DoorDash Inc. will advertise in the Super Bowl for the first time next month as it kicks off a larger marketing campaign promoting its options beyond food delivery. The move follows a year in which the company went public and experienced growth during the lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic.
Its minutelong Super Bowl commercial, set to air during the first quarter of the game, stars actor and rapper Daveed Diggs and “Sesame Street” Muppets including Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Grover. It reimagines the “People in Your Neighborhood” song from “Sesame Street” to highlight different items people can get from stores in their communities, and on DoorDash, to emphasize that the service delivers more than food after its expansion into other areas including convenience-store, pharmacy and pet supplies.
The ad was created with DoorDash ad agency the Martin Agency and Sesame Workshop, and directed by Michel Gondry. A 30-second teaser featuring Cookie Monster will air during Sunday’s AFC Championship game.
“We want to reshape how people think about DoorDash,” said Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, vice president of marketing for the company. “What’s a bigger stage than the Super Bowl to start doing that?”
DoorDash joins a handful of other brands that did well in 2020 and are buying Super Bowl ads for the first time, including freelancer marketplace Fiverr International Ltd. and lawn- and garden-care specialists Scotts Miracle-Gro Co.
Super Bowl advertising comes at a high price. ViacomCBS Inc., which will broadcast the Super Bowl on CBS on Feb. 7, has been seeking $5.5 million for 30-second spots during the game.
But Fiverr, which offers a marketplace that connects freelancers to buyers of their services, saw its business expand rapidly during the pandemic. Revenue in the third quarter of 2020 was $52.3 million, up 88% year over year, the company reported.
Scotts Miracle-Gro saw revenue for its U.S. consumer segment, which handles all of its lawn- and garden-care business, grow 24% to $2.82 billion in its fiscal year ended in September, as more people took up gardening, lawn care and sprucing up their homes with indoor plants.
Josh Peoples, chief marketing officer of Scotts Miracle-Gro, and John Sass, its vice president of advertising, said the company had to retool its marketing plan last spring as the pandemic set in. Instead of ads promoting particular products, it focused on broader brand messaging about appreciating the outdoors, and especially the backyard.
“You had to be home, but you didn’t have to be inside,” Mr. Sass said.
Scotts Miracle-Gro ended up spending 20% to 25% more on advertising last year than it originally expected, Mr. Peoples said. It plans to increase its spending this year by 15% to 20%, he said, as it tries to continue the momentum.
“ ‘The Super Bowl is a reflection of the world as it looks now.’ ”
Its 30-second Super Bowl ad in the second quarter will promote the company’s “Keep Growing” campaign and focus on its Scotts and Miracle-Gro brands. The company is working with its agency VaynerMedia on the effort.
DoorDash has allocated at least $20 million to back the campaign that starts with its Super Bowl debut, according to Mr. Amoo-Gottfried. It will build on ad campaigns and other efforts the company undertook last year to show its support for restaurants and local businesses.
It is an important step for the company, which went public in December and saw its business grow dramatically last year as the pandemic caused people to stay at home and order more deliveries and takeout, while also forcing restaurants and other businesses to adapt to shutdowns on indoor gatherings.
Mr. Amoo-Gottfried said the Super Bowl wasn’t in DoorDash’s plans when this new marketing campaign was originally envisioned in the back half of last year, but the decision was made in November as the company desired a big stage for its message.
The Super Bowl ad buy fits within the budget DoorDash had already planned for its campaign through the first half of the year, though the company might do less TV advertising during other weeks.
“To be in this one moment to drive real top-of-mind awareness, we thought the trade-off was worth it,” Mr. Amoo-Gottfried said.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that companies that did well last year are appearing in this year’s game, said Gail Arnon, chief marketing officer of Fiverr.
Fiverr started doing TV advertising during the pandemic and moved away from outdoor ads as consumers became stuck at home. It also increased its sales and marketing spending over the first nine months of 2020 to $67 million, from about $47 million in the same time frame the previous year.
The appearance of brands such as DoorDash, Scotts Miracle-Gro and Fiverr in the Super Bowl reflects the products and services that are becoming more common in everyday life, Ms. Arnon said.
“The Super Bowl is a reflection of the world as it looks now,” Ms. Arnon said.
Write to Sahil Patel at [email protected]
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