It’s a brutal battle out there in the food apps world. There’s a plethora of companies, margins are low, and every brand offers discounts, 30 min deliveries, and cashbacks. Foodpanda is now trying something different to break the clutter – it’s hired film star Sunny Leone to be its brand ambassador.
Leone will feature with her husband Daniel Weber in a series of digital campaigns for Foodpanda which will be promoted on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. Foodpanda, whose app offers desi, Latino and Asian cuisines, will apparently showcase Leone in an “informal relaxed disposition at her home, yearning for some great food” and Foodpanda will step in for her.
Foodpanda is currently locked in a threesome with Swiggy and Zomato in a bid to be India’s biggest food ordering app. It might’ve had the misfortune to have come too soon into the food ordering game – it started the whole discount craze with missionary zeal, but both Zomato and Swiggy followed, and managed a deeper penetration into the Indian market. Since then, Foodpanda has found the going to be hard, and has been embroiled in allegations of mismanagement and limp unit economics.
But a Sunny Leone campaign is expected to be a money shot for Foodpanda, and erect a stronger brand recall for the Rocket Internet-owned company. If Sunny Leone can help Foodpanda break the clutter in the hypercompetitive food-app market, a golden shower of orders and profits might soon follow.