Who: DoorDash Canada with Zulu Alpha Kilo for creative and strategy; The French Shop for language adaption; Radke for production; Zulubot for post-production; SNDWRx for audio; Ruckus Digital for social and experiential; Veritas Communications for PR; and Wavemaker/ Kepler for media.
What: “HoliDifferently,” a new brand platform that celebrates “alternative” holiday moments at home with customized promotions on DoorDash.
When and Where: The campaign runs from Oct. 9 through Jan. 7, and includes linear and connected TV, radio, programmatic audio, display, social, YouTube and custom OOH placements in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, as well as influencer and owned social.
Why: The holidays can be a stressful time for people, so DoorDash wanted to remind people its there for people who want to take occasional opportunity to decompress at home, without the pressure to cook.
“We offer the convenience that helps make everyday life a little easier, and during the most hectic and chaotic periods of the year, that convenience can make or break our ability to enjoy our days and celebrations,” said DoorDash Canada’s senior manager of consumer brand marketing, Delly Dyer. “We wanted to encourage Canadians to lean into the ease, opt out of the chaos.”
How (the strategy): ZAK looked at the traditional holiday calendar and imagined alternative, low-stress celebrations surrounding the most anticipated days between Canadian Thanksgiving and New Years Eve. DoorDash complimented the periods with several promotional codes for 25% off.
“For most Canadians, the holidays really aren’t the storybook they’ve been made out to be. By looking past the cliches, we realized it’s the days between the days that really make up the Holiday season,” said ZAK’s CCO Jenny Glover. ZAK’s alternative holidays include Post Halloween Antacid Day, Party Season Hermit Days, Last Minute Gift Day, and Resolution Amnesia Day.
The ideas are inspired by real-life, explained Glover. “By enabling Canadians to ‘HoliDifferently,’ we’re asking them to celebrate the season in a more authentic way [with an ‘anything goes attitude’].”
Going forward, DoorDash will use the platform to invent original celebratory moments across the entire year-long calendar. “There are many holidays throughout the year that have plenty of potential to be celebrated ‘HoliDifferently’,” said Dyer.
How (the creative): The creative is anchored by a 30-second spot and five 15-second spots that will run over the course of the campaign period. Stylistically, ZAK employed DoorDash’s existing visual aesthetic and brand personality with vibrant colours and a quirky tone. Glover described the approach as the opportunity to imagine the “HoliDifferently” world as “really distinct from traditional holiday visual language, as a new magical and fantastical holiday alternative.”
The main video introduces the “HoliDifferently” platform through the opening of an advent calendar, and a narrator who identifies the brand’s alternative holidays, while the scenes transition through a seamless scroll– mirroring the user experience of the DoorDash app.
Each scene sees a DoorDash customer celebrating one of the suggested alternative holidays, surrounded by subtle easter eggs specific to the realities of the moment. The focal point of Post Halloween Antacid Day—and one of Glover’s favourite easter eggs—is a pepto-bismol fountain from which the customer has poured herself a glass, as she sits on her couch in a toilet paper roll Marie Antoinette costume. The familiar red DoorDash bag sits on the table to her right.
The final scene depicts the customer with a group of friends, all sharing a meal in bed while the narrator says “Oh the joy, the happiness, the delicious Thai in bed. That’s how you ‘HoliDifferently’ with Doordash” and reminds the viewer of the 25% discount.
For the OOH placements, Wavemaker worked with FrontRunner Technologies to depict Party Season Hermit Days and Last-Minute Gift Days with 3D visuals in select window displays.
Influencer marketing: Other versions of alternative celebration are seen through influencer partnerships on DoorDash’s owned social channels, including a giveaway that closes on Nov. 19 inciting early Christmas decorators to snap a photo of their decor to win gift cards valued at upwards of $2,000.
