In football, every second matters. And not just for the plays, but also for the time people spend ordering and picking up food while the game is on. Despite football fans’ high-propensity for ordering game-time food, DoorDash wasn’t their first choice. So, we reminded fans to use their phones to order food on DoorDash, but only during the breaks when they wouldn’t miss a moment of the action.

We created an unmissable and persistent campaign called “Timeout, Order In” that took over every single commercial break of the season. The goal was to remind customers of something obvious: Order food on DoorDash. But only during the breaks. With the games and other ads making a lot of noise, we chose to go the other way around creatively. We focused on only the essential elements needed to send our message loud and clear: one giant super, one tiny version of the beloved Coach Beard from Ted Lasso, and a different QR code per ad, which gave people an exclusive DoorDash discount valid only during the break. With this approach, we turned every timeout into the perfect moment to order on DoorDash, creating new behavior amongst football fans all across the country.

Our target audience was the 147M Americans who tune into NFL games and the 116M who tune into College Football. Less than 20% of game day meals from this audience come through delivery apps.

We set out to develop an out-of-the-box, contextually relevant concept that shows and tells the passionate football fan why ordering delivery on DoorDash is the best way to maximize your time on game day without compromising.

We aired commercials throughout the football season, running more 176 times during the NFL and College Football. We sponsored Pre-Game shows like College Game Day and the Pat McAfee Show to get our message across. We purchased media for Pre-Kickoff, and followed that up with additional placements throughout the game. We secured ad placements during the commercial break of each game. Our call-to-action was heard throughout the season, creating a new behavior among football fans: use timeouts to order in.

Our creative leveraged the DoorDash red and a bold phrase, Timeout, Order In. The commercials featured Brendan Hunt, Coach Beard from Ted Lasso, as a miniature version of himself, sitting literally atop our campaign headline. The goal was to emphasize our message of taking time to order before the game’s back on.

We aired commercials throughout the football season. We bought spots during pre-game shows, and took the first ad on commercial breaks. And our call-to-action was heard over and over again during the season, creating a new behavior among football fans — use timeouts to order in.

We also launched with exclusive items and promotions from strategic partners like Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, DraftKings, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and so so many more. The campaign drove engagement and orders for many of the DoorDash offerings like restaurants, grocery, alcohol, convenience stores, and our own DashMarts.

Our placements delivered 521,488,782 impressions in total, reaching out to our target audience through a media strategy that created a new behavior amongst football fans.

Spectators responded to our campaign across social, sharing that they’re now taking time to order in during gam breaks. The campaign garnered over $67M in orders, 100,000 new customers, and over 300,000 pizza-only orders (pizza sales were a key goal).