pick lengths, sizes and openings, take the files and the receipts. Set up on your library by us.

Done with you

Our editors inside the same tool with your team: the cut and the openings argued in the room, the sizes and receipts from the machine.

Done for you

Send the footage; the month's family lands as it is made, every size and opening, a note per file. Your team reviews.

09

Real people and real products, on the record.

Ritual Ads® is the world's first Cinematic Intelligence Studio, and Ritual Engine is the operating layer under it. One governed system that carries a brief to performance across any AI model, with every prompt, reference, tool and iteration on the record.

Reebok

In · Reebok's signature-shoe launch for Angel Reese, the most followed WNBA player across all social media.

Out · A production-ready previsualization delivered within 90 minutes, then the cinematic commercial built on that roadmap for the global launch.

The result · The Angel Reese 1 sold out globally within hours of going live, all three colorways, one of Reebok's fastest product launches in recent history.

"This could rewrite the playbook for sports marketing." Marla Tellez, Fox News

Open the case study →

Martha Stewart

In · A national campaign to launch her new skin care product on Shopify, turning five years of clinical research into a luxury story, without a single practical set.

Out · The commercial, with not a single practical set used in production; midway through post-production she asked for a higher-resolution output for the largest screen in Times Square.

The result · A Times Square debut on the largest screen, seen by 1.5 million people daily, and three major publications.

Open the case study →

EarnIn

In · One idea from the brand and its agency WORTHI, retire the word payday, and La La Anthony's own real pictures.

Out · A culture-first campaign with La La playing one role, herself: her past plays as archival because it happened, her present as documentary because it still does; one production partner serving agency and brand.

The result · The campaign carried by La La Anthony's audience of 15.8 million Instagram followers, a #1 New York Times bestselling author with 25 years in culture.

Open the case study →

ALSO ON THE RECORD · campaigns and previsualizations for Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola, Burger King, Pringles and Pizza Hut.

10

Fifty a month, priced by the month.

Tinder's target is fifty assets a month for less than the agency's month. The agency's number is Tinder's to enter: the chips are a guess, the default at the high end of a social retainer for 25 to 30 assets. The big number is what fifty would cost the old way.

$145K

what 50 assets cost the old way, at your agency's rate of $80K a month for 27 assets ($2,963 an asset)

$45K a month

the Ritual Ads month: the family from your footage, every size and opening, delivered as it lands

50

assets a month, from one or two shoots

30 a month50 a month150 a month

The old-way rate = the agency's month divided by 27 assets, the middle of 25 to 30. Above fifty a month the line is scoped.

The month

$45Ka month, from $35K

Fifty finished files a month from Tinder's footage, every size and opening, each with its receipt, delivered as it lands.

The sprint

$95Kninety days

The Engine set up on Tinder's library, the first three months cut, the team trained on the tool.

The shoot

Scopedper shoot

A real shoot for the library, planned face-free first. Real people on a real day.

11

$45K a month beside $45.9M a month.

Match Group's advertising expense was $550.4 million in 2025, $45.9 million a month; Tinder's direct revenue was $1.86 billion. The Ritual Ads month is a sliver of one month's advertising. The red mark is the month, drawn to scale.

$45.9Madvertising expense a month, 2025

$45Kthe Ritual Ads month

0.098%of one month's advertising

Match Group Form 10-K for 2025: advertising expense $550.4 million; Tinder Direct Revenue $1,862.9 million (sec.gov). Q2 2026: Tinder's year-on-year DAU decline narrowed to 4%, the best in ten quarters (the August 4 release).

12

Thursday, September 24, 12:30. Thirty minutes.

The walkthrough Tinder asked for, with more of the team in the room and Jethro on our side. Three stops, then the questions.

Minutes 0 to 8

The family instrument on this page: one master, forty-five files, the receipts, the safe zones. What the month looks like as files, not slides.

Minutes 8 to 22

The Ritual Engine live at wave.ritualads.com/demo: how a brief becomes work, where the checks sit, what the record keeps.

Minutes 22 to 30

Tinder's footage. Send one master before Thursday and the room opens on Tinder's own family instead of the stand-in shoot.

13

Nobody here is invented. Everyone here is real.

Ritual Ads cuts Tinder's real footage into the month's assets: every length, every size, every opening, every file with its receipt.

The walkthrough takes thirty minutes: Thursday, September 24, at 12:30.