Musicians and recording artists have been used in advertising for years, usually playing themselves in commercials whilst delivering the odd line to camera. But rarely do you see them doing what they do best - and that’s making new music and performing. This is a story about how Just Eat partnered with an unexpected household name to reconnect with a key audience, utilizing his craft and unmistakable persona to deliver joy when everybody needed it most. And in the words of General Maximus Decimus Meridius, “Are you not entertained?”

It’s not an understatement to say that 2020 was a s**t year. But amongst all of the doom and gloom, people were desperate for some joy and positivity in their lives. Just Eat had an ownable asset - the ‘Did Somebody Say Just Eat’ jingle - and more importantly, we had Snoop Dogg as the face of the brand. The first iteration of the Snoop campaign had gone down a treat, with the public crying out for more, saying “please release a full version” and “Get this on Spotify!”.

But we had a problem, UberEats and Deliveroo were still gaining share in key cities and in particular with an important target audience of urban millennials. To keep Just Eat top of mind during the festive period, we decided to answer their pleas and bring some joy to the nation in the shape of Snoop Dogg and his new festive jingle.

Just Eat teamed up with Snoop Dogg once again – but this time we turned it up a notch. Introducing Doggy Dogg Christmas, a full-length ‘Did Somebody Say Just Eat’ track filled with festive joy, all things food and that unmistakable Snoop swagger. But this was a brand/music partnership with a difference, because it was officially released via Snoop’s record label ‘Doggy Style Records’, sitting alongside classics like ‘What’s My Name’ and ‘Gin & Juice’. It was pushed out to the world in the same way, promoted across all of Snoops channels as well as music PR, and available to stream on all platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and more.

Every music track needs a music video. But Covid-19 meant Snoop couldn’t get to us, so we had to improvise. We brought Snoop’s unmistakable character and presence to life in the form of a loveable gangster dog puppet instead!

Just Eat have over 36,000 restaurant partners on the app – yet the food delivery sector has become ever more crowded, competitive, and increasingly difficult to stand out. Just Eat needed to establish a point of difference. We had an ownable asset in the distinctive ‘Did Somebody Say Just Eat’ jingle and more food cuisines than anybody in the business, but we needed to land all this in a way that felt fresh, transcended advertising and landing in popular culture. Importantly, we had to find a new way to connect with this hard-to-reach audience.

2020 was a depressing year and we knew most brands would reflect this with the usual sentimental/emotional Christmas campaigns. But we wanted to go against the grain and bring a little smile to the nation’s faces, we wanted to break away from conventional advertising and deliver the public some much needed entertainment.

Doggy Dogg Christmas was released officially via ‘Doggy Style Records’ – Snoop Dogg’s personal record label, and was played out on all major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Google Play, and more. The track ran in the UK and Ireland from 27th November until the 31st December, across TV (500+ airings), social and on radio where it was plugged by the nations favourite DJs.

With this campaign we transcended the category and entered culture. In the month of December, Doggy Dogg Christmas hit over a million streams, as well as generating huge amounts of free media from DJs playing the song, blurring the lines between advertising and entertainment.

Sentiment online was at an all-time high with our key target claiming we’d “saved Christmas.” Importantly we managed to engage our ad-skipping, progressively harder-to-reach audience and shifted key brand metrics for Spontaneous Awareness (+2%), share of Google search (+3%) and increasing our NPS by +3%.

As well as making an impact on the public, the track also made an impact on Spotify who promptly notified us through their legal department that they would consequently changing their Terms and Conditions post-launch to prevent brands infiltrating their platform in future. Making this unique brand collab a truly never-to-be-repeated first, and last.