Grubhub made its Super Bowl debut yesterday and the food delivery’s top marketer Marnie Kain could not be more thrilled.
The idea for the ad is part of a big swing for the brand in the category. The company dropped fees on all orders over $50 indefinitely, a move that comes after being acquired by Wonder last year for $650 million. Grubhub’s market share had been in decline for several years before the acquisition. Wonder hopes to reverse this and make Grubhub the leader in the category.
“Grubhub was the original category founder, believe it or not,” said Kain. “We literally founded and disrupted this category just over 20 years ago. And now once again, we are disrupting. We’re turning the category on its head, all in service of the consumer.”
The new offering went live on the Monday ahead of the Super Bowl, a busy time for food delivery and a big time to make the case for this new offering. The brand tapped auteur filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos to direct a Super Bowl spot (one of two ads that he directed this year) starring George Clooney.
“We are telling our story differently for the category,” says Kain. “We stand for getting people the food they love, for the value they need. We want to make it as seamless as possible to get from point A to point B, take the friction out. It’s all about the food for Grubhub. That’s our North Star.”
Grubhub is facing some steep competition. Uber Eats, DoorDash and Instacart each ran an ad in the game with all star talent. Uber Eats continued its food and football conspiracy with Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper, bringing Parker Posey into the mix this year. Spike Jonze directed Ben Stiller and Benson Boone in Instacart’s humorous and campy spot. Rapper 50 Cent starred in DoorDash’s game day spot.
Kain said Grubhub is focused on knowing its place in culture and focusing on who it is in the marketplace.
“You can’t be all things to all people, so it’s picking the right moments,” she says. “For us, it’s about standing up in these moments where we can get maximum attention, but also tell our story in a way that will stand out differently.”
Brand Innovators caught up with Kain from her office in New York to talk about the Super Bowl ad and where the brand is going this year. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why did Grubhub decide to advertise at the Super Bowl this year?
Being that the Super Bowl is the world’s biggest stage to make an announcement, it was an obvious choice for us when we decided to launch a new value proposition for the brand. This isn’t just a moment to run a spot, it’s a chance to tell the world that we’re doing something very different in the category. We’re launching a new value proposition and the Super Bowl will allow us to unveil it. We’re essentially taking the fees out of restaurant orders over $50. No delivery fees, no service fees, and that is a radical change for a category that’s operated this way for a very long time. It’s a fundamental change in the way that we go to market and for the category at large.
Super Bowl is a busy season for food delivery.
It is. It’s a busy season for the category, and it’s important because that’s when people are having gatherings and ordering large orders. But the amazing thing is, it’s not that hard to get to $50. The fees are disproportionately higher once you start getting into larger orders. So to be able to offer this on an enduring basis in the category, this isn’t a flash in the pan limited time offer. This is a fundamental change to how we’re doing business going forward.
What was the idea behind the ad?
The ad dramatizes the distasteful fees that come along with the great food that you get from food delivery. We hired Anomaly as our agency and they had this great idea, which is very simply put, Grubhub is eating the fees. You eat the food, we’ll eat the fees. We’re putting our mouth where our money is. I love that line because it is so true as to the bold move that we’re making in the category.
The idea is brought to life by acclaimed director, Yorgos Lanthimos, who has just such a wonderful way of taking the familiar and making it feel strange, even absurd, to the point where you can’t look away. Then we brought George Clooney in as the voice of reason, who brings a subversive twist to it and says, “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to eat those fees. Grubhub is eating the fees.” He brings a gravitas and authority to it. We loved the core idea. The director brings it to life. The celebrity brings gravitas to it.
How will you be supporting the Super Bowl ad after the game?
This is an enduring value proposition and a campaign that we are investing heavily in throughout the year. It will include a real 360 effort including influencers, social, out of home, TV, radio. It is full funnel for us in bringing this to light. It’s a new behavior for customers. We think it will appeal to our existing customers, but very importantly to those who are not using us today.
Who is this target audience that you’re going after with this campaign?
It’s a huge category. There are a lot of consumers that play the field based on short-term offers, but this is something sustaining. We’re looking to take share from competitors and everybody benefits from value. It is a key driver in the category. People are always looking for value and affordability now more than ever. It’s a luxury to order food delivery.
We want to make it as painless as possible, take any friction out of it. One thing that may not be known is that on an order of $50, you could pay an average of $13 in fees, which is a bit of sticker shock if you look at your receipt. Some people just overlook it, others feel kind of guilty, but they do it anyway. That adds up for a family that’s ordering once a week to over $600. We are bringing them true value that they could put more food on the table and eat the food, not the fees.
How is Grubhub able to do this?
We can’t get fully into the backend economics of it, but we’re not charging restaurants anything. They’re not covering the cost. We are covering the cost. It’s based on a new partnership or a new ownership by Wonder that is investing in our business. We are betting on growing our business and our user base so significantly that it will offset the cost of eating the fees.
How is this particular campaign and offering that you’re putting out there geared towards where consumers are at today?
In our research, we know that consumers dislike the fees. It’s an annoyance about the category.
And by the way, there are fees in other categories as well. And it’s just a common thing that you see in data that we do on brand health and attribute testing, but also in social. If you look across social, you see a lot of people complaining about the distaste of the fees. It’s not a secret that it’s a category barrier. But taking it on is another thing. It is a matter of putting your mouth where your money is and committing to consumers.
Right now that uncertainty about the economy and so forth, any value that you can bring to consumers is meaningful. It’s important to dramatize throughout our whole 360, what this means for consumers, that this is not a short-term, limited time offer. There’s a lot of that out in the marketplace that looks to lure people in, but this is an enduring promise to do better, to do the right thing by our consumers.
Can you talk about why it’s important as a brand to show up in cultural moments like the Super Bowl?
People are looking to relate to brands and understand what they stand for and connect with them on their level. There is no bigger cultural moment than the Super Bowl – a live event that brings everybody together to this degree. We have a lot of other culturally relevant content that we’re going to be, thousands, tens of thousands of pieces of content that we’re going to be putting out there, but it was important to us to set the tone and launch in the Super Bowl, where we have the kind of audience that is engaged in this moment. It says that we’re here for you to viewers.
This is a pervasive new value proposition. The goal is to not just speak from one angle or have matching luggage in execution, but it’s to execute in the right way across different channels to bring the consumer in and help them understand the magnitude of this.
