Digital marketing of online food delivery services in a social media platform before and during COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

Abstract

Objective: To describe the promotion of food and beverage and marketing strategies used by online food delivery services (OFDS) in a social media platform before and during the pandemic in Brazil. Design: Publicly available data were extracted from OFDS Instagram accounts. Posts published six months immediately before and after the first case of COVID-19 in Brazil were randomly sampled. Two independent authors coded the posts’ content. Food and beverage items featured in posts were classified according to the NOVA food system classification. Marketing strategies were coded according to protocols from previous studies. Setting: Top three OFDS Instagram accounts in Brazil. Participants: Posts published in the period studied (n = 304). Results: During the pandemic, the proportion of posts featuring at least one food item decreased from 71.6% to 40.2%, and the proportion of ultra-processed foods decreased from 57.6% to 27.9%. Before the pandemic, the most widely used marketing strategies were branding elements (80.7%), product imagery (unbranded) (48.9%), and partnerships/sponsorship (35.2%). While, during the pandemic, branding elements (62.2%) continued to be the most applied, but were followed by the use of videos/GIFs/boomerangs (34.1%) and corporate social responsibility (31.7%). The most frequent COVID-19 marketing strategies were “social responsibility in the pandemic” (30.5%), “combatting the pandemic” (28.0%), and “accelerating digitalization” (20.7%). Conclusions: OFDS advertisements on a social media platform placed less emphasis on food items, but improved the nutritional quality of foods and beverages featured in posts. A COVID-washing approach was highlighted, especially through the use of social responsibility marketing during the pandemic.

Consumption of Food Offered by Delivery Applications (Apps)

“…Given this scenario, the digital food environment is related to an obesogenic environment, as it shows characteristics similar to a 'food swamp', in which there is a high presence of foods considered markers of unhealthy eating [5]. The characteristics of food marketed via food delivery apps are similar to food often consumed at outside home establishments.…”

“…However, the habit of purchasing food via online applications did not decrease after the end of the social isolation measures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies have shown that this behavior was established even with the return to activities and established itself as a new way of accessing food [5,12,13]. Considering the isolation period, our findings corroborate those of the CONVID Behavior Research study, carried out between 24 April and 24 May 2020, with a sample of 45,161 adult individuals living in Brazil, which showed a reduction in the frequency of the consumption of foods considered markers of healthy eating and, in parallel, an increase in the consumption of foods that are markers of unhealthy eating [13].…”

“…Therefore, it becomes relevant to know the dimensions of the digital food environment and how they interact with food acquisition behavior in the digital scope and the transformations in food consumption patterns. Our study stands out for providing an initial overview of this phenomenon in a Brazilian city [5,12,13].…”

“…Food retail activities through delivery applications started to integrate the DFE with the expansion of internet access and the dissemination of digital culture with the increased use of mobile devices; moreover, the dynamics of food choices in the digital scope differs from the experience of food acquisition in physical environments [4,5].…”

Characteristics of food establishments registered with a meal delivery app in Latin America

“…The user can also access a list of the most popular or nearest establishments and choose their meal by the terms that characterise each establishment. Marketing strategies, such as illustrative photos and advertisements of meals with discounts or without delivery charges, are frequent in MDA (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11) and improve the user experience on the platform and influence the user's decision to purchase (2) . Due to the characteristics of convenience and practicality, the use of MDA has grown.…”