Despite being in the market for 5 years, Deliveroo was losing both market share & relevance with Singaporeans. As its discount-driven competitors engaged in a price war, Deliveroo’s superior service went unnoticed.

In a bid to turn that around, Deliveroo diverted their entire year's marketing budget into a highly visible nation-wide outdoor brand campaign demonstrating its superior service and dedication to Singaporeans. Sadly, just a week into the campaign, Singapore announced a lockdown. With 80% of the population stuck indoors, Deliveroo's billboards and bus stops were rendered virtually useless.

With limited marketing budgets, we needed a quick and cost-effective approach that enabled us to go where our audiences are while emphasising our dedication to quality service.

In Deliveroo Crossing, we delivered to the one place our competitors haven’t – the place where Singaporeans went to escape – Animal Crossing. With seemingly everyone hanging out in the game to escape boredom, we took advantage by creating Deliveroo’s first-ever virtual riders and delivering in-game food items to players. We also gave them promo codes, so they can get food in real life. Proving that, unlike our competitors, when we say we deliver anywhere, we mean it.

To maximise excitement and participation, we seeded Facebook communities, as well as local gaming and lifestyle media. On campaign day, a virtual war-room was set up for the Deliveroo customer service team, virtual riders, and tech support to ensure all deliveries were fulfilled.

In a time where so much of the news cycle was focused on negativity and the disruption that the pandemic has brought to our lives, we decided to pitch our activation as a surprise and delight to break through the bad and catch the audience's attention.

To create greater anticipation and participation for the event day, we released images of our Deliveroo HQ in animal crossing and drummed up the incentives of free in-game items and delivery promo codes.

To ensure that we reach the right audience, we focused our efforts in pitching to highly targeted media where our audiences engaged which included lifestyle media such as Mashable and The Straits Times, but also gaming communities such as HardwareZone.

The creative idea was simple & meaningful: deliver where no delivery app had before, by delivering in Animal Crossing.

In 24 hours, we created a virtual HQ and Deliveroo uniforms using in-game customisation tools. We also designed a mechanic that mirrored food delivery services in real-life, allowing users to place an order via Facebook Messenger. We then sent virtual Deliveroo riders to deliver in-game food items to players' island homes, together with a promo code that island owners can use to redeem food in real life. Players also received real-time in-game delivery updates on when their food will arrive, demonstrating Deliveroo's excellent service at all times.

To maximise excitement and participation, we seeded Facebook communities, as well as local gaming and lifestyle media. On campaign day, a virtual war-room was set up for the Deliveroo customer service team, virtual riders, and tech support to ensure all deliveries were fulfilled.

This three-hour digital activation garnered over 700,000 engagements and 13 million impressions, with $0 media spend.

It earned $1.2 million in media value, across major publications such as Mashable, Timeout, AsiaOne, and The Straits Times, Singapore’s top news website.

More importantly, Deliveroo Crossing demonstrated the lengths Deliveroo would go to delight its customers at the height of the pandemic, demonstrating its service excellence and reinstating the brand as category leader. At a time when Singaporean's only comforts were online communities and piping hot food, Deliveroo really came through.

And we did it all without spending a single cent.