How Snoop Dogg broke Menulog to younger Aussie chowhounds

Snoop Dogg’s current ad campaign with food and beverage delivery service Menulog has been successful on a number of levels. Notably, it increased use in a wider demographic in the Australian market.

Usage by millennials and Gen Z is up more than 20%. Across the board, orders increased between 20-40%, depending on the state of restrictions in different states, forcing the company to hire 3,000 new couriers.

The company, which set up in Sydney in 2006 and is now owned by Dutch company Just Eat Takeaway, confirmed Australia is its fastest-growing market, with triple-digit growth between July and September.

Ad News reports Menulog’s marketing director, Simon Cheng, told a sports marketing forum, “Snoop Dogg is the absolute perfect ambassador for our business.

“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.”

It comes as no surprise that home delivery services as Menulog, UberEATS, Deliveroo and Hello Fresh had a boost in sales after pandemic restrictions kept people at home. Globally, orders went to 151.4 million in Q3 2020 from 103.6 million in the same quarter in 2019.

The Menulog campaign, developed by McCann London and released in May in seven markets, featured a revamped ‘Did Somebody Say Menulog’ spot with the jingle sung by the US rapper ordering “tacos to the château” and “chicken wings to the crib” on the Menulog app.

Snoop Dogg said at the time: “People said it could never be done – a Menulog track that you can get down to. The original was a great track but it’s had its run, it needed to upgrade. That’s why they brought me in, to put some spice on it.”

Menulog had another boost with the $3 million campaign in November when McCann Sydney struck a deal with the National Rugby League to tap into its large following. NRL stars Greg Inglis, Brad Fittler, and Tom Trbojevic joined Snoop Dogg for the jingle, with updated lyrics referencing sausages sizzles and meat pies. The 30-second spot ran on TV, social and digital during the State of Origin series on Nine.

“Those Wednesday orders for those games have been the best that we’ve seen,” Cheng said.

Menulog has 21,000 restaurant partners in Australia and 500 in New Zealand including McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway Nando’s, Hungry Jack’s, Red Rooster and Crust Pizza Stores.

According to Roy Morgan Research, the market leader is UberEATS, used by 11.5% of Australians including over 1-in-5 in Generation Z.