foodpanda boldly labels Yew Tee boring, netizens demand more

Food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda recently launched a bold and cheeky campaign in Singapore where it vowed to bring excitement to Singapore’s “most boring” neighbourhood Yew Tee, by treating all 53,000 households in the district to unlimited free deliveries with a complimentary one-month pandapro subscription.

The out-of-the-box campaign, definitely caught the attention of social media netizens, with several questioning the decision to limit the promotion to Yew Tee, and even making a call for foodpanda to extend the offer to other neighbourhoods, reflecting a desire for a more inclusive approach, said media monitoring company Truescope.

While there was some  "notable negative sentiments", according to media intelligence firm Truescope, a check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE found that this was because many netizens expressed the desire to have a similar initiative in their own neighbourhoods, and users were actively nominating their own neighbourhoods.

Some comments seen by the team at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE saw netizens saying Commonwealth Crescent and Whampoa also have "nothing to do". Of course, the post was also littered with occasional comments around foodpanda's delivery services. Others also wanted to boycott the brand

Don't miss: foodpanda brings free deliveries to 'most boring' neighbourhood in SG

Truescope’s media intelligence platform also analysed Singapore’s social media channels and found that the incident garnered significant public attention, with over two million potential impressions and 1.4k social engagements. Beyond foodpanda’s Instagram post, the campaign resonated across platforms like Mothership, AsiaOne, and HardwareZone Forums.

Despite these concerns, the promotion was well-received by Yew Tee residents, who appreciated the giveaway, indicating that the initiative had a positive impact within the targeted community, added Truescope. 

When MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out to foodpanda, Darryl Chua, marketing director of foodpanda
Singapore said that the reception to its campaign has been overwhelmingly positive thus far.

"We’ve generated social chatter and buzz that has spread far beyond Yew Tee, with over 900 comments and 1,700 shares on our Instagram post in the first two days after launch. This is not only the largest giveaway that we have launched in Singapore, but it has also garnered the most participation we’ve seen to date," he said, adding:

True to the Singaporean DNA of being kiasu, we’re witnessing strong neighbourhood pride from residents across the island. 

Chua also said that the team is delighted to see people eagerly canvassing for unlimited free delivery with pandapro for their own neighbourhood.

"Currently, Simei and Sengkang are the neighbourhoods in the lead with the highest number of votes. But this can change anytime," he said, adding that the team is giving away more unlimited free delivery and that netizens with FOMO should rally their neighbours, keep the comments coming and tell them where they should gift pandapro to next. 

Overall, while the campaign did generate some negative sentiment, it’s important to note that this was less pronounced as compared to the significant negative feedback foodpanda received during the National Day long weekend due to delayed delivery services, said Truescope

Truescope was referencing an August 9 issue where Domino's Pizza customers saw significant delays in their orders. Domino's Pizza has since apologised for the incident. "Unfortunately, on this day, the volume of orders far exceeded our expectations, despite the best efforts of our committed team members at our stores," it said to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE this week. 

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