Instacart Champions 'Homemade' in its First Brand Campaign

Grocery delivery platform Instacart celebrated fresh food and community in its first-ever integrated brand campaign. Dubbed "How Homemade is Made," the effort rolled out in November 2021 and ran through the winter holiday season.

The campaign emphasized Instacart's long-term ambition to expand the brand and product experience from transactional to inspirational.

"As we look ahead, Instacart's opportunity is to partner with grocery retailers to also inspire people across all of their food needs, whether it's cooking your mom's short ribs or putting together a quick lunchbox for your kids," Instacart CEO Fidji Simo said in a media release. "With this campaign, we hope to remind people that food is more than sustenance; it’s an opportunity for human connection."

The campaign came to life in a TV spot created in partnership with San Francisco-based agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P). The story encouraged viewers to imagine a world where unique family dishes become commercially available. ABC, CBS and NBC carried 30- and 60-second versions of the spot, which was also posted on Instacart's YouTube channel.

There were nine total pieces of creative, including the commercial and photographs of eight different recipes, says a spokesperson for Instacart. Each recipe contained a QR code that took consumers to a shoppable recipe on the Instacart app.

Digital out-of-home ads ran in Phoenix and San Francisco in large-format bulletins along highways, the Instacart spokesperson says. Small-format digital ads appeared on street furniture and at malls, gyms, electric vehicle charging stations and gas stations. Paid social, influencer marketing utilizing a #HowHomemadeIsMade hashtag and programmatic advertising rounded out the campaign.

"We developed the 'How Homemade is Made' campaign to highlight how the traditional concepts of food, family and shared meals that we know consumers crave can not only live alongside modern technology, but actually be fueled by it," said Rich Silverstein, GS&P co-founder and co-chairman, in the release.

Instacart's brand strategy was developed in partnership with San Francisco-based agency TwentyFirstCenturyBrand. The media planning and execution were led by New York-based media investment company GroupM. The social media and influencer campaign was developed with London-based production company Media.Monks.