SkipTheDishes: Serving Comedy, Drama, and a Side of Shrimp
If you live in Canada, and are partial to takeout, you will be familiar with SkipTheDishes. The super convenient Canadian online food delivery service offers local meals, groceries, alcohol and more, and has fast become the country’s most popular food delivery app.
Recently rebranding to simply ‘Skip’, the app has blown up since launching in 2012, with its trademark humour becoming a trademark of the brand. Always leading with laughs, Skip was intent on recruiting a filmmaker with a tried and tested funny bone to direct their latest spot, ‘Skip to the good part.’ Enter, Spy Films director Zach Math. Known for his zany ideas and compelling character work, Zach was the perfect match for the brand’s latest creative brief.
Here, LBB’s North America feature lead and keen takeout enthusiast, April Summers, finds out how the filmmaker implemented his unique comedic tone to craft compelling narratives fitting for foodies in the Great White North.
LBB> Skip is a proudly Canadian brand – were there any specific local influences or Canadian inspiration that shaped this commercial?
ZM> We all breathed Canadian air while making this campaign. There was also a specified number of Skip delivered Coffee Crisps the crew member had to consume each day.
LBB> How did you consider the target audience? What elements did you include to resonate with them?
ZM> If you like comedy, drama, action, romance and/or food you’re the target audience – so I included those elements to appeal.
LBB> How did you go about conceptualising ideas or situations that resonate with relatable everyday experiences in a humorous way?
ZM> I once found a massive ice block of shrimp in the back of a freezer in Iceland. This is where inspiration struck.
LBB> In what ways did you translate Skip the Dishes’ brand message into a visual narrative?
ZM> The agency creatives did a great job concocting mini stories focused on comedic cautionary tales and the lightning fast Skip the Dishes solutions that could have prevented them. Then all I had to do was use a special lens my sister Olga invented and turn on the camera.
LBB> Did you face any bizarre or unforeseen challenges during production? If so, how did you overcome them?
ZM> Eating shrimp at lunch was a bit uncomfortable. But after crawling around for hours hallucinating, I persevered.
LBB> Had you worked with Skip the Dishes before? How did you collaborate with the team to ensure everyone was aligned on the vision?
ZM> The client and agency were very clear with their message and very collaborative. Humour is obviously a hallmark of their past work so it was easy to align on the funny.
LBB> What was the most enjoyable part of working on this campaign? And why?
ZM> I never thought I would enjoy riding a wild horse and jumping through hoops of fire as much as I did.
