foodpanda on the hunt for a chief makan officer

Delivery platform foodpanda is on the search for a CMO – chief makan officer. The appointment will be for three months, and the appointed individual will commence his or her new role on 4 Jan 2021.

As chief makan officer, the individual will be tasked with tasting food from foodpanda’s 15,000 different restaurant partners. He or she will also need to create visual and video content that showcases the interesting offerings of foodpanda’s restaurant partners. These content will be posted on foodpanda’s blog and social media channels. Additionally, the chief makan officer will also be tasked to conceptualise and execute creative food-themed content showcasing offerings from foodpanda shops and pandamart.  

In a job ad posted on its website, foodpanda also said the chief makan officer is also responsible for “making people drool” from the food he she will be tasting, as well as being a “foodie-teller” because he or she will know which cafes will become the next popular brunch spot.

In a statement to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Laura Kantor, marketing and sustainability director, foodpanda Singapore, added that the chief makan officer will have access to various resources, including foodpanda's photographer and content team who will be able to help design, edit, or share any inputs on content if needed. The individual will also be able to participate in team meetings, and will have the opportunity to share his or her ideas pertaining to upcoming campaigns. 

Applications for its new role will start tomorrow and last until 15 December, and interested individuals will have to upload a one-minute video to show why they are fit for the job. According to foodpanda, the chief makan officer will be given SG$1,000 remuneration, as well as a SG$5,000 monthly food allowance. 

Kantor said the role was created as part of foodpanda's efforts to create relatable and refreshing content for its customers. It is also a means for the company to provide customers with inspiration on what to order for their meals, as well as feature the interesting stories and offerings of partner vendors. 

As this is a new role, Kantor said three months is a good period of time to assess the response and reception to the new content. "We are also exploring an option for the chief makan officer to collaborate with us on a longer-term basis after the three-month stint, as a content creator," Kantor added. 

In a similar trend of creating new-age job positions, Mediacorp was also on a lookout for a meme-in-chief officer earlier in August. Also known as social community manager, the meme-in-chief officer is tasked to curate and create memes and manage Mediacorp's social media channels. The position is under Mediacorp's digital marketing unit, which is part of Mediacorp’s marketing and communications team. The team is led by Oliver Chong, head of marketing and communications at Mediacorp.

Chong said the initiative aims to enable the media company to engage with younger audiences in ways that "naturally appeal" to them. It also looks to show that the company does not mind taking itself less seriously sometimes, by leveraging its own proprietary content for memes.

Most recently, foodpanda partnered with more than 2,500 7-Eleven stores on its app, making the convenience store available in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines. With the partnership, an average of 1,000 7-Eleven items will be made available for delivery via foodpanda. This includes hot food, ready-to-eat insta-meals, snacks and alcohol and even pre-paid mobile phone cards. Foodpanda also aims to achieve an average delivery time of 20 minutes. Foodpanda sees 7-Eleven as a brand synonymous with convenience, and looks to provide consumers easy access to the choice and variety for their daily essentials with this partnership.  

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