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Instacart’s chief marketing officer Laura Jones calls this the “year of brandformance” for the 11-year-old online grocery platform.
The amalgam comes from two functions of the marketing department, brand and performance. Those teams had reported to separate leaders, but Jones, who joined from Uber two years ago, felt they would perform better for clients and customers as one.
“This year has been about finding platforms that can really work across the funnel, and then a lot of experimentation because we’re still early in this journey,” Jones told Adweek during a conversation at Cannes Lions last week. “From a creative standpoint, we know the value we deliver and we’re about nourishing the modern household,” she added.
Following the success of “The World is Your Cart” brand campaign featuring Lizzo, Instacart aimed to grow awareness among consumers about the platform’s ability to aid discovery and inspiration across grocery outlets.
As a result, Instacart’s integrated marketing team will focus on raising brand awareness and brand focus. Jones says this will include a certain amount of “stretchiness” to find the right channel mix for upper, middle and lower funnel outcomes.
Jones says the online grocery category is still “massively under-penetrated,” even after online retail boomed during the pandemic. Grocers saw 20 to 30 percent of their business shift online at the peak of the pandemic, according to McKinsey, with another 14 to 18 percent shift expected by 2026.
“There’s a strong need here, so it’s really just helping people habituate and realize that this is a replacement for the routine that I think many of us had, which is spending Sunday going to the grocery store,” said Jones.
The Retail Media opportunity
Instacart is also benefiting from the explosion of retail media, where brands work with stores to create ad campaigns for the retailer’s digital and in-store channels.
According to eMarketer, ad spend for U.S. retail media will grow to $40.81 billion (+31.4%) this year and reach $61.15 billion next year. Of the major retail media outlets, Instacart was predicted to have the largest growth, up 44.5%, with the nearest competitor, Walmart with 39.7% growth.