Skip has dropped “The Dishes” from its name and brought back Jon Hamm to tout its delivery options beyond meals.

Skip’s hero spot – the first by AOR Courage, which started working with the brand in January – sees the actor inserting himself into conversations and advocating that people “skip” hassle-laden activities like buying heavy bags of kibble, condoms and even skipping lengthy business meetings and restaurant lines. With the tagline, “Coulda skipped it? Shoulda skipped it!” marks a shift in the brand’s focus from being a food delivery service to a more versatile convenience platform.

Rachel MacAdam, VP of marketing at Skip, tells strategy that recent global adaptations with Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg were deemed not differentiating enough to break through. “When we tested the original Jon Hamm work, versus the global work, we really felt there was an opportunity to point back to our roots, but [also] too the new story of Skip, the wider offerings we bring to the table,” she says.

Previously, the Mad Men actor and St. Louis, Missouri, native was featured in SkipTheDishes spots claiming he was an “ordinary Canadian guy.” MacAdam says the brand is ramping up Canadiana, this time with a maple leaf incorporated into its logo, with an audio cue of tires speeding away.

The strategy is about reminding viewers that there is a Canadian choice in a competitive space, she adds. “It was a point of differentiation we weren’t fully leveraging.”

Convenience has expanded beyond a simple pizza on a Friday night to include parents getting a sick kid’s cold medicine delivered quickly and helping people “getting past those points of friction,” MacAdam says, a key change in the category and movement to necessities.

Recently, the delivery brand offered exclusivity to the newly launched Shake Shack, the U.S. QSR which came to Canada earlier this year, with its first location at Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas.

The campaign, which went live today (Oct. 21) and will run until December, is led by 2:30s films and will be and further supported by :60s OLV and a :90s airing in cinemas located across Toronto and Calgary. There is a “significant” OOH buy, with transit wraps, bus shelters and billboards in key markets. There are also TikTok influencers and ads on Spotify, YouTube and Twitch.

There is also an online voucher and Pomp & Circumstance is leading an XM activation, with street teams spread out to key markets on Oct. 24, in places like Union Station and Toronto Metropolitan University. UM Canada handled the buy.

“It’s omnichannel and we will be everywhere,” MacAdam says. “By far it’s one of our largest investments in the history of Skip. We view this as a relaunch of the brand.”

In 2022, with then-agency partner McCann, Skip tasked Maple Leaf Mitch Marner as pitchman, placing Ontario ads on channels popular with hockey fans.