Voices of Grubhub: Marnie Kain, VP, Head of Brand & Creative, on Building Brands that Break Convention, Leading through Clarity and Optimism, and Why Grubhub will “Eat the Fees”

To spotlight different perspectives and give an inside look at Grubhub, we're highlighting leaders from across the organization. This month, we sat down with Marnie Kain, VP, Head of Brand & Creative, to hear how she thinks about building brands, driving differentiation in a competitive marketplace, and leading through some of Grubhub's biggest brand moments-including this year's campaign for the Big Game and Grubhub's new customer value proposition.

A quick round to get to know Marnie:

• Favorite Grubhub order: I'm obsessed with a sushi spot called Restaurant Yamaguchi in Port Washington, NY. They're really good, they offer great deals on Grubhub, and I always order over $50-so now with no fees, it's even more enticing. My secret is ordering extra rolls for my (very picky) 12-year-old's lunch the next day.
• Book you've read recently that you'd recommend: I love For the Culture by Marcus Collins. It's a fascinating book about the shared systems of beliefs and values that shape what we buy and how brands can inspire change. It's also worth noting that Marcus Collins cited Grubhub as his favorite Big Game commercial, which felt pretty great.
• Coffee or tea: Coffee. I'm never without my travel mug. I worked for many years in the coffee category, so I've developed a deep appreciation for the power of coffee.
• Favorite way to unwind after a busy week: I watch a ton of TV. I love going down the rabbit hole of streaming series. Right now I'm watching Pluribus.
• Favorite productivity hack: I've started using Gemini to help me write better. I always know what I want to say, so it's great at distilling ideas and making them punchy and framed for my audience. Another "hack" is scheduling focus time with no meetings. Just dedicated time to get work done. The day runs away if you don't protect that space.

You've led brand work for several companies across various industries. What initially drew you to brand marketing, and what brought you to Grubhub?

I've always loved the psychology of consumer behavior and connecting that with culture and brands. I spent most of my career on the agency side, working with brands that live in your closet, pantry, or home, including P&G, Smucker's, Best Buy, Wendy's, and TJ Maxx. All of these brands are deeply embedded in everyday life.

While I loved the diversity, I eventually missed going deeper under the hood of the business. What drew me to Grubhub was the ability to have a more holistic impact on brand performance-not just advertising, but the business imperatives, product experience, and long-term brand equity. It's also a category I love. Food and tech sit right at the epicenter of culture.

Grubhub is at this really exciting inflection point where the brand, the product and the business strategy are all converging. The opportunity to build something category-defining has exceeded what I imagined when I first came on board.

Looking back on your career so far, what experience or inflection point most shaped how you think about building brands today?

One of my first major clients was Carnival Cruise Lines. At the time, only seven percent of the U.S. population had ever been on a cruise. The barriers were clear: people thought cruises were boring or not "for them." Through research, we learned two key things: people would consider cruising if someone they trusted recommended it, and they needed to see what there actually was to do onboard. Those insights fueled a campaign that ran for over a decade and is still alive today.

That experience imprinted on me the power of unlocking consumer truths and overcoming barriers. The best insights are often basic and obvious once you've identified them-they make you nod your head and say, "Yes, that's exactly how I feel."

Grubhub recently launched a major new consumer value proposition (no fees on orders over $50) with its commercial that aired during the Big Game-arguably the biggest national stage for commercials. How did that idea come together, from the first insight to what we all saw on game day?

It started with another one of those simple but obvious insights: people love the convenience of food delivery, but they really dislike the fees-especially as orders increase in price. It's ironic because we're one of the only categories where fees increase as you order more, instead of going down. Fees have ballooned into a category convention that simply isn't fair to consumers.

We said that if we were going to stand out and make a real statement about our brand-particularly as competitors continue to charge higher fees-we needed to address one of the biggest consumer pain points.

Eliminating delivery and service fees on orders over $50 is a category-defying benefit. For a family ordering once a month, that equates to nearly $700 a year that could instead go toward bigger orders, more frequent orders, or even a bigger tip for the driver. This isn't a flash-in-the-pan promotion; it's a sustained value commitment.

And there's no bigger stage to introduce the category's most meaningful new benefit than the Big Game. While many brands aim purely to entertain during that moment, we had something substantive to say. The creative execution helped make it unmissable, but the real star of the campaign is the value proposition itself: Grubhub will eat the fees.

Big brand moments like that often look effortless from the outside, but internally they require deep cross-functional collaboration. What did it take to get so many teams aligned around both the value prop and the creative?

One thing that made this campaign especially rewarding was how much we learned from teams outside of marketing. Working closely with product, finance, operations and our merchant network team gave us a much deeper understanding of how the value proposition would land across the entire ecosystem. That cross-disciplinary collaboration didn't just make the campaign stronger-it made all of us sharper.

From there, alignment required a tremendous amount of repetition and consistency to drive clarity. You can't underestimate how important it is to continuously educate teams and reinforce what you're building toward. Optimism and vision were equally critical-keeping teams motivated through an intense, fast-moving process. Strong project management and program management were also essential. When you have many different functions working together, you need structured checkpoints, shared visibility, and disciplined execution. We made sure no question went unasked.

For marketers earlier in their careers, what skills or mindsets will matter most?

• Adaptability: Change is the norm. The stars in this field are not the people who sit at ease-they're the ones who are always ready to pounce.
• Initiative: Step up, get out of your comfort zone, grab opportunities, and don't wait to be asked. Take every opportunity to be a leader.
• Hunger: You need to have a fire in your belly. If this work doesn't excite you, it may not be the right path for you-marketing requires energy, passion, and drive.

What's the best piece of leadership advice you've received?

I collect what my team calls "Marnie "isms." A few favorites:

• Don't cry in your soup - What this means: Resilience matters.
• There are no small parts, only small actors - What this means: Every contribution counts, and you should own your impact.
• Focus on the focus - What this means: Do your work exceptionally well. When you do that, everything else follows.

If you could have any other job at Grubhub or Wonder for a day, what would it be and why?

I'd love to spend a day in one of the Wonder restaurants. I worked restaurant jobs growing up, and there's nothing like the rush of a team working together in the weeds to make the magic happen. Seeing the excitement on those teams' faces reminds you what this business is all about.