As we steer closer to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Communicate decided to decode this year’s most talked-about partnership between the international footballer and the regional grocery delivery platform in the Middle East.
Last month, MENA-based q-commerce platform, Talabat announced Cristiano Ronaldo as a brand ambassador with a campaign that amplified their values of reliability, experience, operation excellence, and selection.
Wassim Makarem - Vice President, Q-Commerce at Talabat tells us what led them to choose Ronaldo as an ambassador and how this partnership will help the brand yield the best of its consumers' behavior.
What was the motive behind this celebrity collaboration?
The objective is to bring this brand on a global scale and really associate ourselves with people who resonate with our values. Our analysis and research pointed in Ronaldo’s direction. With a very similar mindset and values, our consumers will be able to affiliate better to the brand.
Why was the collaboration announced at this particular time?
This year is a very unique one for the MENA region, the World Cup being the highlight. Summer’s here and football is quite huge in this part of the world. So, it was the right time for us to get the ball rolling. Another reason why we decided to launch now was to give our brand a push across the q-commerce scenario. Talabat launched q-commerce during COVID and now that things are getting back to normal, we really wanted to amp up our identity in the q-commerce space.
Which brand values of Talabat will this collaboration particularly be promoting?
We are looking at commonalities in terms of our values and mindset. One of them is reliability. we do thousands of orders a day that is executed successfully and delivered on time and that also reflects Ronaldo’s spirit. When he plays a match, you can always trust him, he's got the team's back and he's delivering and executing, just like Talabat does.
The second is definitely, speed. Ronaldo is known for his speed on the field and we’re known for ours delivering orders. That's really a synergy between both entities. Finally, it is always about improving. Every year, Ronaldo comes in better and stronger. We also work on really innovating and challenging ourselves to grow and raise the bar beyond what we already have done. So in summary, we have commonality, reliability, and speed. The most important one is really driving to be the best and always improving and raising the bar as we go.
What role will the football star be playing going further? How will his presence and recognition help Talabat?
We have a lot of exciting things coming up. I wouldn't want to spoil the fun for our customers. But I can ask them to stay tuned because we have a lot of campaigns and on-ground activations planned across MENA. But it would be all revolving around what I just mentioned earlier, which is how can we drive commonalities between what Cristiano Ronaldo as a brand represents versus Talabat.
How will this campaign help Talabat stand out amongst its competitors in the market?
I think it's the affiliation of a brand like this with Ronaldo. So it's two things, first, we already know our values were strong guns and Ronaldo helps us re-emphasize these values. So, if you ask a football fan, What are the attributes that really make Cristiano Ronaldo stand out? You’ll know that it’s nothing but how he challenges himself. He’s not young and for him to go into the pitch and still raise the bar every single time is pretty amazing.
It's really building that connection between Ronaldo and Talabat as a brand. I think we're the first food aggregator in MENA to do such a campaign. And as mentioned earlier, it's the first of its kind and since we’re always up there innovating, and willing to challenge, all while being very customer-centric, consumers resonate better with us.
Is this a permanent partnership? Or will it only be lasting the tenure of the campaign?
Well, we aren’t able to disclose the actual period of the partnership, but we will say that there is a lot in the pipeline, so stay tuned!
