Manila, Philippines – GrabFood in the Philippines has recently launched its latest feature ‘GrabFood Group Order’, allowing a group of people to order on their own through a group invite feature and then paying each order on their own without the hassle of calculating their order altogether.

As part of this feature rollout, Grab has tapped creative agency GIGIL to launch a new ad, centred around the dilemma of office mates struggling to do a group order together–with colleagues only relying on one person to take the bulk order–all while making their own requests.

The ad features a quirky meme reference to Kara Mia, a 2019 TV series that featured two-faced twin sisters. For this ad, said meme reference was used to denote that many people who do group order together often have conflicting orders, and more often than not, have way too many specific requests.

MARKETECH APAC recently caught up with GIGIL and Grab Philippines, who have long worked together on both local and international campaigns since 2022.

Cutting through the noise with trust

GIGIL has long been known to always go the quirky route when it comes to doing creative work with their clients. In an exclusive statement, Herbert Hernandez, founding partner at GIGIL stated that while humour still plays a huge role in their campaign, what matters for them is trust being built with clients.

“When GIGIL works on projects, it is always our goal to make clients and their message cut through. And what we have learned is that humor can effectively deliver a message across to an audience. And cut through is only possible if there is great trust and collaboration between the client and the agency,” he told MARKETECH APAC.

In the case of this campaign work, Hernandez notes that the theme is centered around the office being a ‘battleground’ for most Filipino workers, and that they also wanted to represent different personalities with the faces to make the situation more grounded as order-taking experiences in the office.

“Order-taking can become a hassle as it requires the person tasked with doing so to, quite literally, listen to everyone’s voices and take note of their each and every request. This can lead to mismatched orders and mistaken food and drink customizations. We wanted to visualise that problem, humorously but in a way that’s easy to understand. And how better to visualise that than to have a character with multiple faces popping out from different areas of his head?,” he explained.

Hyperlocalisation is at the heart of the campaign

In an exclusive conversation as well with J-anne Aruta, the country marketing head at Grab Philippines, she highlights that for every campaign they do, their primary focus is always on the message and its potential to inspire action among our consumers.

And in the Filipino context, they believe GIGIL is consistent in being an excellent thought and idea partner in the effective delivery of their messages, from relatable, attention-grabbing storytelling to strategic channel identification.

“Having worked with GIGIL for a few years now, we’ve witnessed how they’ve developed a deep understanding of our ecosystem and of our Filipino audiences. This in-depth understanding has allowed us to effectively collaborate on hyperlocal campaigns that are founded on unique, albeit sometimes odd, insights that resonate with our diverse base of consumers,” Aruta stated.

She also added that while Grab is a regional company, they also understand that hyperlocalisation is important to address specific touch points for each local market in the region.

“One of the many factors behind its strong presence across Southeast Asia is hyperlocalisation – a strategy that has empowered us to create solutions that address the various yet specific on-ground challenges our communities face. And hyperlocalisation does not just manifest in the tailor-fitting of products and services we launch across hundreds of cities in SEA. It is also present in the way we communicate with our audiences,” she explained.

When asked about the ad’s humorous direction, Aruta said that humour is but the wrapper, adding that it’s the ‘why’ that is the actual chocolate – the message a brand actually wants to be delivered.

“However, it’s easy to get lost in the plethora of witty punchlines, leading some to go astray from the primary intent. This is why we are always grounded on what we wish to convey. The punchline, the twist, and the mind-boggling ending always come second,” she concluded.

Manila, Philippines – Earlier this year, GrabFood in the Philippines launched a discoverability feature ‘Indie Eats’ which aims to tag small to medium restaurants in the platform that are proven of quality and good taste.

The platform is moving further with its goal to help merchants and consumers benefit best from each other by launching an engaging 3-episode series on Facebook. Called ‘Totoong Sarap’ (Truly Delicious), the goal is to put the high-rated ‘Indie Eats’ to the test and cast out foodies’ reservations around their hype.

‘Indie Eats’ ambassador and social media personality Sassa Gurl will host the series and will be accompanied by different celebrity guests for each episode. Sassa Gurl and the guest will be trying out ‘Indie Eats’ restos and give their honest and no-holds-barred feedback.

The mini-series has already kicked off with pilot guest, Kiray Celis, a popular Filipino comedian. In the second episode, Sassa Gurl will be with kid guests, while the third and final episode is teased to showcase ‘queens’. The mini-series can be viewed on GrabFood PH’s official Facebook page.

In June, the ‘Indie Eats’ feature has been expanded nationwide to accommodate merchants in provincial cities Pampanga, Cebu, and Davao.

Philippines – Indie Eats, GrabFood’s latest merchant discoverability program, has announced its nationwide expansion to spotlight small yet promising and quality food businesses. From Pampanga to Cebu to Davao and many more areas, Grab customers can now better appreciate local entrepreneurs as well as take advantage of their offerings.

The Indie Eats expansion comes just two months after it was launched in March, with the goal of assisting Grab’s vast community of small and local merchant-partners.

To celebrate the expansion, Indie Eats ambassadors social media personality Sassa Gurl and Filipino-French chef and YouTube content creator Erwan Heussaff re-united for part two of their entertaining yet unforgettable first encounter – and, much like how Indie Eats takes on the whole country. On their latest YouTube vlog, Sassa goes global with an unexpected and surprise appearance by Nico Bolzico in a meeting of the AFAMs

Aside from the new vlog, Indie Eats has also encouraged consumers to munch some of the newly-added merchant-partners to the program; Pampanga: Amazing undiscovered dishes await from new Indie Eats merchant-partners, Ollie’s Burger, Simple Morning by Station Cafe, and Kuya Jeck’s Tapsilogan!, Cebu: Try out something new and unexpected with the likes of Martin’s Burger House, Wow Lugaw, and Mojo Milktea!, Davao: Support your local quality small businesses with just a few taps and order from Patel’s Food Hub, Gotokai, and Dabao Buns!

Meanwhile, GrabFood is also currently holding their #IndieEatsReview challenge on TikTok, running until June 15, 2022! Where consumers can upload a video of themselves trying any Indie Eats offering and tag @grabfoodph to get a chance to win a year’s worth of GrabFood vouchers. 

Manila, Philippines – The pandemic has resulted in various consumer behavior changes, including the boost of the food and grocery delivery platforms, including the superapp Grab. According to their latest study with NielsenIQ, more F&B brands are giving food delivery a shot, with the number of monthly active merchants in GrabFood increasing by 60% in 2020.

As a leading delivery operator of F&B brands, Grab unveils its awards body for recognizing top-performing partner merchants in the Philippines, called ‘Golden Grab Awards 2021’ which was recently held virtually for the first time, celebrating its best-performing GrabFood and GrabMart merchant-partners.

The award categories are a mix of data-driven and people’s choice awards, and are split in three categories: Sale Superstars, Merchant Congeniality, and Golden Cart. These awards celebrated the best of GrabFood’s merchant-partner rookies, best curated menus, top-performing merchants for every meal, best-rated merchants, and many more.

For the Sales Superstars Awards, some of the awards granted are creatively named after the various meal time occasions. In this instance, Breakfast Champs’ or catered to breakfast, is awarded to Starbucks and to Conti’s Bakeshop and Restaurant; ‘Lunch Leaders’ or for lunch time are awarded to popular fast-food franchises Jollibee and Mang Inasal; ‘Merienda Masters’ for afternoon snack time are awarded to S&R New York Style Pizza and Angel’s Pizza; while ‘Dinner Dash’ for dinner deliveries are awarded to fast-food chains Chowking and KFC; and ‘Midnight Munchies’ for late-night snackage are awarded to McDonald’s and Army Navy Burger + Burrito.

Other ‘Sales Superstars Awards’ include ‘Promo Masters’ for Shakey’s Pizza and Monicar General Merchandise, ‘GrabAds Guru’ for Mary Grace Cafe and Kenny Rogers Roasters, ‘Campaign King’ for Selecta Ice Cream Shop (GrabFood) and Robinsons Supermarket Corporation (GrabMart), and ‘Data Dynamo’ for Picabean Coffee House (GrabFood) and DRTM Store (GrabMart)

Meanwhile, the Merchant Congeniality Awards are awards given out to partner-merchants that show satisfactory performance on their operations, ranging from delivery efficiency, menu diversity, and hygiene standards. The awards are as follows:

  • Menu Maven-Blake’s Wings & Steaks (GrabFood), Ever Supermarket (GrabMart)
  • Need For Speed-Turks
  • Hygiene Hero-Chooks to Go
  • Pack It Like It’s Hot-Corndog28, Shake Shack
  • Newbie No More-Thai Mango
  • Ultimate Lifesaver-Robinsons Supermarket Corporation
  • Riders Choice Award-Starbucks
  • Staff Salute Award-Classic Savory – SM City Las Pinas

Lastly, the Golden Cart Awards are as follows:

  • Golden Grab Rider-Partner-Wendell Fajardo Songco
  • Top Trender Award-Andok’s Litson Baka
  • Golden Merchant Badge-Big Al’s Cookie Jar
  • Eager Expander Award-Pan de Manila
  • Long Distance League Award-Samgyupsmile Delivery – Molino 3

“Through this celebration, Grab continues to support the growth of its merchant-partners whose partnership with the superapp has been integral in its commitment to providing Filipinos with everyday essentials,” the company said in a press statement.

They added, “In the times of limited or restricted movement, Filipinos have come to rely on online food and essentials delivery services providers such as GrabFood and GrabMart. As the country eases back on quarantine restrictions, Grab, a leading superapp in Southeast Asia, does not fail to recognize the merchant-partners who have been integral to these services.”

Philippines – There’s no doubt that more than just being what used to be an exciting past-time and a convenient solution, online food deliveries have now become the crucial element this pandemic for both consumers and business owners, with strict national protocols enforcing everyone to stay within the premises of their own home.

Grab, the top ride-hailing app in Southeast Asia, that soon grew into a superapp has released its first-ever ‘Food Trends Report’ in the Philippines, drawing insights from its food delivery business GrabFood for the period of 2019-2021. 

For starters, the study shows that during this period, food delivery has also served to be Filipinos’ go-to solution in battling traffic and road problems. Pre-pandemic, these were already in Filipinos’ top dilemmas, and even now that times have changed, Filipinos are dealing with them the same even amid less opportunities for cars to roam freely in the streets. 

In the study which was conducted by NielsenIQ, it shows that among the top reasons Filipinos order food delivery in 2020 is so that they don’t need to worry about traffic or parking. This is together with Filipnos’ desire to satisfy cravings for food they can’t cook, and due to simply not having the time to cook. 

Grab Philippines_Filipinos
Infographic from Grab Philippines

Due to the demands of family that has been augmented by the ongoing pandemic, the report found that it is families who have children that order the most from food delivery, with 65% of them belonging to the 25-44 year-old bracket. 

With Filipinos looking to delivery as a save from the rigorous preparations of their favorite dishes; pizza, cake, and pasta were found to be some of the favorite food items that Filipinos like to search on the Grab app. In fact, pizza was searched 6 million times on GrabFood in 2020. 

Grab Philippines_Filipinos
Infographic from Grab Philippines

What’s more, despite it being a staple only for celebrations, Filipinos’ orders for cake also grew by 2.6 times in the year 2020 compared to the previous year. 

In terms of the time of the day, it seems that it is immaterial for Filipino foodies on what time they’d prefer to put in their orders, where most orders were made for dinner, lunch, and ‘merienda’ or afternoon time. However, in 2020, Filipinos were shown to spend more on breakfast with a 35% increase in basket size for the said part of the day. 

On top of Filipinos’ delivery behavior, the average Filipino consumer is trying approximately 2-3 different restaurants in a month in 2020, with ‘variety of food’ and ‘value for money’ as their main considerations. 

Grab Philippines_Filipinos
Infographic from Grab Philippines

With Grab’s report originally dedicated to bring commercial awareness to F&B merchants, the report reveals that most of all, more F&B brands are giving food delivery a shot, with the number of monthly active merchants in GrabFood increasing by 60% in 2020. 

Aside from research insights, the report by Grab also includes content on the state of the food delivery business as a whole in the country as well as tips on digital marketing for F&B businesses. 

Statistics were derived from Grab’s internal database between 2019–2020. The research conducted also includes interviews with food industry professionals, restaurateurs, consumer surveys, and focus groups.

Manila, Philippines – Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in the Philippines is adding a new item – US. Spicy Chicken Sandwich – to its menu, and it has exclusively tied up with GrabFood to offer customers a first-taste ahead of its official store launch.

The new item will be made available in stores on October 18, but customers can already order from GrabFood starting October 14.

https://www.facebook.com/popeyesph/posts/2890775661200668

The U.S. Spicy Chicken Sandwich features a spicy boneless chicken with pickled jalapeños, bacon strips, and spicy roasted garlic mayo on a toasted brioche bun.

With Popeyes being a participating merchant-partner for GrabFood’s new Long Distance feature, GrabFood users within a 10 km radius from a Popeyes branch will also be able to avail the U.S. Spicy Chicken Sandwich. 

Manila, Philippines – Grab Philippines has tied up with Unilever Philippines to launch the Safer Meals Philippines campaign, a program which provides hygiene kits to GrabFood merchant partners and delivery partners. 

Through the kits, Grab aims to ensure utmost safety and hygiene at every stage of the food delivery life cycle. Part of the kits is Unilever’s newly launched Lifebuoy sanitizer and Cif multi-purpose cleaner. 

According to a press statement by Grab Singapore, the partnership with Unilever covers the whole of Southeast Asia in the objective to protect Grab riders as well as to support the livelihoods of small business owners. 

GrabFood Philippines Head EJ Dela Vega said, “Keeping our communities safe is core to everything we do at Grab, and we are fortunate to find a partner in Unilever that shares this philosophy and be able to make a difference through our Safer Meals Philippines campaign.”

Since March, Unilever has been doing its part to support nationwide efforts in supplying basic goods and services amid the pandemic.

It announced its local response “Malasakit for All” (compassion for all) to support its employees, partners, and communities, where among the initiatives are the provision of hygiene relief packs and medical supplies to hospitals as well as NGOs and affected groups nationwide.

Unilever’s VP for Communications in Southeast Asia, Ed Sunico said, “Building trust across communities and consumers is a way to move forward from the challenging situation that we’re all facing right now.”

Singapore GrabFood has officially launched on ShopBack, enabling 1.5 million ShopBack users in Singapore to enjoy cashback on their GrabFood orders. Users can now save a little extra when they are placing a food delivery order from their favorite F&B outlets, including McDonalds, Playmade, and Din Tai Fung. 

To access these rewards, users have to first launch the ShopBack app, then type in “GrabFood” in the search bar or click on “GrabFood” under the New Stores on ShopBack section. This will redirect the user from the ShopBack app to the GrabFood app, allowing for the cashback to be tracked. The user should have the latest version of Grab installed.

The pandemic has resulted in many preferring to consume their meals from the safety of home, and this partnership will help to facilitate the shift in consumer behavior from restaurant dine-in to pick up, takeaway, and delivery.

Joel Leong, Co-founder of ShopBack

“We are thrilled to add GrabFood to our growing line-up of merchants. The pandemic has resulted in many preferring to consume their meals from the safety of home, and this partnership will help to facilitate the shift in consumer behavior from restaurant dine-in to pick up, takeaway, and delivery. We have also received many requests from our users to on-board GrabFood, and today, we are happy to be able to make this a reality and bring even more cashback options for our users,” said Joel Leong, Co-founder of ShopBack

A recent report by Facebook and Bain & Company found that there has been a shift to value-for-money purchasing across Southeast Asia as conservatism sets in, as 57% of survey respondents cited ‘value’ among their top-three purchasing considerations. This is more pronounced in Singapore, where around 70% cite ‘value’ as a top consideration.

“Singaporeans are passionate about food and appreciate the convenience. Also, true to our kiasu (fear of losing) nature, we never want to miss out on a good deal and we are constantly seeking out value. As such, this partnership with GrabFood has all the right ingredients for success,” added Leong.

“As one of the leading digital lifestyle apps in Singapore, we are always finding new ways to create more value for our customers with every dollar they spend on our products and services. We are therefore pleased to be able to launch GrabFood on ShopBack. At a time when consumers increasingly seek out apps and platforms that empower their digital lifestyles, we are confident that this partnership can serve their evolving needs,” said Gillian Ang, Head of Marketing for Grab Singapore.