foodpanda tries to rein in 'crazy' festive shopping via new campaign

Delivery platform foodpanda Singapore has launched its hyperlocal campaign titled "Auntie Knows The Real Deals". Running until November, the campaign aims promote its additional groceries and shops offering, as well as encourage its customers to take advantage of the real deals and prioritise purchasing items that will benefit them in the short-term.

The three-month campaign is kickstarted with a rap song and video, which was ran as a TVC, and foodpanda is ramping up its reach by going live with out-of-home (OOH) ads in MRT stations, buses and in lifts. The amplification will also be complemented by foodpanda’s social media, website and in-app push. The creative work for the campaign was led by foodpanda's in-house agency, while media-buying duties was executed by Zenith. foodpanda also worked with local production agency A Typical Films, and PR agency WhiteLabel. 

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Laura Kantor, marketing and sustainability director at foodpanda, said the decision to invest in OOH was a "big one", particularly as the COVID-19 situation meant that majority of people are still mainly at home, or working from home. However, foodpanda felt that it really needed to invest in outdoor to give this campaign the maximum reach and drive top-of-mind recall.

Kantor added that the campaign is important to the company to drive awareness for its additional groceries and shops offerings, and also reinforce its key unique selling point of being the most affordable delivery tech player, with attractive deals and discounts.

"Over the past eight years, foodpanda has evolved from only doing restaurant delivery, to now offering shops delivery, pick-up and pandamart, our very own grocery outlets with islandwide coverage. We know that if you were to ask any Singaporean about food delivery, they would know about foodpanda, but this still isn’t the case for groceries and shops," Kantor explained.

foodpanda expanded its services to include on-demand delivery service of groceries, flowers and household essentials with the introduction of pandamart and pandanow earlier this year. 

Additionally, foodpanda's "Auntie Knows The Real Deals" campaign is also made local by engaging local actress Liu Ling Ling as the face of a relatable neighbourhood auntie who has the best interests for its viewers. This marks the first time foodpanda is working with a local ambassador to front a campaign, a spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. By collaborating with Liu, foodpanda also aimed to create a character relatable to every Singaporean, and forge greater connections with local consumers.

"We really want to make this auntie persona as relatable and as authentic as possible, and this was why we decided to collaborate with Liu to bring this character to life. Most of us would be familiar with [Liu's] multiple on-screen characters that exude the typical auntie characteristics," Kantor said, adding that Liu is also a bargain-hunter in real life. 

Liu is featured in foodpanda's rap song and music video as the auntie who "knows the real deals". In the music video, Liu starts off by chiding her "grandchildren" about the unnecessary purchases they get online. She then goes on to suggest purchasing face masks instead, which will help them achieve smooth skin. Liu also asks her "children" to replace the rotting food items in the fridge, instead of replacing a well-functioning fridge. The music video has since garnered 227,776 views on YouTube at the time of writing.

The collaboration with Liu also helps foodpanda push its secondary objective, which is to encourage Singaporeans to first prioritise their purchases to items they will definitely have a use for.

This objective comes as the company found that consumers have been purchasing unnecessary items on impulse. 

"Every year, people go a little crazy during shopping deals that happen on 9.9, 10.10, 11.11 and even Christmas. Through our research, and tapping on our own personal experiences as well, we find that we end up buying way too many items on impulse as we are driven by the allure of enticing, too-good-to-miss deals," Kantor said, adding that more often than not these items end up discarded or refunded. Thus, foodpanda wanted to remind Singaporeans to first purchase items that they will definitely have a use for.

"Instead of impulsive purchases, we want to encourage customers to take advantage of the real deals and prioritise purchasing items that will benefit them almost immediately - think things like groceries, health and beauty essentials, or even snacks to satisfy those last-minute cravings," Kantor said.

This isn’t foodpanda's first local campaign. Last year, it worked with Publicis to launch a 360 campaign across 27 neighbourhoods showcasing Singaporean’s favourite cuisines for National Day. 

Counting each order placed on foodpanda as a vote in the two weeks leading up to National Day, foodpanda tracked the results in real-time and eventually crowned Singapore’s true national dish- fried chicken. While it was primarily an OOH-driven campaign, the campaign was also amplified through radio buys to drive buzz. The company also created its social component in-house.

With so many pieces of content online, how do you grab the attention of your online audience and get them fully engaged in your brand message and experience. To learn the tips and tricks, join our Viral Content Creation: Convert Readers into Customers masterclass.

Related Articles:
foodpanda sets foot in Japan with 'large share' allocated for marketing
foodpanda takes chickens to the sky with Ayam Penyet drone delivery
UNIQLO taps on famous waving foodpanda rider to further promote AIRism mask