JUST EAT

Challenge

Just Eat wanted to strengthen its social presence by building deeper emotional connections between audiences and the independent restaurants on its platform.

While food content consistently performed well online, audience behaviour showed that diners increasingly choose restaurants based on emotional connection and authenticity - with 71% of consumers saying word of mouth influences where they eat, and 88% of consumers saying authenticity matters when deciding which brands to support.

We identified that diners weren’t only engaging with dishes themselves, but with the stories, people, and moments behind restaurants. Independent restaurants generating the strongest social engagement felt human, local, and emotionally resonant.

Just Eat wanted to evolve perception beyond being purely a delivery platform and strengthen its position as a destination for restaurant discovery and cultural relevance.

The challenge was to:

• Build a culturally relevant social presence rooted in entertainment and storytelling

• Increase engagement and shareability through recurring social formats

• Create stronger emotional connections between audiences and independent restaurants

• Support restaurant visibility and discovery through creator-led and story-led content

• Shift perception from transactional delivery service to cultural discovery platform

Strategy

We developed a blended social strategy combining reactive, trend-led content with recurring episodic formats designed to build long-term audience affinity.

At the centre of the strategy was One Seat, a presenter-led interview series featuring restaurant owners and chefs sharing the stories behind their businesses, their culture, and their personal food recommendations.

The format transformed restaurant discovery from transactional food content into human storytelling, helping audiences connect emotionally with the people behind the platform.

The strategy was built around the insight that storytelling was the strongest driver of engagement for independent restaurants. Audiences connected most with founder stories, community relevance, behind-the-scenes moments, unique personalities, and iconic dishes, not simply polished food visuals.

Alongside the episodic platform, trend-led and reactive social content ensured the brand remained culturally relevant and highly shareable within fast-moving online conversations.