As Interim CMO and VP Global Brand for Just Eat Takeaway.com, Susan O’Brien has spearheaded the “Did Somebody Say…” campaign since 2019. Here, she talks about brand building, brand recognition, and working with celebrities.
The best brands should live in your head rent-free. And that's what we strive for at Just Eat Takeaway.com. You know that feeling when you hear a jingle and instantly know the brand? That's what I'm talking about.
Because let's face it, in today's crowded marketplace, being forgettable is a recipe for disaster. By keeping our brand identity strong, adaptable, and engaging, we can stay at the front of consumers' minds.
But how do we become the first name people think of when their stomachs start rumbling? By building brand recognition. And that’s just what the latest iteration of our “Did Somebody Say…” campaign with Christina Aguilera and Latto has served up:
A signature soundtrack: The power of an audio logo
When it comes to building brand recognition, one of the key things we've done is create a strong audio logo. Since launching the “Did Somebody Say…” brand platform in 2019, it has remained core to what we do, and that's both the text slogan and the audio that comes with it.
We think of it as our brand signature. It's instantly recognisable, but crucially, we’re not afraid to evolve it. We took “Did Somebody Say…” and made it global. Localised for all of our 19 markets and in 22 different languages:
And we’ve given ourselves permission to play with that audio so that it stays fresh.
The core melody is always there, keeping things consistent and instantly recognisable. Just try saying the sentence without singing it, it’s nearly impossible. The wording is also cheeky and informal, and it can be applied to so many occasions: “Did Somebody Say… Friday lunch treat”. It’s almost an indirect call to action.
This one distinctive asset allows us to get into people's heads quickly… and stay there.
Strategic celebrity partnerships: Broadening the appeal
We all know celebrities can be a powerful marketing tool, but simply throwing money at a big name isn't the answer.
We carefully choose the right talent that aligns with our brand, and then tailor our message to authentically suit both the artist and the audience. We’ve now worked with celebrities from Snoop Dogg to Katy Perry. They not only help to broaden our reach, but also ensure that our brand resonates with different demographics.
In our latest ad campaign, we wanted to land the message that Just Eat is more than an app for food delivery; that it’s a platform that caters to all food cravings and also offers the convenience of groceries to your door.
It's about creating a brand experience that stays with people.
To bring this idea to life, we wanted to work with artists from two different musical genres: pop, operatic stylings, and hip hop. This led us to partner with Latto and Christina Aguilera. A pairing that also connects to two different audiences — Christina to Millennials and Latto to GenZ — covering our core demographic of 18-45 year olds.
Most importantly, the duo and the choice of music, reflects the diverse selection and quality of food choices available on our platform.
The ultimate goal is to always be top-of-mind for consumers. But it's not just about catchy jingles or big-name celebrities — it's about creating a brand experience that people love.
The orange thread: Building brand equity for the future
At Just Eat Takeaway, we talk about the orange thread weaving its way through all of our marketing, connecting everything we do. It includes our audio logo, messaging that reflects our core purpose (delivering everyday moments of joy), and a focus on user-generated content that lets our customers become brand ambassadors.
We see so much user-generated content coming from our audiences. They’re organically sharing these videos because they enjoy them so much, extending our reach to even more viewers.
And the results speak for themselves: a whopping 54-second average watch time on a 60 second YouTube video. These best in class results show the power of a cohesive approach in action.
I’m incredibly proud of the work we have done with the brand since launching the “Did Somebody Say…” brand platform five years ago. People are actively searching for our content using the campaign name and they're sharing the different videos because they’re authentic to the artists featured.
We measure brand recognition through this campaign with metrics like spontaneous awareness association. In February 2024, we saw 60% spontaneous awareness debranded (when not seen with our branding) association with the “Did Somebody Say” mnemonic. This is up 10% since May 2023.
YouTube played an instrumental role in the global brand campaign. The platform helped reach the right audiences, in order to elevate brand recognition, top of mind awareness, and preference. The campaign generated between 2.5% and 9% Lift in Ad Recall, across all the markets we launched in, and a lift in favourability across most markets.
In terms of Branded Search Lift we saw an increase of 20% across most markets. The highest coming from advertising on connected TV, with ad recall being highest for GenZ in most markets we launched in.
We were also nominated for, and won, a YouTube Works Award for Masterful Media Planning in the Nordics, which was a lovely recognition from the industry.
We leveraged the power of AI with video reach campaigns to show the diversity of options we offer on our platform.
Did somebody say… What's next?
People always ask me: who's next? And let’s face it, in marketing we are very guilty of rushing to the next thing. We launched the Christina and Latto video earlier this year, and don't feel the need to rush to get new content out. We need to allow for wear in and ensure we give all our assets the media support they deserve. The ads are performing well, why not enjoy this campaign first. As marketers we're not very good at wearing in because we get bored and we want to create something new.
I believe we've got something strong here that people want to come back to and watch again, so we should sweat the assets as much as possible.
That's what we're trying to do with all our brand work, we're trying to get something sticky and that will keep people talking about us. This is our recipe for branding success to ensure we’re top-of-mind when consumers reach for their phone to order food or groceries.
