A few months after its “hope you won’t need our services this CNY” campaign turned heads and raised brows, Ele.me is at it again. This time, the food delivery platform teamed up with a brand which should in fact be its mortal enemy, the fitness app Keep. Since 28 March, the two platforms have taken over the Xujiahui Metro Station in Shanghai with blue billboard ads, just like the CNY campaign in February.
When spring arrived in March, it was time for people to start their fitness plans. Ele.me’s campaign taps into the struggle between controlling diet for fitness and the temptation of takeaways with its joint campaign with Keep. Like the CNY campaign, the billboards are filled with quotes, under the banner of the main slogan “Don’t be two-faced on Ele.me and Keep” (劝你不要Keep一套，饿了么一套). On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, the topic reached 140 million views.
The campaign includes a fictional but relatable chat history between the two apps, discussing a hypothetic person (which is “literally me” for many commuters) who nearly gave up their fitness efforts by ordering a hearty meal or keeping up by ordering low-calorie dishes from Ele.me. It also introduces 50% off on healthy food on Fridays. In addition to the metro station, the ads can also be found at bus stops and shopping centres near major gym branches for people to see after workouts.
Ele.me and Keep also released co-branded Keep medals for anyone who participated the course 5 times before logging into the Ele.me app. Offline, Ele.me riders sent a physical co-branded medal and a silk banner to the first person to order a healthy diet meal on Friday 29 March. The 50% off Fridays is a brand campaign Ele.me is pushing, this time, it aims to give body fat a 50% off for fitness efforts, which is relatable to many. By collaborating with what should have been a food-delivery platform’s sworn enemy, Ele.me provides emotional value and harnesses the power of dieting. It would seem the reverse marketing strategy is working its magic and claiming seemingly impossible territory for the platform.
