This food delivery brand made an art house film about an abandoned cabbage

In the competitive food delivery sector, brands have tended to employ big celebrities (Uber Eats), catchy music (Just Eat) and pop culture/nostalgia (DoorDash) to cut through. But German grocery delivery brand Gorillas has taken the opposite approach; it's made a seven-minute art house film about a red cabbage on a bus. 

To emphasize its speed of delivery (the brand's USP is promising to get you your groceries in under 10 minutes), Gorillas tapped MediaMonks Berlin to create a campaign in which the message plays out in about the amount of time it might take your order to arrive.

It tells of the journey of a forgotten red cabbage on a Berlin bus. The cabbage (or "rotkohl" in German) doesn't move or speak but it experiences all kinds of curious encounters during its night ride, as different characters, including a dog, a person in a bear costume and a young couple, sit down next to it. Although seven minutes is perhaps a lot to ask of a viewer, you'll be rewarded for watching through to the end and finding out what the point was; namely that (spoiler alert) if you left your red cabbage on the bus, you can get a replacement in minutes. 

The film also contains some hidden Easter Eggs leading to discount codes, as well as a short "ad break" for Gorillas. It's running on YouTube with some trailer clips on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook—and living up to the art house tradition, the film will also be entered on IMDB.

“The contrast between long and short formats is very interesting," said Johannes Hicks, creative director at MediaMonks Berlin. "While a lot of digital content is all about being clickable and fast, the format of 'Rotkohl' serves to differentiate itself in a highly competitive market that only advertises the category and the speed." The short film is meant to entertain its target group of consumes "as a Gorillas delivery takes—which is under 10 minutes," she added. "The length, integrated with the idea and the many different individual stories that we see in the film, and the discount codes masked as Easter Eggs in a bumper ad we included, ties it all together.”

While the film is aimed at a German audience, Gorillas has expanded across Europe, and is also now available in New York City.