Menulog marketer Tasman Page has refuted copycat claims about the brand's recent Australian advert starring Jeff Goldblum and its likeness to UK brand Currys PC World's Christmas campaign.
The agency behind the Currys' campaign, AMV BBDO, said the work was “second-hand” in an article on Campaign UK, taking a swipe at Menulog's new agency, Y&R, for copying the idea.
Speaking to AdNews, Menulog head of marketing Tasman Page refutes the claim, adding that Goldblum is playing himself, which he has done in a slew of ads in the past.
“Jeff is playing Jeff. He’s played the same character for Apple, Apartments.com and more overseas brands. The reaction has been huge," he says.
“The ads tap into Australian features, like the footy shorts one of the males are wearing, which makes the ads inherently Australian.”
Despite industry backlash, Page says the response to the campaign has been "overwhelmingly" positive.
“We are a relatively known brand name here but we aren’t top of mind, even though the number of buyers is large. Part of the campaign is taking our rightful place as the biggest brand in food delivery, which we absolutely are,” he says.
Part of defining Menulog in Australia meant bringing in a big name as its ambassador, which was revealed last week to be Goldblum.
Menulog teased the ad with a stunt in Sydney a week before the TV campaign went live to build interest.
Jeff Goldblum was in Sydney last month selling sausages from a food truck
The brand had Goldblum appearing in an unbranded food truck serving sausages. The stunt attracted national press coverage.
“Goldblum has the universal, broad appeal we want for our brand. We aren’t trying to target inner city areas for people in their 20s. We are actually targeting a much broader demographic than that and are growing the category to became a leader in the space,” Page says.
“A large part of the campaign is capitalising off Goldblum and his popularity, which generates PR.”
The campaign is driven by the insight that only 20% of Australians order online. Page says it isn't about competing with the likes of UberEATS and Deliveroo, but increasing the awareness of food delivery services as a category.
“We are the only delivery player that delivers to more than 85% of Australians. While it might seem like there is a massive food delivery war, we don’t see it that way. We are the only one in Australia that operates outside of the inner city areas. We are running our own game,” he says.
“The challenges and areas of opportunity for Menulog are increasing our awareness and connecting with consumers. There are a lot of people who don’t know us yet and we’d like to change that.”
Page joined Menulog at the beginning of 2016 alongside former Nando’s CMO Kim Russell. Russell then left Menulog after just nine months in her role as marketing director.
Under Page, Menulog appointed Blue 449 as its media agency and shifted its creative from M&C Saatchi to Y&R.
Menulog was bought by UK online delivery juggernaut JustEat in May 2015 for $855 million. Page says the backing from JustEat has helped Menulog grow, however it was important that the brand had a unique voice in this market.
Tasman Page
As part of the campaign, Menulog is running TV spots, radio ads and pushing different iterations of the ad across Facebook.
Last year, Menulog was one of the main sponsors of Ten’s The Bachelor, which saw the brand integrate into dates on the show.
Menulog branding appeared on The Bachelor last year
Page wouldn’t comment on any future sponsorship deals with this year’s series, but says it was a successful partnership.
“It worked really well for us. The results in terms of awareness and engagement were positive. The Bachelor gives the licence to be fun and quirky,” he says.
“In The Bachelor, and also our new ads, a key part is demonstrating how our product works in an interesting way because there are a huge number of people that don’t know what Menulog does.”
Page wouldn’t reveal any statistics around the success of the campaign, but says it has already driven significant an increase in app downloads as well as brand awareness.
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