CMO Laura Jones talks Instacart's journey to the Super Bowl

Insider

Laura Jones, Instacart's CMO, talks about the company's journey to advertising at the Super Bowl and how it drove growth for the brand.

Transcript

00:00So the CEO asked me, okay, what's the idea?

00:02How do I know it's going to be good?

00:03And I said, you know what?

00:05If it's not good, you can fire me.

00:12When I joined Instacart in 2021,

00:14we had a really strong lower funnel program

00:16and we were focused on demand capture.

00:19We were just coming off the pandemic

00:21and there had been a ton of organic demand,

00:23but we knew that it needed to really evolve

00:26into a full funnel as life returned to normalcy.

00:28So we had to think about

00:29how do we not just capture demand, but generate it?

00:33And that meant opening up new channels,

00:35everything from social to streaming to audio

00:38and eventually all the way to linear television.

00:41We also had to build out measurement for the full funnel

00:44and really look at how could we move from channel level ROAS

00:48to portfolio level ROAS.

00:50After doing all this work,

00:52it freed us up to start testing into new formats,

00:54including high reach linear television.

00:57We bought the NFL the year prior.

01:00We bought the Olympics last summer

01:02and we actually saw a top line lift from the Olympics.

01:05And that led us to realize that we were ready

01:08for the biggest stage in marketing, the Super Bowl.

01:11So from there, we took all of those learnings,

01:14we took those results,

01:15and we took that business case to the CFO and the CEO

01:18so that we can make our Super Bowl debut in 2025.

01:21When I took this business case to the CEO

01:23and the CFO of Instacart,

01:26they understood the business case

01:28because we had great data points from the Olympics,

01:30we had great data from the previous NFL season,

01:34and we all agreed that there could be

01:35a strong business rationale to go to the Super Bowl.

01:37But the big question was, what's the idea?

01:39And you can't make a Super Bowl ad

01:41unless it's going to be a good one

01:42because it's the largest possible stage,

01:45130 million Americans were going to be watching,

01:47so we knew if we went, it had to be a great spot.

01:50I put my own personal brand on the line

01:53because I knew that our team was ready.

01:55We had worked so hard.

01:56We had learned so much from the journey,

01:58and we wanted this opportunity to really go to bat

02:02and show what we were capable of

02:03and drive huge results for the business.

02:05So we said, you know what?

02:06We're going to make it great,

02:08and you can count on us

02:09and really put it all on the line.

02:11I think what I underestimated at the time

02:13was actually what that meant

02:15in terms of the level of pressure

02:17that we were then facing

02:18to go from a blank sheet of paper

02:21to a tight brief

02:22to an iterative process

02:24of getting to an amazing idea.

02:26But we had all committed

02:27that we wouldn't stop

02:28until it was a great ad.

02:30There were a lot of moments along the way

02:32when, you know,

02:34things looked like they might fall apart

02:36or someone said no

02:37when we needed them to say yes,

02:38and we said,

02:38we're not going to take no for an answer.

02:40We're going to will this into existence.

02:42And I really had to learn

02:44how to kind of hold that anxiety,

02:46process it,

02:46not transfer it to the team,

02:48and just keep everyone focused

02:49on making the best possible ad.

02:51And in the end,

02:52we all brought our A game.

02:54We brought our brand partners along with us.

02:56We had nine different brands

02:57in our final Super Bowl spot

02:59and showed up for our debut

03:01with our ad,

03:03We're Here.

03:04The results from the Super Bowl

03:05were better than we could have ever expected.

03:08Not only did we see huge business impact,

03:11we also saw brand and revenue impact.

03:13So specifically,

03:14we had a 72% increase

03:16in new to site user traffic

03:19following the Super Bowl.

03:21We also had a 14% year rear sales lift

03:23from the Super Bowl.

03:25And in addition to that,

03:26we raised upper funnel metrics.

03:28The real bonus was that

03:29in addition to all of that

03:31growth in brand lift,

03:32we also were able to generate revenue

03:34from the project

03:35because we had brought so many brands

03:37into the ecosystem

03:37and we have a full funnel ads product

03:40within our app and off platform.

03:42So we're able to put together packages

03:44that our CPG partners could buy into

03:46to support conversion

03:48of all the traffic that we generated.

03:50So it was really a huge win for the business.

03:53I think for me,

03:54the other part that was really gratifying

03:56was the creative win.

03:58Creative is definitely part of what I love most

04:01about this job.

04:02And not only were we the top ranked

04:05first time advertiser

04:06in the USA Today ad meter,

04:08we're here at Cannes

04:09and just yesterday,

04:10we found out that we were shortlisted

04:11for the brand partnerships

04:13and activation category,

04:14which is a huge validation

04:16to be recognized on this global scale

04:18as a North American brand.

04:19So we're incredibly proud of the work

04:21and the impact it drove for the business.

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