Oh, the places you’ll go, Gopuff.
Now that on-demand delivery service Gopuff has an ad platform business, it’s become an unlikely springboard to help creators market their brand ventures.
A non-advertising business that launches an ad platform is a bit like a rowboat erecting a crude sail in front. Yes, it’s going to pull the boat forward faster, but it also might take you in new, unexpected directions.
That’s been the case for Gopuff, which launched an ad platform a year ago, said Daniel Folkman, the company’s SVP of business.
Some of what Gopuff offers through its ad platform is straight out of the retail media network playbook.
Gopuff sells sponsored search placements on its site and app and also a DSP extension deal with The Trade Desk to programmatically target general users around the web with the goal of driving them back to Gopuff to convert. It also has paid options to include free products with deliveries (a tactic used by rivals like Amazon and Instacart, too).
But Folkman told AdExchanger that Gopuff also views its platform as a way to launch a brand with immediate scale and distribution.
“Retail media networks are at the forefront of digital advertising, and the uniqueness of our platform is the immediacy of our delivery,” he said. “That put us in a position to be a next-gen ad platform for our brand partners.”
Celebrity endorsements, for instance, are upper-funnel. Lebron James doesn’t do the down-funnel, bottom-feeder work of hawking insurance sign-ups for a commission or leading people to financial survey sites to generate leads. His endorsement in a YouTube video or commercial is usually enough to drive interest and brand sentiment.
But according to Folkman, Gopuff can collapse that weeks-long marketing funnel into a matter of 20 or 30 minutes from interest being sparked to that specific product arriving at someone’s door (as long as they live in a city with Gopuff delivery).
This sped-up funnel is proving particularly useful for creator brands, Folkman said. In some cases, they use Gopuff as a laundpad, he said, and in others there’s a co-investment model.
When YouTube sensation MrBeast launched a new chocolate brand in January, he made Gopuff his exclusive delivery partner. Emma Chamberlain, another YouTube star, uses Gopuff to promote and distribute her coffee brand.
And, last month, NBA star Chris Paul launched a brand of plant-based snacks he co-owns with Gopuff that, for now at least, is exclusive to the platform.
But there’s potential for the co-investment relationship to be a two-way street. Gopuff and Chris Paul have a joint venture with their new Good Eat’n brand, but in December 2021 Selena Gomez launched her ice cream brand on Gopuff – and became an investor in Gopuff itself.
“We built an unparalleled logistics network over the last nine years,” Folkman said. “Now we’re starting to look at ways to open the pipes to ads and instant commerce, which we think is really compelling in the long term.”
