Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The Menulog 420 Hijack campaign is a great example of a low cost direct marketing campaign that encouraged consumers to directly engage with the brand by uncovering a series of munchie crumbs spread across a media landscape familiar to our audience. The more people suspected the campaign was about 420 day and the munchie crushing service that is Menulog, the faster the campaign grew creating more and more engagement with the brand.

Background

Menulog’s MO is to target youth. And Snoop Dog had really delivered for us. But Snoop’s contract had expired leaving a large gap in our advertising. So we needed to find something from his world to keep people engaged, without the mega-star price tag. We looked at one of his favourite days of the year. The 4th of April or 4/20 – An international marijuana celebration day. We quickly noticed something interesting in the data, especially around 4:20pm. This sparked our idea.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

With a limited budget we needed a guerilla style idea that would get people talking and ordering. An idea that connected us to Snoops' world. So we decided to take over one of his favourite days. 4/20 - An international marijuana celebration. To stay in the vibe of the day we launched a guerilla style campaign of hints revolving around the Menulog’s munchie crushing delivery service and 420 itself. We began in social, on our app and then took it to street level. Those who figured out what we were up to were rewarded on the day itself with $420 munchie vouchers

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Menulog’s bullseye target audience are city dwelling millennials. So we decided to target them exactly where they were. On their phones and on the street in urban locations primarily in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. So we kept the idea underground to match the feel of the day, creating a hijack campaign that our consumers had to discover themselves, ultimately giving it more power amongst our millennial audience.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Phase 1: In the week leading up to 420 Day we started dropping some crumbs to see who knew what we were up to. First, we baked a $4.20 discount into our app, which only appeared at 4:20pm. Phase 2: We posted, tweeted and snapped some juicy munchie hints at exactly 4:20pm each day. We then painted a mural, put up some mouth-watering posters - on the 420 bus route and gave free delivery to anyone who lived on ‘High’ Street.’ Phase 3: People then started searching Menulog + 420, so we served them a 420 error instead of the standard 404. And our final crumb…declaring our love of Four’N Twenty pies. Then on 420 Day itself we gave the guys who discovered our campaign $420 Menulog Munchie Vouchers.

List the results (30% of vote)

At 4:20pm on the 20th of April, orders jumped by 22% as the consumers nationally prepared for their impending munchies. And it wasn’t just consumers who were excited. Media jumped on our 420 promotion, with coverage across key millennial outlets, creating over 12.9 million earned media impressions. That’s over $320k worth of earned media value. Our consumers engaged with us over 1.9M times through our owned channels, in app and on web.

Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work

April 20 has become an international counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. Menulog knew their service played into this, providing munchies right to your door. With Snoop as our spokesperson the match seemed perfect. So we kept the idea underground to match the feel of the day, creating a hijack campaign that our consumers had to discover themselves, ultimately giving it more power amongst our millennial audience.