Menulog CMO on what Snoop Dogg has done for the business

Mariam Cheik-Hussein
By Mariam Cheik-Hussein | 25 November 2020
Snoop Dogg

Menulog’s campaign with US rapper Snoop Dogg has helped the food-delivery service break out of its “pigeonhole” and given it some of its best-performing weeks, says marketing director Simon Cheng.

Cheng was speaking at Nine and WWOS’ The Power of Sports Marketing in 2021 about the campaign which has been revamped for the State of Origin. Joined by Nine head of content partnerships Anne Gruber and tennis player Dylan Alcott, Cheng said the rapper was used to broaden the food-delivery company’s appeal to audiences across different age groups.

“Snoop Dogg is the absolute perfect ambassador for our business,” Cheng said on the panel.

“We’re a business that has traditionally been pigeonholed in certain demographics of Australia, and so Snoop Dogg helps us appeal to a much broader audience in Australia. He appeals to young people, Gen Z and also to Boomers.

“It’s still early days for us but we’re very very pleased with the current results."

Menulog was one company to benefit from the pandemic, particularly in March and April, with more people staying in and ordering their food through delivery apps. This set the path for the company to develop “bold” ideas and launch its Snoop Dogg campaign in May.

The campaign, developed by McCann London and released in May, features a revamped ‘Did Somebody Say Menulog’ spot with the jingle sung by Snoop Dogg.

From July to September, the 15 year-old company had triple-digit growth in Australia, its fastest-growing market. Globally, orders went from 103.6 million in the third quarter of 2019, to 151.4 million during the same period this year.

The campaign was again revamped by McCann Sydney in November, with NRL stars such as Greg Inglis, Brad Fittler, and Tom Trbojevic joining Snoop Dogg for the jingle. The 30-second spot premiered across TV, as well as social and digital during the State of Origin series on Nine.

Cheng described the tie-up between the State of Origin and Menulog as a “marriage made in heaven”, allowing the food-delivery service company to connect with the game’s large audience. 

During the origin series, orders have been the highest for any major sporting event for Menulog, and the three weeks of origin, crammed down from five weeks due to the pandemic, are among the best performing weeks ever for the company. 

“Going big and bold is a mantra that we have in the business, and I have a personal belief that all brands need to be big and bold all the time but you have to make sure you balance that with the short term as well,” he says.

“The general rule of thumb that we all follow is the 60/40 principle, where 60% of the time resources are spent on long-term brand building and 40% on short-term sales. That’s what we subscribe to.

“With this next iteration, with the State of Origin and local stars has been really successful since launching from Game 1, those Wednesday orders for those games have been the best that we’ve seen.”

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