“We are who we are...we connect with customers” is the philosophy of Amir Eisenstein, social media chief at online food ordering brand Eat24.Known for its sense of humour and odd antics, with one of Eat24’s latest campaigns seeing the brand airing an ad on American TV which turned out to show a bear’s penis.“We didn’t really plan on it,” Eisenstein insisted to The Drum. “We worked on it, we edited it, we watched it about 100 times. We put it on TV…and then we found out it wasn’t suitable for TV.”
— Jeremy (@jjsosa21) November 19, 2013The bare bear ad was only one spot in the campaign, but was certainly the most effective. The seven spots that didn’t feature genitalia were averaging about 24 clicks per 1,000 impressions, while the bear led to 120 clicks per 1,000.
Eat24 issued an apology for the ad “because some people do get offended by anything”, but received a lot of positive feedback.“The reply we got back from our customers was overwhelming, almost 100 per cent of customers said they love it. We speak in the same language as our customers, we connect to them.”Another unusual campaign from the food brand which saw success was when it told the public to skip its YouTube ad.Coming out of the fact that skipping an ad means that YouTube doesn’t charge the advertiser, the brand decided to tell viewers to skip the ad and continue on to whatever YouTube content they were really on the site for.
With over 90 per cent watching the ad the whole way through, and a 7.1 per cent click through rate, it was one of Eat24’s most expensive campaigns.Yet Eisenstein tells The Drum that its tone of voice what’s a planned idea: “We never said ‘oh, we’re going to be comedians’, we just have funny guys here, very good writers. It makes us laugh and we like to laugh. It’s not what we’re looking for, a comedy angle every time, it’s just who we are.”“We’re not trying to be something we’re not” he added, revealing that sometimes the team have to tone down their ideas because they can go too far.The most recent – and not at all offensive – campaign from the brand saw it promote its integration of Google Wallet, but Eisenstein was wary to discuss what is planned for the future. All we hope is, it won’t include a bear scratching its bits. Interview by Angela Haggerty
