How Swiggy used an Instagram filter to connect customers with their favourite restaurants

Close your eyes and try to play out these scenes in your head — a birthday party celebration, an awkward first date, a noisy family brunch, late-night chow with colleagues. Some of our fondest memories have always revolved around our favourite restaurants.

In light of the pandemic, one out of every four restaurants faces the risk of closing down permanently. It’s imperative that we champion our eateries and support them in this time of crisis — exactly what Swiggy did using AR in its latest campaign on Instagram.

Conceptualised and executed by Swiggy and Dentsu Webchutney, #SwiggyFoodoshop is an Instagram filter that allows users to tag their favourite restaurants and talk about the best times they’ve had there, allowing users to support their favourite restaurants right from their homes. Points for the clever wordplay on the campaign name.

The film:

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Swiggy (@swiggyindia) on Jul 23, 2020 at 8:19am PDT

The filter:

https://bit.ly/SwiggyFoodoshop

Users can activate the filter by visiting Swiggy's Instagram profile, and virtually place themselves at their favourite restaurants while recreating those memories or making new ones.

Over a period of five days, the filter saw over 20,00,000 impressions and 23,000+ shares and participation from various internet content creators such as Zakir Khan, Dolly Singh, Tanmay Bhat, Sejal Kumar, coming out in support for their favourite local eateries.

UGC:

Entries.

Ashish Lingamneni

Speaking about the campaign, Ashish Lingamneni, AVP, Marketing, Swiggy, said, “Our restaurant partners are at the core of Swiggy and we have been working very hard to bring most of them back online. Even during the lockdown, we were able to deliver consumers’ favourite dishes to them at the convenience of their homes. While we didn’t give them a chance to miss their preferred dishes, we realised they did miss their favourite eateries and the memories associated with it — birthdays, salary days, family get-togethers, personal milestones, etc. That’s when we ideated ‘Foodoshop’ and are among the first brands in the food space to seamlessly use AR to help discover many restaurants across India.”

PG Aditya

PG Aditya, NCD, Dentsu Webchutney, said, “The brief asked for connecting customers and restaurants in a way that's novel and engaging for both, while people were stuck at home. With the ease and advantages that come with using an IG filter, the campaign has users teleporting themselves to their favourite eatery or café, and ultimately extending support to their favourite restaurant. Apart from getting entries where they ‘foodoshopped’ themselves with pani puri and burgers, users have started using custom pop culture backgrounds, Reels and IG Music showing the kind of fun people are having with the campaign."