Brief:

• Delivery service Postmates is giving Los Angeles viewers of "Hot Ones" — the online talk show that interviews celebrities while they eat chicken wings drenched in hot sauce — a chance to win food during the Super Bowl. To enter, Postmates users need to enter the code HOTONES from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 for a chance to win the "Hot Ones" pack that includes spicy wings and three kinds of hot sauce, per an announcement.
• The contest gives fans a chance to try Los Calientes Rojo, a "Hot Ones"-branded sauce, before its official release on shopping site Heatonist.com on Feb. 6. That day, the 11th season of "Hot Ones" will premiere on "First We Feast," the foodie website and YouTube channel produced by entertainment company Complex Networks. Postmates announced the promotion in a video showing Richard Sherman, the star San Francisco 49ers cornerback who will play in the Super Bowl, eating wings with the new sauce. The sauce is so hot that it comes with a legal waiver to sign upon delivery, per the announcement.
• Postmates also is giving customers a chance to win free pizza or wings for a year by voting for their favorite game day food. By entering the codes TEAMPIZZA or TEAMWINGS with an order this weekend, customers will get $10 off and be entered for a chance to win, per the announcement.

Insight:

Postmates isn't an official sponsor of the Super Bowl, preventing the delivery company from using the term in its promotions, but it still wants to participate in the big game with its sweepstakes offers. The counter-programming strategy aims to stand out among game day promotions as millions of people order food. During the 2019 Super Bowl, food delivery orders surged 53% from the prior year, per Slice Intelligence data cited by Rakuten. Uber Eats, Seamless, GrubHub and Doordash were big winners, according to the study, which didn't mention Postmates.

Postmates isn't the only brand with a counter-programming strategy for the Super Bowl. Frank's RedHot, the brand of hot sauce made by McCormick, will livestream a game show on Twitter as the Super Bowl gets under way. GlaxoSmithKline's Tums brand of antacids this week unveiled a sweepstakes that asks Twitter users to rate moments during the big game that give them the most heartburn, such as fumbles, food or commercial breaks. Mint Mobile, the prepaid cellular service partly owned by actor Ryan Reynolds, is offering free service to people who sign up during the game. Volvo and Mercedes-Benz also have run similar hijack campaigns during past Super Bowls.

The percentage of U.S. consumers who have ordered from a food delivery app grew to 25% in 2019 from 19% a year earlier, per researcher Second Measure. About half (54%) of people who use delivery services start with a specific restaurant in mind when they open an app, leaving 46% who are looking for inspiration, per a study by restaurant supplier US Foods. That means services like Postmates need to stand out in their promotions. The company last year partnered with the New York Yankees to let baseball fans skip stadium concession lines by ordering food and drinks on a mobile app.