Singapore – Online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has announced the one-year anniversary celebration for its own brand ambassador Pau-Pau, encouraging users to ‘live like a panda’, meaning freeing up their time and energy to pursue what really matters to them.
In conceptualising the philosophy, the foodpanda team spent hours studying pandas and found that pandas eat as they want to, sleep as they want to and live life without unnecessary worries. Taking inspiration from this outlook, foodpanda believes that humans too can benefit from adopting a similar mindset, and focus their energies on things that truly satisfy them.
Eunha Bhang, chief creative officer at Delivery Hero Asia, said, “We wanted to create a brand philosophy that will resonate with people of all ages across the region. With ‘live like a panda’, we hope to inspire our customers to look beyond their routine or chores that get in the way of doing things that they truly like, such as spending time with people they love. We want to help them free up time for things they enjoy doing so that they can find true satisfaction.”
Since his debut, Pau-Pau has received immense love from millions of people across the region and has created a positive perception in customers’ minds – making foodpanda their preference for on-demand deliveries. Throughout 2022, foodpanda has also received numerous requests for Pau-Pau merchandise, which highlights his growing fanbase.
Moreover, Pau-Pau, since becoming the face of the brand, has made his way into customers’ everyday lives through social media collaterals such as Telegram and LINE sticker sets as well as Instagram filters, which are used by many. He is constantly featured in prominent out of home advertisements, and has his own line of plushies and exclusive collectables.
Pau-Pau has also made its way to more hyperlocal campaigns. For instance, in Thailand last year, a giant Pau-Pau mascot visited an underprivileged children’s foundation to celebrate Valentine’s Day with them and also deliver delicious meals and other everyday necessities. In Taiwan, foodpanda launched a Pau-Pau promotion campaign featuring three Pau-Pau statues about 2.5m high while in Singapore, Pau-Pau has his own ice cream flavour and pink cookies.
Speaking about the celebration, Monika Mikusova, senior director of marketing for APAC at foodpanda, said, “The creation of our own brand ambassador, Pau-Pau, allows us to better connect and engage with millions of people who use the foodpanda app daily in a fresh, new way. With Pau-Pau, we now have the unique opportunity and creative runway to launch campaigns that bring to life foodpanda’s brand personality. While Pau-Pau had an adventurous 2022, for 2023, we are very excited for him to explore even more meaningful ways to add value to our customers’ lives.”
Pau-Pau’s philosophy is also reflected in what Mikusova said in MARKETECH APAC’s exclusive feature as their campaign is recognised as the site’s “Branding Campaign of the Year”. In it, she explains that Pau-Pau was made to have a personality that matches foodpanda’s values: a fun-loving and free-spirited panda who advocates environmental sustainability and believes in empowering people.
“As a reflection of our brand purpose, we centred Pau-Pau’s unique personality and passion points on three key values – living life on one’s own terms, the environment, and food and fun. This speaks to our commitment of making food, grocery and essential services delivery accessible to everyone, everywhere quickly around the clock,” she further explained.
