Tag: Year End 2022

The year 2022 was indeed a year of innovations – from advertising solutions to revenue management suites, many products have been launched to prove that their respective industries will continue to evolve in the years to come. However, only one bagged MARKETECH APAC’s Product Launch of the Year recognition: the launch of foodpanda’s adtech solution ‘panda ads’.

To learn more about the solution, we spoke to Kiranjeet Singh Purba, senior director of advertising and partnerships at foodpanda. Through the interview, he shared what motivated foodpanda to venture into the adtech space, how their partner brands have leveraged the solution, and what we can look forward to from it.

Why foodpanda ventured into adtech

Being in the food delivery industry for more than a decade now, foodpanda saw how its digitally savvy customers’ lives evolved, as well as their needs. This resulted in the launch of various offerings, such as its grocery delivery suite ‘pandamart’ and marketplace ‘foodpanda shops’. 

Apart from these, foodpanda also saw the increasing demand for retail media advertising and the opportunity to help different brands across Asia – hence the takeoff of panda ads, its advertising technology ecosystem.

“[W]e see panda ads in a unique position to help brands reach and engage millions of digital-native customers beyond traditional channels. This further, allows for our customers to access relevant advertising of products and services that are intelligently targeted to be specific to their daily needs,” Purba explained.

Initiatives and partnerships

Since its launch, panda ads has bagged partnerships with major brands such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Amazon, Netflix, Heineken, Tiger Brokers, and Huawei, amongst many others. Speaking about how these brands have leveraged the offering, Purba commented that they created campaigns tailored to meet these brands’ unique objectives.

“The uniqueness of partnering with panda ads is the amount of flexibility and campaign- control that brands receive. For instance, a campaign can be designed with the objective of either driving traffic to a particular product listed on foodpanda’s platform or to any other channel as required,” he added.

More specifically, Purba mentioned their partnership with Huawei, which leveraged both the foodpanda platforms’ ecosystems and panda ads for brand campaigns. One initiative they have done for the brand was its campaign for the launch of Huawei’s latest mobile phone. 

“Based on these objectives, the partnership was designed to: first, launch the foodpanda app on the HUAWEI AppGallery, making on-demand deliveries accessible to millions of Huawei smartphone users across 11 markets – this includes pre-installing the foodpanda app in all new Huawei smartphones,” he explained.

Moreover, he likewise mentioned that panda ads are being used to promote Huawei’s latest flagship products and user incentive campaigns for Huawei’s AppGallery and other HMS products to millions of foodpanda customers.

On collaborating with GroupM

Initially introduced as a proof of concept in 2021, panda ads have evolved into an actual adtech suite, thanks to foodpanda’s partnership with media investment company GroupM. 

According to Purba, their collaboration with the company covered four key facets: growing joint clients, enabling agencies using panda ads to be self-sufficient, industry thought leadership and joint research, and future development.

“As a commerce partner, GroupM has enabled its clients to tap into foodpanda’s AdTech ecosystem and benefit from being able to run more targeted and relevant mobile ads beyond traditional social media channels,” he said.

He further explained that with the creation of panda ads, GroupM’s clients also had the flexibility of tailoring their campaigns to incorporate a variety of solutions: from in-app advertising to digital marketing channels.

More from panda ads

The launch of panda ads has enabled brands to reach foodpanda audiences with billions of impressions. As Purba mentioned, they see strong repurchase rate behaviours from their partners, and more brands are partnering up with them to benefit from this suite. But what more can we expect from it?

To this, Purba said that foodpanda still sees an ample opportunity for them to enhance and innovate panda ads’ offerings to meet the needs of their partner brands. This ranges from offering more in-app placement options and improving their audience targeting capabilities to providing more data insights to the brands.

“Finally, we’re pushing the boundaries in innovation in exploring opportunities in offline to online attribution and first party data leverage,” he concluded. 

This recognition is based on Google Analytics results on the most-read stories of 2022, along with editorial validation on the significance of a leader’s contribution, campaign results, and overall impact.

Singapore – Looking back, the year 2022 was packed with amazing campaigns that had our jaws dropped and our hearts touched. However, one emerged at the top of our list and gained MARKETECH APAC’s Branding Campaign of the Year nod — foodpanda’s brand mascot ‘Pau-Pau’. 

Unveiled through foodpanda’s 10th anniversary campaign in Asia last January, Pau-Pau was introduced to the public as its first-of-its-kind brand ambassador that represents sustainability and empowerment. The pink panda mascot was rolled out on the food delivery platform’s channels and interfaces, including the foodpanda app, website, social media accounts, and live-environment activations, amongst others. 

In an interview with Monika Mikusova, senior director of marketing for APAC, foodpanda told us how Pau-Pau was conceptualised, the traction and sentiment he gained from the public, and moreover, what more can we look forward from him and the brand’s campaigns.

The story behind fun-loving and free-spirited Pau-Pau

Before we got to know the Pau-Pau that we now love, foodpanda has been signing on real-life influential personalities to represent the brand. However, foodpanda’s desire to establish a stronger connection with its communities and give its customers someone they can relate to in their everyday lives led to the creation of Pau-Pau. His inception then began two years ago amidst the lockdowns, with over 200 people across 22 nationalities who worked to bring Pau-Pau to life.

“The creation of our own brand ambassador, Pau-Pau, allows us to connect and engage with millions of people who use the foodpanda app daily in a fresh, new way,” said Mikusova. 

Not only that, Pau-Pau was made to have a personality that matches foodpanda’s values: a fun-loving and free-spirited panda who advocates environment sustainability and believes in empowering people to live their lives on their own terms. He also had his own universe: the ‘Pandaverse’.

“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.

How Pau-Pau inspired the foodpanda community

When we think of foodpanda, the image of Pau-Pau may now be the first thing that comes to mind. This signifies that the pink panda has indeed received love from millions of people across Asia even just almost a year from its launch. Unsurprisingly, Pau-Pau was able to build his own fanbase with his fans wanting to see more of him, even in merchandise— talk about popular!

Mikusova even shared a touching story of Pau-Pau’s fan from the Philippines, “For instance, we saw a Facebook post of a customer in the Philippines requesting for a Pau-Pau plushie or soft toy because it was the only thing her godson wanted for his birthday. We were so moved seeing how much this child loved Pau-Pau, that we wanted to do something special to make his birthday memorable!” 

As a champion of empowerment and sustainability, foodpanda through Pau-Pau has also inspired people to live life to the fullest, by simply encouraging them to grab their favourite foodie whenever they would like at any time of the day. He has likewise been the face of foodpanda’s recent green initiatives such as the ‘Let’s do our Pau-rt’ initiative in the Philippines and the launch of a locally produced and sustainable beer in Singapore called ‘Loaf Like A Panda’.

Will we be seeing more from Pau-Pau?

From having his own universe to his own fanbase, we think we may have already seen a lot from Pau-Pau. But for foodpanda, Pau-Pau is a distinct asset that will always inspire them to tell creative stories. Hence, for them, this is only just Pau-Pau’s beginning. 

“Next year will be even more exciting, and potentially Pau-Pau’s universe may grow in the future,” Mikusova concluded.

This recognition is based on Google Analytics results on the most-read stories of 2022, along with editorial validation on the significance of a leader’s contribution, campaign results, and overall impact.