Marketing as rigidity aid: Kofi Amoo-Gottfried’s unorthodox expansion playbook

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Named Marketer of the Year at The Advertising Club of New York’s Advertising People of the Year 2025, DoorDash’s CMO is redefining what nice advertising and marketing looks as if, grounded in empathy, pushed through information and formed through international point of view.

Kofi Amoo-Gottfried didn’t stumble into advertising and marketing; he identified its energy early. Growing up in Ghana, he watched manufacturers comparable to Coca-Cola weave themselves into day by day existence now not thru flashy commercials however through doing one thing helpful. “You’d see branded umbrellas shading women at the market from the sun,” he says. “That wasn’t just visibility, it was value.”

Now, as CMO of DoorDash and newly topped Marketer of the Year through The Advertising Club of New York’s Advertising People of the Year 2025, he has constructed a philosophy rooted in the similar rules: application, empathy, and scale.

His early lens, formed through existence in an rising marketplace, nonetheless guides him. “When you grow up in a place where resources are limited, you understand quickly that brands can’t just entertain – they have to solve something,” he says. “If what you’re offering doesn’t make life easier or better, it won’t stick.”

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That readability travelled with him when, at 17, he moved to the USA by myself for college. “I didn’t come over with a master plan,” he says. “But I came open to learning, to change, to taking risks.” That openness resulted in a zigzagging however planned occupation throughout continents and classes: from Leo Burnett to Wieden+Kennedy to Facebook, Bacardi and in the end to DoorDash, every transfer selected to not climb the ladder however to widen the view.

“I’ve never had the same job twice,” he says. “Each role taught me something different. I’ve gone from ad creative to brand strategy to logistics and ops. And all of that helps you see the full system.”

DoorDash is now a trade that has treated over 10bn orders, that employs 2 million ‘Dashers’ and is tipped to increase globally with pending offers to obtain Deliveroo and SevenRooms.

Empathy, price and math

So what defines a marketer in 2025? “Too often we get caught in brand versus performance debates,” he says. “But the truth is, marketing’s job is simple: drive growth.”

Biggest possibility?

Leaving Nike and Wieden+Kennedy to construct Publicis Ghana from scratch.

How do you keep grounded?

My buddies from house. They couldn’t care much less what I do.

Can advertising and marketing exchange the arena?

It can, however provided that it’s dedicated. Clever campaigns by myself gained’t repair centuries-old issues.

What must extra CMOs ask themselves?

Are we construction a long-lasting connection? A logo must be rigidity aid from the ambiguity of selection.

Favorite stat?

10bn orders over the life of the trade.

That way, he says, doing 3 issues proper: “Empathy, value and maths. Understand the customer. Deliver them value. Turn that into growth.”

One instance of that considering used to be a playful Mother’s Day marketing campaign. Instead of the standard flower push, the corporate briefly rebranded itself as ‘DoorDad,’ flipping the script to spotlight what mums in reality need: sensible lend a hand. The thought used to be easy: purchase flora and free up $75 price of credit score to spend on issues she in truth enjoys, like attractiveness merchandise or treats. “We sold the most flowers we’ve ever sold, but also a ton of other products,” says Amoo-Gottfried. “It was insight-driven, added real value and delivered serious results.”

Another standout second got here all through the pandemic, when DoorDash introduced its ‘Open for Delivery’ marketing campaign. With lockdowns threatening the survival of unbiased eating places, the corporate redirected its advertising and marketing to a unmarried message: order from native eating places, whether or not they had been on DoorDash or now not. It used to be much less about promotion, extra about preservation. “Restaurants on our platform were six times more likely to survive,” says Amoo-Gottfried. “That’s not just marketing, that’s impact.”

And then there used to be the Super Bowl stunt, ‘DoorDash Delivers All the Ads,’ which used to be an audacious play by which DoorDash promised to ship each product marketed all through the sport to 1 fortunate viewer. “Fun, hard, insane – but it worked,” he says.

Sitting on the center of B2B and B2C

DoorDash’s CMO function isn’t a conventional logo temporary. Amoo-Gottfried’s remit comprises B2C advertising and marketing, B2B acquisition, Dasher recruitment and rising the corporate’s retail media trade. “We’re not just a consumer brand, we run a three-sided marketplace. It’s incredibly complex.”

He jokes that obtaining a sizzling meal to a doorstep in 30 mins isn’t magic, “it’s maths, logistics and real-time forecasting.”

That complexity makes the selling function extra integral and extra robust. “We’re helping small businesses grow. We’re building brand affinity with consumers. And we’re connecting it all with first-party data that powers our retail media platform.”

That advert providing isn’t any sideshow. It already comprises performance-based fashions adapted for SMEs (“You only pay if it converts”) and Amoo-Gottfried hints at main bulletins later this 12 months.

What’s subsequent?

The conceivable acquisitions of Deliveroo and SevenRooms mark a brand new segment. “Deliveroo would give us reach into new markets. SevenRooms is about helping restaurants inside their four walls, not just outside.”

Neither deal has closed but, however the ambition is obvious: DoorDash isn’t only a supply app any further. It’s aiming to be the infrastructure in the back of native trade.