Surkus Partners With By Sweetheart Kitchen, Supporting Homegrown F&B Brands Across The UAE
Surkus, a multi-sided experiential marketing platform offering members exclusive access to paid events and cash back on offers in exchange for engagement, has partnered with local startup virtual kitchen, By Sweetheart Kitchen (SWHK), and its delivery partner Zomato, to support business growth across the UAE in driving awareness of their offering and broadening their reach within the emirates’ competitive food delivery market.
With 20 homegrown food outlets under the SWHK umbrella, covering a variety of locations across Dubai, the Surkus partnership will help the startup build their customer reach by tapping into Surkus’ database of socially engaged, active members. In addition, SWHK will gain access to in-depth, market insights about customers’ experiences with their products, to support in building long-term business and revenue opportunities.
Running throughout March, the partnership involves a unique value exchange, which works by sharing offers from SWHK’s brands with Surkus’ community of members – giving each food brand the opportunity to reach their ideal consumer and expand their offering to new customer groups. Surkus members who participate in the offer receive cashback for their food order in exchange for sharing feedback about their experience.
Stephen George, CEO & Founder of Surkus, said: “We are committed to providing a solution that answers the needs of SMEs across all industries in the region – this partnership with By Sweetheart Kitchen is one example of the numerous opportunities the Surkus platform is opening up to SMEs in the local F&B sector, all driven by real-time insights and data. The UAE is home to one of the most competitive food delivery ecosystems in the world and convenience is king here, so it comes as no surprise that we’ve seen a surge in demand for these types of offers in recent months. Our goal is to give marketing data that helps the SMEs we work with make better decisions around driving customers.”
As part of the collaboration, SWHK’s multiple foodie brands will receive 360 promotion to Surkus’ extensive database of members. This includes visibility on the app, push notifications, newsletters, social media and word-of-mouth from its community. Surkus members can try each of the brands, giving instant feedback (such as food quality, service, delivery, cost, portion size) directly to SWHK, via the aggregate platform Zomato.
Adib Samara, Head of Global Brand & Marketing for By Sweetheart Kitchen, said: “It is important to me as a local startup to work with startups when I can, supporting each other’s growth and success in the region. Which is why the opportunity to collaborate with Surkus was so exciting. As the first virtual kitchen to utilise the platform, we are able to test out new and interesting ways of developing our offering for customers. By sharing our offers with Surkus members, we can drive awareness and reach whilst gaining tangible business insights into customer behaviour. At SWHK we have ambitious growth plans and, with direct access to the real-time results that Surkus provides, we will be able to pivot campaigns, tweak offerings to please customers and scale with speed and efficiency.”
The instant feedback generated from Surkus members provides SWHK with real-time, actionable data for its brands, allowing the company to customize its offers and campaigns in response to changing demand and business needs. Importantly, it also gives SWHK the chance to leverage Surkus’ one-stop marketing platform for measurable results, including conducting on-the-ground A/B testing and garnering invaluable insights at a much lower cost than traditional market research solutions.
The campaign consists of a simple value exchange between the food brands and Surkus members. Surkus members are directed to Zomato from the Surkus app, where they can choose a meal from the 20 selected outlets and place their order. Once the food arrives, members must submit a review on Zomato and submit their receipt. Members then receive cash back between AED 35 and AED 50 via your connected PayPal account on Surkus.
Earlier this year, Surkus announced positive growth since launching its MENA operations in October 2019. With the UAE being the first live market operating out of Hub71 in Abu Dhabi, Surkus UAE has now on-boarded over 160 new businesses and hosted more than 1,500 new events and offers to date.
The Surkus app is available for free on iOS and Google Play app stores now.
