Menulog’s Integrated C9 Campaign Sees State Of Origin As ‘Origin Snackdown’ Text Battle

Australian food delivery app Menulog, a Channel 9 broadcast partner for the State of Origin series, launched an integrated campaign in early June which brings to life the Aussie sporting tradition of sledging.

Marking its second year as an official broadcast sponsor, the campaign is led by a set of 20 contextual television ads and ‘hyper-urgent’ social videos which react live in real-time to State of Origin gameplay, with PR support.

Each content piece is based on Australian sport’s rich history of banter and the deftest of sledging skills linked to food options and brings to life some of the country’s fiercest rivalries with footy legends Andrew ‘Joey’ Johns, Wendell Sailor, Paul ‘Chief’ Harragon, Matt Bowen, Brett Kimmorley and Billy Moore.

The athlete ambassador team deliver contextual sledges over text during Origin 2021 games and the sledging topics span reactions to immediate on-field gameplay, grudges, politics, player statistics, the infamous 1995 brawl, plus insider perspectives.

Glued to the highlights of our latest TV ad Gladys? #OriginSnackdown https://t.co/lnuB4gQEYM pic.twitter.com/In2ImK1eGI

— menulog (@Menulog) June 9, 2021

Serve up your best food inspired sledge to your frenemy using #OriginSnackdown for the chance to win a viewing party catered by Menulog, with Big Dell or the Chief, for you and 9 mates.
T&C's: https://t.co/Dihm7WArzs pic.twitter.com/qsCfHYlD3k

— menulog (@Menulog) June 7, 2021

#OriginSnackdown pic.twitter.com/nqjfbfiiSl

— menulog (@Menulog) June 9, 2021

#OriginSnackdown pic.twitter.com/JwwUzrEJFS

— menulog (@Menulog) June 9, 2021

#OriginSnackdown pic.twitter.com/TjwuispvKY

— menulog (@Menulog) June 9, 2021

One core part of the campaign is the #OrginSnackdown social media strand which started with a competition giving Australians a 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, two lucky winners, Menulog will scoop the ultimate ‘Origin Game Two Viewing Party’: a fully catered party complete with a personal bar and one-stop-Origin-merch-shop for winners and 10 lucky friends.

To enter, consumers need to share their most witty food-pun sledge on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #OriginSnackdown.

“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,” outlined Menulog Marketing Director Simon Cheng.

“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,” explained McCann Chief Creative Officer Ben Coulson. “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 added: “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.”

The campaign was created from a brief by Menulog’s marketing team which included Marketing Director Simon Cheng, Head Of Brand Fiona Bateman, Head Of PR Lisa Brown, Marketing Manager Ashlee Lynch-Marson, PR Manager Duncan Fredericks, Head Of Growth Marketing Kia Petrenko and Social Media Marketing Manager Perry Neilson.
The team at creative agency McCann included 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) and Nick Withford (Editor).

Plus the CUB group working on the project included Dean Ginsberg (Director), Katrina Olsen (Senior Producer) and James Carr (Executive Producer) and a team at Finchco Agency which included Alexandra Bryant ( Managing Partner & Creative Principle), Sally Heydon (Senior Account Director), Niki Aquino (Senior Account Manager) and Antonia Minutolo ( Senior Account Executive).

Other teams who worked on the project including Connecting Plots’ Dave Jansen, Chris Johnson, Lewis Steele, Gemma Barr, Julia Kenny and Alexa Burchell, plus a media team at UM which included Hayley Pyper (Senior Client Partner), Jack Davidson (Integrated Partnerships and Sponsorships Director) and Rahma El Sayed (Senior Integrated Planner).

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