DoorDash is America’s go-to for delivering local delights and serving the nation. DoorDash has 310,000 menus and 55,000+ grocery, convenience and retail stores across 4,000+ cities in the US, Canada, and Australia.
In June 2023, DoorDash embarked on a new journey with global Influencer Marketing agency, Digital Voices. With a goal to drive brand awareness and creatively inspire and authentically engage with Gen Z, DoorDash selected Digital Voices as its Influencer Agency of Record.
Entering the first year of the agency partnership, it was essential to drive brand awareness from the start through the power of authentic influencer partnerships. When selecting influencers and exploring creative concepts, ensuring that the content produced focussed on sparking conversation on social media around DoorDash to shape a clear brand identity.
DoorDash emphasized their desire to continue creative testing and optimization of new social media content formats, including paid amplification, to diversify their channel mix and engage new audiences.
The aims during the past 6 months of Digital Voices and DoorDash’s continuing annual partnership encompassed:
The KPIs focused on brand awareness metrics: impressions, engagement rate, positive comment sentiment, and brand mentions. We guaranteed 24 million impressions over the 6 months and targeted a 4% organic Engagement Rate and 96% positive comment sentiment.
From the very beginning of the annual brand campaign between DoorDash and Digital Voices, leading with creativity has been a non-negotiable priority. Leaning on influencers to pitch their creative visions rather than providing a regimented brief, and encouraging them to show rather than tell their audience how DoorDash makes their life easier enhances the natural feel of the content.
Following our alignment call with DoorDash, we analyzed what had been successful previously and what could be improved on allowed us to move forward and deliver the best strategy. DoorDash highlighted how our skills are being culturally aware, responsive, spotting trends, and leaning into creative, so we aimed ensure that this would shine through during each stage of the partnership.
Insight-Led Campaign Framework: With Gen Z being the main target audience, we used data tools and manual research to delve into their interests, passions as well as the platforms they were engaging with
Digital Voices decided to draw on notable influencer personas that are shaping culture to ensure the content produced engages and resonates with the multitude of identities that shape Gen Z. To reflect the diversity of Gen Z culture, influencers across different verticals were selected to lead the creative and be true partners of DoorDash, creating engaging content that impacts audiences positively.
Each influencer partner selected fits into 1 or more of the following persona profiles:
Priorities for influencer selection also included:
Platform selection was equally important as influencer selection in order to encourage brand awareness amongst the target audience.
TikTok was chosen to build brand love and uplift engagement. The platform is known for its authentic and open vertical video format that is perfect for entertaining and drawing brand affinity through playful creatives.
Instagram was also selected to further drive brand awareness and inspiration. Instagram Reels’ thumb-stopping vertical video allows for a more curated, visual storytelling and creative, enabling influencers to reach and target a broader audience on the platform.
In order to shape the influencer and platform selection strategy, Digital Voices undertook thorough competitor analysis to understand what similar brands, including McDonalds and UberEats, are doing well and not so well. This has allowed DoorDash to capatalize on gaps in the market.
Making sure that content follows best practices for each platform and that influencers lead with creativity has ensured that content has, and continues to perform beyond forecasted expectations.
Brand Awareness is at the core of Digital Voices and DoorDash’s annual partnership. Since the partnership began in June, content has far surpassed guarantees, delivering an astonishing 64 million impressions against a guarantee of 24,542,787, and 1.5 million engagements, celebrating a seismic overperformance. An impressive 8% organic content engagement rate has also surpassed our internal benchmark of 4%.
We worked with huge influencers, including Keith Lee and Jason Biggs, driving awareness around the exclusive
Jason Biggs Ice Cream drop across the United States.
Standout content, such as Aleia SlimeTown USA's TikTok video, surpassed predictions, amassing 1.4 million views in just seven days vs. our view guarantee of 50,000, a testament to the perfect blend of authenticity, humor, and brand integration. Caitlin & Tiptoe’s TikTok video also overachieved, hitting over 1.1M views in 7 days vs our predicted 62,000, and an astonishing +19% Engagement Rate. We have also partnered with smaller influencers, including Ameyaokamoto, who produced a piece of content that broke creative boundaries as well as achieving 20,000 impressions against the guaranteed 4,000.
Content comments have achieved a resounding 98% positive sentiment, echoing the uniqueness and seamlessness of the influencer partnerships, highlighting the natural synergy between influencers and DoorDash.
Our results aren't just metrics; they're a testament to the cultural awareness that has been built surrounding DoorDash, imprinting the brand not just as a service but as Gen Z’s ultimate delivery provider in the US.
