DoorDash Spirit Board Channels the Spooky Season

The Halloween activation from Gut arrives as the brand acquires Instacart

This is not your old-school slumber party Ouija board.

First, it speaks in a creepy voice and beckons you to play. Second, it moves on its own, without help from your clumsy friends. Finally, it dispenses free stuff. Hasbro’s classic toy never did that.

DoorDash and agency Gut, steering clear of any trademark issues, launched an oversized “interactive spirit board” as a spooky-season attraction that recently traveled to hot spots around Los Angeles.

The giant wooden game, with burnished Ouija-style numbers and letters, landed in L.A.’s Venice Beach on a spectacularly sunny afternoon. Though the weather was the opposite of scary, the event drew a sizable crowd anyway. The activation was part of DoorDash’s ongoing “In Case Of” marketing umbrella, aimed at expanding the reach of the category leader in food delivery. A dual goal is to let consumers know they can get a range of products through the service.

The installation, dubbed “Delivering From the Beyond,” also was scheduled to hit the legendary Hollywood Forever Cemetery during the weekend Cinespia screening of Jennifer’s Body, as well as the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval.

IRL on Lock

The stunt comes as experiential marketing continues its steep rise, with no signs of ebbing in popularity. And since conventional pop-ups are considered fairly meh, brands and their agencies “are all leveling up,” Bruno Acanfora, Gut’s chief creative officer, told Muse.

“It will keep mutating into different ways of surprising people,” he said. “The sky’s really the limit.”

And the week of Halloween is a crucial time to be visible. According to the National Retail Federation, 74 percent of Americans are planning to participate in the holiday, with spending set to hit a record $13.5 billion. DoorDash’s own trend report found that as many as 86 percent of consumers would celebrate Halloween, spending an average $263 per person.

Just Eerie Enough

The Gut team considered a prank-based stunt, akin to some videos that have gone viral on TikTok and elsewhere, but decided against that tactic.

“Pranks are trending right now, but you have to be truthful to the brand’s value system,” Acanfora said. “We thought playing around with spirits from the beyond was a nice in-between.”

The spirit board, eerie in a benign way, took a few months to design and build, with all the work happening in-house at Gut.

As part of the campaign, DoorDash trucks roved around L.A., doubling as out-of-home ads with cheeky messages. “In case of being thirsty” shows a gothic vampire costume and accessories (wig, fangs, black lipstick) that consumers can find via the delivery service.

DoorDash, the dominant player in the competitive space, this week announced a $17 billion acquisition of rival Instacart. The move, in a consolidating industry, aims to bulk up DoorDash’s grocery delivery and flex against giants Walmart and Amazon. Thursday’s announcement of the deal, which will need regulatory approval, caused a bump in share of both companies.

On the marketing front, DoorDash has been on a tear. The brand recently debuted buzzy creative with Kim Kardashian to promo a new Skims partnership. That followed hits like “CringeMart” and “Deliver Us to Futbol,” the first international campaign tied to the World Cup.

The service, which installed new CMO Tim Castree and consolidated its global media with WPP this past summer, said it completed 993 million orders in the third quarter, up 28 percent year over year. Gross order value, a key metric, grew 36 percent to $33.9 billion, per financial reports.

Winner Winner Mystery Dinner

At the Venice location, steps from Muscle Beach, a number of passersby won DoorDash gift cards by tracking the planchette (the pointing device) and logging the code into the DoorDash app. L.A. transplant Maria Adams won a $50 prize while she was showing off the Venice boardwalk to her family visiting from Seattle.

“It was a really fun thing to experience,” Adams said, noting she planned to spend the gift right away. “I’m researching where we’re going to go for dinner.”

Glenn “Good Vibes” Kelly, a single dad with his young children in tow, threw down some dance moves when he pocketed a $50 credit. “I’m a winner!,” he yelled. “We got some DoorDash, kids!”

He sometimes works as a DoorDasher himself, with the windfall possibly turning him into an even bigger brand evangelist.

“We want to create positive sentiment for the brand, while reminding people that DoorDash can be their 24/7 assistant,” Acanfora said. “It’s not supposed to look like an ad, it’s supposed to surprise people by showing up in an unexpected way.”

Related: DoorDash Staged the Creepiest Make-Out Session of All Time