iFood: Audience Delivery
iFood needed to increase app engagement and orders while demonstrating its commitment to Brazilian culture and social impact. The challenge was to connect with a broad audience in a meaningful way, leveraging its platform to achieve significant business results.
Creative Idea
iFood broadcasted the Women's World Cup directly inside its food delivery app.
iFood leveraged its massive in-app audience, typically scrolling for food, to deliver the Women's World Cup directly to Brazilians via a partnership with a top streamer. This innovative "Audience Delivery" strategy transformed a viewership deficit into a cultural and commercial triumph, proving women's football's profitability.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
iFood possessed Latin America's largest food delivery platform with 50 million highly engaged users spending significant time in-app weekly.
Category
Sports broadcasting typically relies on traditional TV or dedicated streaming services, often overlooking niche or underfunded events like women's football.
Customer
Brazilians wanted to watch the Women's World Cup but lacked accessible broadcast options, creating a hidden demand for easy, free viewership.
Culture
A growing cultural conversation around gender equality in sports, coupled with the immense popularity of football streaming, created ripe conditions.
Company
iFood possessed Latin America's largest food delivery platform with 50 million highly engaged users spending significant time in-app weekly.
Category
Sports broadcasting typically relies on traditional TV or dedicated streaming services, often overlooking niche or underfunded events like women's football.
Strategy:
Deliver undervalued content directly to an existing, engaged audience through an unexpected platform.
Customer
Brazilians wanted to watch the Women's World Cup but lacked accessible broadcast options, creating a hidden demand for easy, free viewership.
Culture
A growing cultural conversation around gender equality in sports, coupled with the immense popularity of football streaming, created ripe conditions.
Strategy:
Deliver undervalued content directly to an existing, engaged audience through an unexpected platform.
Results
The Men's World Cup in 2022 was watched by 93% of Brazilians. In June 2023, fewer than 25% of Brazilians were planning to watch the Women's World Cup. 50 million Brazilians spend an average of 38 minutes per week scrolling iFood. The campaign partnered with Casemiro, who has over 21 million followers and 3.5 billion views on YouTube, and is the live sport stream world record holder for YouTube and a top 10 sport streamer on both YouTube and Twitch. iFood broadcasted 64 football games inside their app. The campaign delivered a total audience of 21 million people, who spent an average of 70 minutes in the iFood app. This led to a 23% increase in orders compared to the previous month. iFood was recognized by Fast Company as 'FROM THE BEST FOOD DELIVERY APP TO THE BEST FOOTBALL STREAMING APP' and by VICE as having 'MADE THE BEST ASSIST OF THE WOMEN'S WORLD CUP'. The campaign generated 'amazing business results for the brands that support it'. News coverage from CNN, Sports, and other media outlets is shown.
21MM
total audience delivered
70 min
average time spent in app
23%
order increase
Strategy Technique
Build an Utility, Not an Ad
iFood transformed its delivery app into a live sports broadcasting platform, providing a direct utility for users. This went beyond traditional advertising, making the brand an essential part of accessing the Women's World Cup.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Hijack the Medium
iFood, a food delivery app, became an unexpected broadcast platform for the Women's World Cup. It leveraged its existing user base and app functionality to deliver live sports content, transforming its medium.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft stands out for its ingenious media planning, which repurposed a familiar digital platform into an innovative media channel, executed with strong digital integration and strategic media planning.
The technical ingenuity required to seamlessly integrate high-quality live sports streaming functionality within the existing iFood food delivery application demonstrates strong digital craftsmanship.
The innovative strategic choice to utilize iFood as a novel media channel and partner with a top streamer like Casemiro to directly reach a vast, engaged audience showcases exceptional media planning.
The campaign's magic comes from the synergy of a brilliant, platform-redefining idea, technically sound digital execution, and an innovative media strategy that together created a powerful new audience engagement model.
