Postmates’ Head of Marketing Eric Edge: We don’t have to ‘buy ourselves’ into culture

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I could probably read about Katy Perry's pregnancy cravings on Instagram—but when I stumbled on nearly 1,000 words detailing the pop star's Postmates order history, I was intrigued. As a company that knows cravings better than most, Postmates wants to guide its customers to what's next through The Receipt—a content series on its blog that curates the order histories of celebrities like John Legend (he and Chrissy Teigen got McDonald’s on Christmas Eve two years in a row), Post Malone (who spent $40,000 on Postmates in 400 days) and now, Perry (fan of sushi, chocolate chip cookie dough and Oracle cards).

For Postmates’ marketing and communications head, Eric Edge, sharing Perry’s order history is authentic marketing at its core. “We are not in a position where we have to buy ourselves into the culture,” he says, noting that Perry “loves” Postmates (she’s ordered almost 300 times in 12 different U.S. cities) “and she's willing to tell people about it...That is the perfect place to be as a marketer,” he says. “Not every brand can play in that space, but we can. That's a huge differentiator.”

While Edge declined to disclose terms of the Perry relationship, a disclaimer at the bottom of the post notes that Perry and Postmates teamed up with the World Central Kitchen to donate meals to Good News Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

Edge has had a few high-profile moments during his time at Postmates, which comes after several high-level marketing positions at a who’s who of tech companies -- most recently Pinterest, and before that Facebook and Instagram. He also spent time at the ad agency Havas as its global chief communications officer.

On the change he's seen in his time as a marketer, Edge says, "We went from relying on mass communications with little real-time measurement to the ability to deliver personalized marketing at scale in a way nobody could have imagined. That shift of control from marketer and media to the consumer fundamentally changed how I thought about marketing."

Under Edge, Postmates recently announced a partnership with the NFL as its first official on-demand delivery partner (rival DoorDash is the NBA’s exclusive on-demand partner), launched a cravings-focused “If You Dream It, We Can Deliver It” campaign during the 2020 Oscars and made headlines with a Martha Stewart partnership. (Because who better to tell you to “Just Postmate It” than the queen of home cooking who says she’s only ordered takeout once in her life?)

In July, Uber announced plans to acquire Postmates for $2.65 billion, adding the service to its Uber Eats offering. Second Measure data shows Postmates has an 8% market share in the food delivery category, behind DoorDash (46%) and Grubhub (21%). But a Postmates (8%) - Uber Eats (24%) tie up changes the equation in the food delivery wars.

For his part, Edge is focused on highlighting what makes Postmates stand out. Below he shares more of his story.

1. What has had the most impact on your perspective as a marketer?

I’m going to date myself but when I started my career, mobile phones were for calling people and Facebook didn’t exist. The first half of my career was in creative agencies and it was a time of change for the entire industry. We went from relying on mass communications with little real-time measurement to the ability to deliver personalized marketing at scale in a way nobody could have imagined. That shift of control from marketer and media to the consumer fundamentally changed how I thought about marketing.

2. What’s changed the most about your job as a marketer over the course of your career?

The biggest change that I’ve seen over my career has been the introduction of data and the need to frame for the broader organization how to use it in a way that is useful. There’s so much data. Especially in tech. We’ve always had access to data about how people interact with our products and have been able to drive innovation in new ways as a result -- think the creation of the Facebook News Feed -- a nearly endless scroll of content. 

3. What’s the hardest part of a marketer’s job today?

I’d say it’s back to data. Data is a blessing and can be a curse. That may be an unpopular thing to say but it’s easy for people to see something in the data and simply react. There are times when reacting makes sense, and there are many times when it does not. Data should be something that you use to validate a hypothesis or understand how a campaign is performing, or how a customer is behaving, but you need to pair that with the power of creativity, the fundamentals of marketing and really great storytelling to be able to use it in the right way. 

4. Tell us about the marketing campaign you’re most proud of working on in your career.

Well of course I’d have to share one of my favorite Postmates campaigns that we worked on over the past few years. One of my favorites was the first scaled national campaign we did with Martha Stewart. The reason why I loved this so much was because it was something so unique and totally unexpected. Martha Stewart is the icon of cooking at home with dozens of cookbooks, homewares…People know her for the home. And then Postmates comes in and Martha uses her unique sense of humor to tell people to “Just Postmate it.” Totally unexpected. Using the insight that both young and slightly older generations love Martha (I mean, she has her show with Snoop) and that sometimes cooking isn’t as easy or perfect as she makes it seem, we broke the mold for creativity in our category by moving away from the transactional content that everyone else does in our space, and instead struck a chord with pop culture.

5. What’s a marketing campaign you wish you’d thought of and why?

Nike’s Nothing Beats a Londoner. I loved this campaign. It was part of the mix when I was a part of the inaugural social and influencer jury in Cannes a few years back. I loved this because Nike found a way to get at the heart of sport and young athletes in a hyper local way. It felt personal, relevant and was so well done. Not to mention the fact that it got its legs in social before it moved on to TV.

6. What’s your must read, watch or listen for all marketers?

There are many great marketing books or podcasts out there but I think a must is for any marketer to understand and have compassion for the diverse consumer that we all strive to connect with every day. 

My must read is The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. I’ve had the incredible opportunity of meeting both of them at different times during my life and they are inspirational and magical human beings.  

The book dives into the importance of compassion for others and understanding the complexities of everyday life while finding and creating joy in all that you do. As marketers we have the opportunity to be a positive force in people’s lives and help create that joy and this book gives real context as to why and how.

7. What’s an under the radar brand you’re watching and why?

There’s an amazing craft beer brand called Colimita out of Colima, Mexico. They have done an incredible job not just at brewing using quality ingredients (with natural waters coming off of the local volcano) but their approach to packaging and design is stellar. They are just starting to make their way to the US and I can’t wait to see them in more cities across the country. 

8. Name a product you can’t live without (that doesn’t connect you to the internet) and tell us why.

Converse. I’ve always been a huge fan of Converse. Since I was a kid. They fell off my radar for a bit and then had an epic comeback, which I couldn’t have been more excited about. I think they’ve done a brilliant job at redefining the brand in a way that stays true to their roots.

9. Finish this sentence. If I weren’t a marketer, I would be…

A scuba dive master, living somewhere low key, teaching diving.

10. Finish this sentence: The marketer I most want to see do this questionnaire is…

Rick Gomez, Chief Marketing, Digital & Strategy Officer at Target

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