Instacart hires Laura Jones to lead brand marketing

Former Uber executive Laura Jones has joined online delivery giant Instacart as vice president of brand and marketing.

Instacart said yesterday that Jones will lead the San Francisco-based company’s central brand and marketing functions, spanning creative, brand marketing, brand media, product marketing, partner marketing and marketing operations. Reporting to Chief Operating Officer Asha Sharma, she is charged with “shaping and defining a cohesive brand” across all aspects of the business, according to Instacart.

Most recently, Jones (left) served as global head of marketing for the Rides business and Masterbrand at rideshare and delivery company Uber. Her more than six years at the company also included roles as global head of product marketing, group product marketing manager and senior product marketing manager.

As global head of product marketing, Jones built a global team of more than 60 product marketing managers and strategists for Uber’s Rides, Eats and Freight businesses, Instacart said, adding that in her career at Uber she was “at the helm” of every product launch, helping the company grow from a niche service into a global brand serving over 120 million customers worldwide.

Before Uber, Jones served as an advisor to Squad, a social screen-sharing app acquired last year by Twitter. She joined Squad after four years at Google, where she led brand and marketing communications for Google Express, including brand identity development, physical asset design for all user touchpoints and digital campaigns. Prior to that, she spent two years at Visa, most recently as business leader for innovation and e-commerce marketing.

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“With millions of households across North America relying on Instacart to get their groceries and household essentials each week, our teams remain relentlessly focused on building the absolute best online grocery shopping experience possible. Now, more than ever, we believe it’s critical to develop a world-class brand that helps position our products and services to consumers and elevate the value we deliver to customers,” Instacart said in a blog post Thursday on Jones’ hiring.

“We’re excited for Laura to join Instacart’s leadership team to help support our long-term strategic vision as we continue to redefine the role Instacart plays for customers, shoppers and partners,” the company added. 

In late May, Instacart said it aims to support its “next chapter of growth” by expanding its corporate team over 50% in 2021. That entails global expansion, a goal that Instacart announced with the recent addition of four new vice presidents, including executives from Uber Eats and Facebook, the latter including Nikila Srinivasan as VP of product for international.

Related:Instacart signals global expansion with latest VP hirings

Currently, Instacart is North America’s largest third-party online grocery platform, partnering with more than 600 national, regional and local retailers and delivering from nearly 55,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities. Instacart’s delivery service reaches 85% of U.S. households and 70% of Canadian households.