Picture this: You are in the middle of a good old Agatha Christie-inspired whodunit, and you feel a gentle tug in your stomach. No, it is not the ‘feed me some desi food’ kind of tug; it is more of an ‘Excuse me, a bag of crisps would taste mighty good with this crackling murder mystery, eh?' tug. Enter Munchies – one of the new Quick Commerce start-ups that deliver snacks and breakfast essentials in under 30 minutes!

“The idea of Munchies was initially suggested during a Unilever-sponsored Hackathon at NEST I/O. Munchies began as a strategic way to accelerate Wall’s foray into e-commerce , with VentureDive as tech partners. Snack cravings are a very time-sensitive impulse, so a hyperlocal model was adopted to get the target audience their frozen desserts before their craving subsided,” say Umair Kazi, Partner, Ishtehari and Humza Mahfooz, Head of Marketing, Munchies.

Munchies works on an on-demand business model for snacks. Munch enthusiasts can download the easy-to-navigate app, find a snack of their choice and place an order; once riders receive the order, they deliver the snacks to their doorstep. The team adds that the target audience was zeroed in on urban Gen-Zers, and the brand shapes its personality via quirky content and guerrilla marketing (a branded spin on pop culture including memes, movies) to resonate with them.

The start-up, however, has been under the spotlight recently for using the hype around the NFT space to their advantage and cementing its image as a young, contemporary brand. “We feel like NFTs are the future of creative expression. Members of our visuals teams were already exploring the space of their own accord, and we recognised that the technology is giving creators a new avenue of showcasing their talents and works,” add Kazi and Mahfooz.

Munchies' dabble in the NFT pool has piqued curiosity in the retail space and consumers who are following the blockchain arena. Many, at this point, want to know about the contribution of NFTs in local business models.

“We recognise that some snacks are not entirely physical; they are bite-sized content pieces that our audiences love to enjoy. These ‘digital snacks’, be it memes, illustrations, videos or tweets have allowed us to build the community-led marketing engine we have today. So while we don’t have any current plans to use NFTs in our core business model, we are planning to use the medium to co-create exclusive digital art and expression along with our community which will become part of the Munchies journey,” share Kazi and Mahfooz.

Munchies' partner in this venture is Ishtehaari – an agency led by Kazi that has big names such as Unilever's 'New Normal' ad under its belt. “Buzz creation is not just the responsibility of one team. Munchies considers Ishtehari as more of a growth partner than an advertising partner. The teams collectively focus on our north star metric, tapping into every step of the consumer journey from creating awareness, acquisition, activation, retention and to referral,” point out Kazi and Mahfooz.

By the second quarter of 2022, consumers can expect a “Munchies NFT gallery for creators within our community; the next round of Munchies NFTs will be created by snack-loving artists versus our teams,” the teams add.

While Munchies is the first delivery app to venture into the NFT space, the quick commerce ecosystem is peppered with new ventures such as Airlift Express and KraveMart – with their ambitious claim to deliver in under 10 minutes!

To an average consumer, what sets Munchies apart from its competitors, for now, is its marketing content and initiatives. “Our marketing initiatives are built around the ethos of ‘bite by byte’ – which means that we do multiple small content experiments and then scale them up according to the data and learning we obtain from them,” explain Kazi and Mahfooz.

The brand has launched a Datavertising video that showcases the weirdest order combinations we received in 2021. Additionally, Munchies will be conducting a second iteration of Snackathon – a digital activation plus university drive that gives student teams the ability to dictate content and marketing for Munchies for a week and then emerge as a winner.

Taniya Hasan is a content marketer.