In the future, the company plans to roll it out on more items that people frequently have strong preferences for, like avocados and deli meat.
As the preference picker tool was being developed, it became the perfect message for Instacart’s Super Bowl ad, Jones said. It’s simple enough to communicate playfully in a 30-second ad, and it represents a relatable point of consumer friction when ordering groceries through an app.
By recruiting Stiller and Boone to star in the spot, Jones said the brand hopes to reach a wide swath of consumers, from Gen Z fans of the pop star to the folks who remember Stiller’s early work in the 1980s. Stiller brought in award-winning director Spike Jonze, who in turn recruited Oscar-nominated director of photography Autumn Durand.
“Spike Jonze is one of our great directors, so working with him was a dream,” Stiller said in a statement. “Benson is insanely talented, both as a dancer, singer, athlete, and now actor. The whole thing was so much fun.”
In addition to the 30-second ad that’ll run in the game, Instacart also released a 150-second director’s cut online. There is also a social campaign asking people to weigh in on whether underripe or overripe bananas are better, if those are the only options, Jones said.
“The hope is [the Super Bowl spot] piques your curiosity, and then it kind of all makes sense as you get exposed to more and more of the campaign,” Jones explained.
Instacart’s in-house agency Local Produce worked on the campaign with an external agency team that was formerly part of FCB, one of the IPG agencies that was dissolved as a result of the Omnicom takeover. The team remained together to work on the campaign, but now represents McCann and BBDO.
While it may look on the surface like Instacart is facing major competition on the Super Bowl 60 stage with food delivery apps Grubhub and Uber Eats also advertising in the Big Game, it’s actually in cahoots with both. Uber Eats has been using Instacart’s retail media ad-serving technology since April, and Instacart embeds Uber Eats’ restaurant delivery into its app, Jones said. Grubhub also partners with Instacart to give users access to grocery delivery through its platform. DoorDash, category leader in the restaurant-delivery space, is sitting this year out.
Jones, who spent six years at Uber prior to joining Instacart, acknowledged the value of some friendly competition with her former company. She noted the entertainment value of the work that Uber has produced for the last several years, saying that “it raises the bar for all of us.”
