Menulog Turns State of Origin Into Text Battle With #OriginSnackdown Campaign

Food delivery app, Menulog, has delivered a second serve of NRL greats in their latest integrated campaign as Official Broadcast Sponsor for the 2021 State of Origin Series, bringing to life the uniquely Aussie sporting tradition: the sledge.

In a first-ever innovation with Channel 9, Menulog are creating twenty contextual and unique TV ads, hyper-urgent social videos that react live to State of Origin gameplay, based on Australia’s rich banter history and deft sledging skills.

Following last year’s campaign that saw stars remix Menulog’s ‘Did Somebody Say’ jingle, this year Menulog is bringing the country’s fiercest rivalries off the field, recruiting footy legends Andrew “Joey” Johns, Wendell Sailor, Paul “Chief” Harragon, Matt Bowen, Brett Kimmorley, and Billy Moore to deliver contextual sledges over text during Origin 2021.

Sledge topics will include reactions to immediate on-field gameplay, old grudges, politics, player stats, the infamous ’95 Brawl, and insider perspectives amplified across TV, social, digital and PR.

As part of the integrated campaign, Menulog launched the #OrginSnackdown social media and PR activity, kicking off with a competition giving Aussies the chance to have Origin Sledgends, Wendell Sailor and Paul Harragon delivered to their door as lounge room commentators and personal sledging mentors.

In addition to delivering Sailor or Harragon to the doors of two lucky winners, Menulog will be putting on the ultimate Origin Game Two viewing party, fully catered with a personal bar and one-stop-Origin-merch-shop for two winners and nine lucky mates each. To enter, consumers need to share their most witty food-pun sledge on Facebook Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #OriginSnackdown.

With Menulog’s second year as a broadcast partner for the State of Origin series, Marketing Director, Simon Cheng, wanted to push the brand further.

“We wanted to build on the success of last year’s State of Origin TVC with a campaign that celebrates a uniquely Australian sporting tradition and taps into our love of banter, especially around key sporting moments around State of Origin time.

“There are few things that divide Aussies quite like footy rivalry and this reaches fever pitch during State of Origin. We wanted to harness this competitive spirit and deliver the lighter side of the rivalry between fans by heroeing the great tradition of sledging.”

McCann Chief Creative Officer, Ben Coulson, said, “We had a lot of fun working with the NRL legends and mining them for good stories. We have quite a few ideas ready to go before kick-off tomorrow night, but we’re most excited to see how the games play out – and have pens ready to respond as it happens.”

Wendell Sailor said, “You can either be good at it or really bad at sledging – and personally, I’ve mastered it. Joey’s a good stirrer but Chief, terrible, worst out there. I’m more than happy to help Aussies up their sledging game with Menulog’s ad campaign for Origin 2021. On the field, sledging fires you up and gives you the edge but if you’re going to sledge, you have to be ready to cop some retaliation.”

Credits

Menulog
Simon Cheng – Menulog Marketing Director
Fiona Bateman – Head of Brand
Lisa Brown – Head of PR and Communications
Ashlee Lynch-Marson – Marketing Manager
Duncan Fredericks – Public Relations Manager
Kia Petrenko – Head of Growth Marketing
Perry Neilson – Social Media Marketing Manager
McCann Ben Coulson – Chief Creative Officer Roshni Hegerman – Executive Strategy Director Isabella Best – Senior Account Manager Daniel Miller – Creative Director Christian Duffy – Creative Director Chris Nguyen – Senior Copywriter Melina Flood – Senior Producer Nick Withford – Editor CUB Dean Ginsberg – Director Katrina Olsen – Senior Producer James Carr – Executive Producer

Finchco Agency
Alexandra Bryant – Managing Partner & Creative Principle
Sally Heydon – Senior Account Director
Niki Aquino – Senior Account Manager
Antonia Minutolo – Senior Account Executive

Connecting Plots
Dave Jansen – Creative Partner
Chris Johnson – Creative Director
Lewis Steele – Head of Social & Content
Gemma Barr – Integrated Project Director
Julia Kenny – Copywriter
Alexa Burchell – Art Director

UM
Hayley Pyper – Senior Client Partner
Jack Davidson – Integrated Partnerships and Sponsorships Director
Rahma El Sayed – Senior Integrated Planner