Grab turns keyboard warriors into 5-Star reviewers

Singaporeans are known to have strong opinions about food, and Grab is putting those exacting standards to work in its latest campaign for 5-Star Eats.

Created in collaboration with BLKJ HAVAS and Grab's marketing and in-house creative team, the integrated campaign brings to life the lengths Singaporeans will go to when scrutinising their meals, turning everyday diners into dramatic food critics.

The campaign is built around the idea, “If millions of the toughest food critics say it’s 5-stars, it must be good”, using real customer reviews from Grab to highlight the credibility behind its 5-Star Eats collection.

Don't miss:  Singapore after dark? STB and Grab say don’t call it a night 

In one video, a man tucks into a plate of chicken rice, praising the tenderness of the chicken, the fragrance of the rice and the crunchiness of the vegetables. His satisfaction quickly disappears when he notices the small tub of chilli on the side.

The scene then takes a dramatic turn, with the man ripping off his office shirt to reveal a warrior-inspired costume as the lighting darkens around him. As a chorus chants “more chilli”, he declares: “Give so little chilli. They trying to ration the chilli or what.”

The exaggerated outburst then cuts back to the man in his office attire, calmly reflecting on the meal and lamenting that it would have been better with “two more drops of chilli”.

The film ends by revealing the real customer review that inspired the scene. A Grab user named Faris K. gives the chicken rice four out of five stars, writing: “Chicken rice damn power but only give one packet of chilli... how can?”

Other executions use similar scenarios to spotlight the highly specific standards diners apply to their food. One features a woman critiquing the uneven crispiness of her roti prata, while another follows a diner who takes issue with having to peel one of the prawns in his hokkien mee.

According to Grab Singapore's head of marketing Mindy Yap, the campaign was developed from a combination of Grab's access to millions of reviews from customers who have transacted on its platform and Singaporeans' reputation for being particularly discerning about food.

“We started with a unique strength of Grab: millions of real reviews from customers who have transacted on our platform,” Yap told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. 

“We paired this with a familiar truth: Singaporeans take food seriously - and are famously hard to impress. They scrutinise every detail, and have strong opinions about what genuinely deserves 5-stars," she added. 

The campaign aims to build awareness and trust in Grab 5-Star Eats, a collection of highly rated restaurants based on ratings and reviews from customers who have transacted on Grab.

“In a city with no shortage of opinions about food, choosing where and what to eat can still be surprisingly difficult. With 5-Star Eats, we’re turning the collective experience of real customers into a simpler, trusted way to discover food that’s genuinely worth trying," Yap explained.

The campaign spans out-of-home placements, in-store merchant displays and digital and social media, directing consumers to the Grab app to browse highly rated restaurants and discover places to order from or dine at.

Restaurants featured in 5-Star Eats must meet defined criteria around both their ratings and the volume of reviews from customers who have transacted through Grab. The collection is also refreshed periodically.

Yap said Grab's ambition is for 5-Star Eats to become “Singapore’s trusted guide to what and where to eat”, helping consumers discover restaurants with greater confidence whether they are ordering in or dining out.

The campaign follows Grab Singapore’s recent use of playful, real-world experiences to spotlight its dining offerings. In a stunt last October, three individuals wearing identical “Reserved” T-shirts were spotted sitting motionless at restaurant tables, leaving diners and a Grab delivery rider puzzled. The stunt was later revealed to be a tongue-in-cheek promotion for Grab Dine Out, with the “reserved” figures playing professional “table choppers” and highlighting the feature’s ability to let users reserve restaurant tables directly through the Grab app.

The activation tapped into Singapore’s distinctly local “chope” culture and quickly drew attention from netizens. Grab’s latest 5-Star Eats campaign similarly leans into familiar Singaporean food behaviour, this time turning the city’s notoriously particular diners and their highly specific food opinions into the creative hook.

Related articles:  
Grab and IMDA join forces to scale AI adoption among Singapore SMEs  
Grab takes SEA tourism to the world with Times Square spotlight  
Grab serves up Sanrio cuteness in latest Signatures push