Just Eat Takeaway (AKA Just Eat, GrubHub, SkipTheDishes, and Menulog) is a household name around the world known for its on-demand delivery of delicious dine-in dishes—and its iconic campaigns starring some of the globe’s biggest names in music.
Since launching its “Did somebody say …” campaign in 2019, the brand has extended its reach from Europe to a global audience, collaborating with beloved music icons, including Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry, to secure a place on the cultural map. But Just Eat Takeaway (JET) wanted to go even bigger and demonstrate that it’s more than just a courier of restaurant meals.
After enlisting the unexpected duo of Christina Aguilera and Latto to front the 2023 iteration, DEPT® was tasked with translating the excitement of the TV world across digital channels to help establish JET as the best on-demand delivery platform that caters to all food cravings and convenience needs.
We tapped into cultural and native platform insights to ensure the brand spoke to audiences wherever they spent their time, and in its first three months the campaign generated: 252 million impressions; 38 million completed video views; 74% positive user sentiment; a +23.3 uplift in ad recall on TikTok; and Kantar deemed the ads “far and away the most effective on YouTube”.
Here’s the recipe for our success.
Expanding the (musical) menu
In 2023, as JET levelled up its game to offer customers more choice and convenience, JET needed to evolve its creative formula.
Just Eat Takeaway wanted to show everyone that the app is not just your average food delivery but a platform that can cater to all your food cravings. With so many competitors, it needed to stand out as the global leader in food delivery. The brand knew it had to sing it from the rooftops.
To bring this feeling of versatility to life, Just Eat Takeaway enlisted two artists from two different musical genres to frontline their campaign. Latto’s exhilarating hip-hop energy and Christina Aguilera’s iconic range of operatic vocals create an unexpected musical show shopper.
Most importantly, the duo reflects the pleasant surprise customers feel when they see the amazing selection and quality of food choices available on Just Eat Takeaway, beyond the same-old restaurant dishes users expect.
“Snoop Dogg helped us emotionally connect with audiences and boosted our cultural currency. Working with Katy Perry famously supporting the brand platform ‘Did Somebody Say’ which cemented Just Eat Takeaway’s role as the answer to all food cravings,” Susan O’Brien, VP Brand at Just Eat Takeaway.com, commented.
“The electrifying mix of Christina Aguilera and Latto is not only unexpected. It reinforces the message that you’ll be amazed at the selection and quality available on Just Eat Takeaway.”
As our business evolves to offer more choice and convenience from your favourite local takeaway to everyday essentials, it’s only right that we evolve our successful creative formula.
Susan O’Brien, VP Brand at Just Eat Takeaway.com
Delivering the message hot
As lead digital agency, DEPT® was tasked with taking the music and visuals of the new TVC (created by McCann) and extending the feeling of joy on digital channels to increase top of mind awareness and positive brand sentiment globally.
The global campaign, led by a 60” hero film, ran across TV, OOH, DOOH, cinema, social and radio, including bespoke content created by DEPT® that stretches the campaign across the digital landscape.
To make the campaign sing in social spaces, and achieve the broad awareness-focused objectives, we needed to tap into cultural and native platform insights to effectively engage audiences wherever they spent their time, delivering key brand messages in stand out ways.
We defined creative and production elements that would ensure our assets were hyper-relevant to the platforms being utilised: minimal narrative for maximum impact; fully immersive point of view and transitions; hypnotising edits; simple messaging; and culturally relevant references. And we utilised the power of the track (especially for ‘sound on’ environments), dialling up the brand sonic to drive recall and fame.
We produced thousands of motion and static assets and accompanying copy, hero-ing the talent as well as the wide range of cuisines and meals available on JET’s app.
To launch with impact, we selected high profile media placements including YouTube mastheads, Snapchat First Commercials, TikTok TopViews and a Meta guaranteed reach and frequency buy; staggering them to ensure presence over an extended period.
The social campaign supported the ATL launch by using platform-first creative to capitalise on the consumption of short-form content. But to keep things fresh after reaching so many people in launch week, we fed in new, bespoke assets in a range of formats including YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and Snap AR lenses to sustain (and maximise) reach and frequency.
Serving up success
The campaign saw incredible reception and engagement across eight markets covering Europe, UK, and Australia. In the first three months (October-December 2023) we generated:
252M
impressions
38M
completed views
556K
engagements
Our platform-native approach to asset production also drove incredible results across individual channels:
- +23.3 uplift in ad recall on TikTok (benchmark 8.3)
- +2.7 uplift in preference on TikTok
- +3.2 uplift in TOMA on Meta (benchmark 1.1)
- +6 uplift in TOMA on Snap (benchmark <1)
- +2.3 uplift in favourability on YouTube (benchmark 0.5)
- 74% positive user sentiment
Kantar also deemed our ads “far and away the most effective on YouTube” in December. In its The Works study, it credited us for grabbing and maintaining audience attention in a difficult digital environment, when brands have only a sliver of time to hook in and entertain viewers.
Our brains are primed to pay attention to things that are different, and this ad delivers that in spades. Ad distinctiveness is in the top 15% of all UK ads and stopping power is in the top 16.
Lynne Deason, Head of Creative Excellence, Kantar
The proportion of people saying they enjoyed the particular ad “a lot” was significantly above average at 27%, compared to an average of 17%.
Finally, amongst all the food and fun, TikTok users have flocked to using Just Eat Takeaway’s official sound on the platform. More than 9,000 videos have been created for the campaign music, generating:
- 104 million views
- 17.9 million likes
- 97.2K shares
- 83.9K comments
Did somebody say… success?
Questions?
Executive Creative Director
Jeff Bowerman
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