There are two things Papa Johns doesn’t like to see: an apostrophe in its name and a hungry customer who’s out of groceries.
The pizza chain recently tapped NBCUniversal, Instacart and the dentsu-owned media agency Carat for help reaching consumers when they’re low on groceries – and thus more likely to be swayed by a mouth-watering ad. The idea is to reach hungry consumers by “knowing what is in their fridge without being too creepy,” said Carrie Drinkwater, chief investment officer at Carat.
To achieve that goal, NBCU and Instacart created a custom audience of shoppers who regularly purchase grocery staples on Instacart, such as eggs, milk, meat and produce. Based on that data, Papa Johns can determine which days of the week certain consumers are likely to run out of groceries and serve them an ad on NBCU streaming content accordingly. The brand served custom creatives to consumers based on their food preferences – such as whether they buy meat regularly – with QR codes and calls to action such as, “Light on groceries?” or “Empty fridge?”
Papa Johns’ “Empty Fridge” campaign ran from late April through last weekend on NBCU streaming supply such as Peacock, NBC Sports and NBCU content across streaming distributors. While it’s too soon to digest the results, Papa Johns knows what it’s looking for.
“Order growth is our No. 1 KPI,” CMO Jenna Bromberg told AdExchanger. Beyond that, Bromberg said, Papa Johns is focused on brand affinity and customer acquisition.
Order up!
Instacart’s data is just one ingredient in Papa Johns’ recipe for reaching hungry consumers with a bare fridge. Another ingredient is the brand’s own understanding of its target audience: pizza lovers. Pairing these data points together is how Papa Johns homes in on consumers who are most likely to order pizza when prompted.
Papa Johns looks at pizza lovers in three categories. The first type is people who have designated nights for ordering delivery, such as a weekly movie or game night. The second group plans pizza for bigger celebrations like birthday parties. And last but not least is the unpredictable pizza lover who orders in spontaneously, such as when their fridge is empty. (Like yours truly.)
These hungry and impressionable pizza lovers are the group that Papa Johns is most focused on because the brand believes its ad is more likely to perform if it’s served at a time of need, Bromberg said. When people are “low on groceries and running out of steam at the end of the week,” she said, that moment is when Papa Johns wants to swoop in with an ad that’s “tailored to their preferences.” For example, Papa Johns served different creatives to consumers based on their shopping patterns on Instacart. These creatives showcased products heavy on particular flavors or ingredients, such as meat, veggies and garlic. “One of our key business challenges,” Bromberg said, is figuring out how exactly to identify and take advantage of the spontaneous moment where consumers make that decision to order pizza.
With Instacart data indicating who has an empty fridge and when, NBCU helped Papa Johns run the appropriate creative within the streaming content that those “empty fridge” households are watching, said Ann Scheiner, EVP of agency partnerships at NBCU.
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While it’s too soon to judge how well its ads worked, Papa Johns has high hopes of seeing incremental sales due to the novelty and precision of its approach. Instead of running an ad campaign directly on Instacart’s app, Bromberg said, the brand is using Instacart’s data to target streaming viewers based on actual behavior.
Instacart confirmed that this campaign marks the first time Instacart made its first-party data available for a brand outside of the consumer-packaged goods category to use on NBCU inventory. (Papa Johns is technically in the quick-service restaurant vertical.)
Pairing behavioral targeting with QR codes also creates a higher likelihood that Papa Johns’ creative will elicit results from NBCU viewers.
“QR codes in the advertising space have been a little wonky in terms of results,” Carat’s Drinkwater said, referring to the fact that not everyone feels like scanning QR codes while they’re watching TV. But as consumers gradually become more used to more interactive TV ad experiences, Drinkwater said, Papa Johns expects QR codes will work well on consumers with high purchase intent.
When viewers scan the QR codes on Papa Johns’ latest batch of creatives, they can flip through a carousel of several food products on the brand’s site they can order in that moment.
Based on QR code scans, campaign engagement metrics and previous transaction data, NBCU is measuring incremental sales lift among new customers following exposure to the streaming ads, said NBCU’s Scheiner. NBCU will also complement that measurement with a research study to determine the campaign’s impact in driving sales as part of its efforts to understand incrementality.
It’ll take at least a few more weeks to gather and assess the results. But, in the meantime, what is that noise?
Oh, right – that must be your stomach growling. (Same.)
