For this year’s tax season, Grubhub sought to design a tax return that people would actually want to file: one that helps users recoup some of the fees they’ve paid on food delivery.
The Grubhub Fee Return campaign awarded $100,000 in Grubhub credit to 5,000 diners who submitted proof of fees paid to any food delivery app in 2025. The sweepstakes ran April 6-15, with winners receiving $20 in Grubhub credit.
The idea was to bring some relief and levity to tax season, which nearly half of Americans consider the most financially stressful time of the year. Grubhub was also playing into the trend of “treat culture” as a way to combat the stressors of daily life, especially among millennials and Gen Z, according to Christopher Krautler, Grubhub’s Senior Director of Brand Marketing and Consumer Communications. A Bank of America study found that 57 percent of Gen Z buy themselves a small treat at least once a week — though 59 percent admit it leads to overspending (like when that late-night burrito order comes with a hefty delivery fee).
“When we looked at [treat culture] relative to our category within food delivery, 46 percent — so almost half — of diners report ordering takeout as a way to treat themselves or their families,” Krautler said. “It really just made perfect sense for Grubhub to step in with the fee return and help diners get a little bit more ‘treats’ during this time to combat that ‘taxiety.’”
Grubhub doubled down on the tax season theme with an additional limited-time offer for $10.40 off (get it?) $50+ orders from Sweetgreen, Krispy Kreme or Chili’s. There was also a $10 off promo for new diners.
Delivering Levity Through Comedy
To launch the idea of “taxiety” and the Fee Return, Grubhub partnered with comedian and “Saturday Night Live” cast member Veronika Slowikowska to star in a video that captures the anxiety of analyzing your spending and the relief of getting some money back. The fact that Slowikowska’s comedy was native to social media, where she has 1.1 million followers on Instagram, made her a natural fit for the campaign’s tactics.
“We wanted to really bring humor to add levity to a taxiety conversation. And we know that humor drives memorability and it encourages sharing, which is one of the highest forms of social currency,” Krautler said. “[Veronika] has a real unfiltered approach to her comedic style, and she’s just one of those people that can kind of say anything and you will laugh, even if it’s about food delivery fees.”
It took about six weeks to take the campaign from idea to launch, with Grubhub relying on Golin, its consumer PR agency of record, to help with the creative activation. The video was marketed through a mix of organic and paid social, plus posts by Slowikowska and other influencers. The other limited-time offers were also marketed via CRM tools like announcement carousels and push notifications within the Grubhub app, as well as traditional PR.
Early results show that about 50,000 people visited the Fee Return microsite in the first two days of the campaign, and prior to April 15, Grubhub had already received in excess of the 5,000 credit offers it will award. The brand will also be paying attention to merchant metrics like order lift and new diner lift when those numbers are available.
Communicating Grubhub’s Value Proposition
But while conversion always matters, the main goal with Fee Return, Krautler said, is awareness, as well as moving the needle on Grubhub’s brand health metrics. The campaign comes on the heels of Grubhub’s “Eat the Fees” Super Bowl ad starring George Clooney, when the brand announced it is eliminating delivery fees and service fees on restaurant orders over $50. Together, they’re part of a broader marketing strategy aimed at communicating the platform’s value proposition.
“Our primary [metric] for this really is around perception, and that perception is a brand that offers unbeatable value. And then that perception starts to grow and outpace our competitors,” Krautler said. “Because at the end of the day, people, yes, they’re looking for things like convenience, but they’re looking for value in savings. And that just hasn’t changed in the last four years that I’ve been here.”
Those KPIs will be measured through brand lift studies looking at exposed vs. non-exposed audiences on social for the Fee Return campaign, as well as broader brand health tracking that Grubhub does with its market research agency, Hall & Partners, to measure its perception affinity, top-of-mind awareness, and brand trust.
