Exclusive: NBCUniversal and Instacart Launch Partnership for Olympics Viewers to Order Food

Viewers watching the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games can now order food and drinks delivered directly to them from the comfort of their own homes. 

Today, NBCUniversal launched Virtual Concessions, a new commerce-enabled ad feature that allows audiences to purchase food, drinks and other items on-demand while watching the Olympics via QR codes displayed on the screen. The company first announced the tool at its One24 technology conference in the spring.

NBCU teamed up with Instacart and Flowcode as its partners to bring the innovation to the screen. Customers can expect to see the ads on NBC, Peacock and USA Network.

“It’s a new experience that blends together custom, creative and technology to allow viewers to seamlessly purchase snacks, beverages and household items without missing a moment of action on TV,” Alison Levin, president of ad sales at NBCU, told ADWEEK. “We’re so excited to be launching this innovative new ad experience for the first time during the second week of the Olympics.”

Here’s how it works: When a consumer sees the ad on television, the ad will be surrounded by a frame that will show different items they can order, along with an offer for a discount on their first order and a QR code they can scan that will lead them to a landing page with the items. From there, the consumer can order and buy with a single click or add multiple items to their cart.

Purchased items will be delivered within 30 minutes to one hour, according to Instacart.

NBCU and Instacart have an ongoing partnership. Last year, Peacock became Instacart’s first streaming partner, which allowed Instacart+ customers to receive a free Peacock subscription. 

Additionally, Instacart announced a new retail-powered media pilot where NBC advertisers could leverage the company’s first-party audience data to enhance their streaming campaigns and look at their campaign efficacy with closed-loop measurement.

Laura Jones, chief marketing officer of Instacart, said that despite the longstanding partnership between the two parties, the Virtual Concessions innovation is a first-of-its-kind experience for both sides.

“We’ve never used this specific activation before, so it’s a really novel form factor where we’re able to take people from seeing an ad to shopping it to getting it delivered in a seamless flow,” Jones said. “It’s part of a broader partnership, but it’s a brand-new user experience for both sides of the house, and it’s never been done.”

Instacart also has a Bunny Ears brand film that will air during the Olympics as part of its back to school campaign.

Levin added that one way NBCU plans to measure results from the experience is to see how many users took advantage of the offers and who ordered from Instacart. She said they’re also looking at whether it moved the needle on brand affinity, Instacart search, the search for brands inside the ad or whether it drove people to download Instacart.

“It’s the element of people actually taking advantage of that offer in real-time, but also, what is the impact of this ad because of the combination of the large reach and this incredibly high-suspense moment with great attentive viewers that you have,” Levin said. “We are so excited to see the results for this, and we deeply believe this is going to move the needle both for Instacart, but also for the brands that are highlighted in the offer.”

Tim Armstrong, CEO and founder of Flowcode, the QR-code provider, said the partnership is about investing in real experiences and major events like the Olympics where customers are.

“The reason that Flowcode is exciting is because it does represent the future of where advertising is going, which is down the experience path,” Armstrong said. “NBC is taking live events in France and creating not just the content experience, but now the concession experience. The impactful part about that is that you’re basically getting a concession experience in almost real-time.”