HungryHouse ramps up marketing to take-on Just-Eat

Online takeaway service HungryHouse is ramping up efforts to rival the dominance of Just-Eat with a multi-million rebrand to jolt diners into making their orders online rather than over the phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4lChF3rrBY

The business is shifting from performance-based digital marketing to a more traditional campaign structure to lead the charge and ensure its pledge to be the “easiest way to your favourite food” pledge resonates with people. It has doubled in size since merging with global network Delivery Hero last year and believes the time is now right to promote its brand promise across Europe for the first time.

A new logo is being introduced to markets including the UK and Germany via a playful TV campaign, created by 180 Amsterdam, championing the brand’s “Your hunger. Our mission” strapline. The logo will also represent the Delivery Hero brand in markets where the name is more dominant than rivals.

Upcoming ads will riff on a HungryHouse driver delivering food to people in the most difficult places such as a space station with the online business keen to use what it claims is that “amazing moment of delivery” to make it more tangible.

Targeted outdoor ads alongside social media promotions and PR stunts promoting the site and mobile app will launch from Boxing Day (26 December) – one of the busiest days of the year for online food orders, the business claims.

Graeme Horne, chief marketing officer at HungryHouse, says the campaign is concentrated on getting young professionals and families to order online rather than over the phone. Despite investments from Just-Eat and the likes of Domino’s in driving online orders this year, the market is still only “25 per cent of what it could be”, he adds.  

Horne says: “Even in the UK, which is a mature market for online orders, there’s a long way to go before it matches the number of people making orders over the phone. It will become like the flight bookings model where no one uses teletext or goes into travel agents to make their orders anymore.

“We have a level of maturity in all markets that we haven’t had before in terms of the right amount of good quality restaurants, a good app, a good website and good delivery times. We’ve brought the brand under a universal platform across all our markets to get this message across.

HungryHouse, which processes around £300,000 worth of orders a day and has more than 10,000 restaurants signed up, will be hoping the upcoming campaign can stunt the growth of rival Just Eat. The company appointed its first UK marketing boss in September to raise awareness in its largest market – with over 18,000 restaurants signed-up and more than 100,000 meals made from its site each day.

Recommended

Ruth Mortimer

We aim to be the most useful resource on marketing for you and your career

Ruth Mortimer

This year was called ‘Empty 13’: no Olympics, no World Cup, no general elections, no… well, anything. It was hailed as a year to forget before it had even begun. But 2013 has not been empty. This was the year in which we discovered that spending £1 on advertising adds £6 to the economy and in which content marketing exploded, with claims that 20 per cent of every pound in marketing is spent on content.

CokeRoyalBaby-Campaign-2013_304

2013: The year in Food and Drink

Seb Joseph

It has been an eventful 2013 for food and drink advertisers as the rise of the discerning customer pushed provenance to the top of many marketing agendas. From the social media juggernaut that was Coke’s “Share a bottle” campaign to drinks makers imbuing their products with heritage, here are Marketing Week’s pick of the year’s highlights.