Built for Scale, Seen Everywhere: Pick n Pay’s Road-Level Delivery Dominance

Pick n Pay is one of South Africa’s most established and trusted retail brands, with a rapidly evolving on‑demand delivery offering spanning Pick n Pay, Pick n Pay ASAP and Pick n Pay Bottles. As customer behaviour shifted and convenience became non‑negotiable, Pick n Pay needed to ensure its delivery service was not only operationally strong, but visibly present, competitive and top‑of‑mind in the environments where customers live, drive and commute.

As on‑demand delivery accelerated, Pick n Pay faced a perception challenge common to fast‑scaling platforms: how to visually communicate size, availability and reliability without relying solely on traditional OOH or an owned fleet. While the business had delivery bikes fulfilling orders, that alone wasn’t enough to signal scale or dominance.

“We had obviously wanted to scale - it’s taken us three to four years to grow to the size we are today - so we needed more than just the bikes that we used to fulfil our orders to change our customers’ perception and to really just see us,” says Ianthe. “MotionAds really played an awareness role for us - an awareness role where it mattered, and it was contextually relevant to people who were driving on the road.”

The gap in the media mix was clear: Pick n Pay needed a channel that could amplify its presence alongside billboards, reach customers at street level, and visually reinforce the idea that delivery bikes - and therefore delivery availability - were everywhere.

“So really, in terms of strategy, for the entire business it’s about owning the road,” Ianthe explains. “A bike is synonymous with delivery… the gap this solved for us was gaining more traction on the road alongside our OOH advertising billboards. It helped us gain that perception on the road: that we existed.”

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MotionAds delivered a long‑term, scalable moving OOH solution that grew in line with Pick n Pay’s business. Starting in 2020 with approximately 260 branded bikes, the campaign expanded to 300 and eventually over 600 drivers across key regions. The bikes supported Pick n Pay Bottles in the early days and later extended across Pick n Pay and Pick n Pay ASAP, ensuring brand consistency across all delivery touchpoints.

Multiple creative refreshes kept the campaign visually relevant over five years, while the flexibility of the MotionAds network allowed Pick n Pay to dynamically shift presence based on seasonality and customer migration.

“One of the biggest values for us,” says Ianthe, “was really understanding where our customers were during different seasons of the year, where they migrate, and having the ability to dynamically change where our drivers were to be more relevant where the customers were.”

Beyond always-on visibility, MotionAds enabled Pick n Pay to layer in seasonal relevance through custom creative moments that aligned with key calendar periods. The flexibility of the platform allowed the brand to refresh visuals and messaging, include promotion-centred in-home flyers, and move driver presence in a way that felt timely, engaging and deeply human.

During Easter, Pick n Pay rolled out a “Spot the Bike” competition supported by custom-designed booster fins, extending visibility while driving customer attention. This was paired with a charity collaboration where a MotionAds driver - dressed as the Easter Bunny - delivered Easter eggs and food parcels to a local school, reinforcing Pick n Pay’s commitment to community upliftment.

In that same December, the campaign took on a festive tone as drivers dressed as Santa Claus and collected and delivered 90 packed Pick n Pay food bags to Ladles of Love. These moments allowed Pick n Pay to move beyond advertising and into meaningful brand action - using the same delivery medium customers associate with convenience to also deliver goodwill.

Over five years, MotionAds played a critical role in embedding Pick n Pay’s delivery services into the everyday visual fabric of South African roads. The growing fleet of branded bikes became a powerful signal of business scale, availability and relevance - reinforcing trust and positive brand sentiment.

“Ultimately, the more bikes you have on the road really just suggests how big your business is,” says Ianthe. “And that’s what’s so important here.”

MotionAds helped Pick n Pay build a consistent sense of presence across regions, communicating that the service was available in the exact areas where customers saw the bikes moving.

“MotionAds played a critical role in creating a sense of existence of the service in a certain area,” Ianthe concludes. “It really amplified the fact that you could get Pick n Pay delivered, in a bike - which is synonymous with this idea of on‑demand delivery. The impact on customers was positive because we were able to target them in a relevant way.”

From launch to scale, MotionAds became more than a media channel - it became a visible extension of Pick n Pay’s delivery promise, owning the road and reinforcing on‑demand convenience where it mattered most.