Uber Head of Marketing Talks Super Bowl Ad Campaign
Georgie Jeffreys on "Football Is for Food"
With the Super Bowl just around the corner, we thought today’s edition of Modern Delivery should look a little different, with a drill-down into the big game. As we discussed earlier in the week, all the delivery platforms are competing for attention this Super Bowl Sunday, rolling out ad campaigns that hope to break into the consciousnesses of millions of hungry Americans. These ads aim to not just make a long term impression, but to motivate consumers to open up their phones right on the spot: the “big game” is actually the busiest day of the year for food delivery.
This year, Uber Eats’ campaign is fully focused on restaurant delivery, a notable shift after the past few years highlighted the platform’s grocery and other retail options. Jonah Bliss sat down with Georgie Jeffreys, Head of Marketing, US & Canada, to get some insights into the new advertising push.
It’s worth highlighting that this campaign is more than just one big ad for the big game — it actually picks up from some spots that were running earlier in the year, which Uber found to be unexpectedly effective. The campaign also has a real world component, with the celebrity participants also throwing in menu items that are prepped at ghost kitchens (like CPK) in major cities. Uber was kind enough to send us a sample of Martha Stewart’s caesar salad, served in a bowl that was meant to resemble the New Orleans “Caesars Superdome” stadium (you’ve got to squint…) In year’s past, the most popular delivery items on game day have been burgers, wings, sandwiches, pizzas and burritos; we’ll see if all this star power is enough to get Americans to eat their greens.
Jonah Bliss: You've been advertising, let's call it “not eats” for a few years now. Why move back into restaurants?
Georgie Jeffreys: Yeah, it is a really good question. The first thing I'll say is that obviously both grocery and retail, not eats, and our core OFD (online food delivery) offerings are both just as important as each other. We see them as critical to our current and future business.
We have advertised grocery and retail for two of our last three Super Bowl ads, and one of the reasons that we decided to give the microphone to core OFD this year is because, whilst it is what we are most known, for, there is always more that we can do, as both a brand and a business, to improve our standing.
Since the very first year we advertised core OFD, and since then we have come so far in terms of massive selection gains even over the last 6 to 12 months, and in terms of geographic expansion. So continuing to talk to consumers in a way that resonates with them that's really relevant, entertaining, and shapes their perceptions of our brand and our offering is always critical.
We're also a really agile brand and business; it's something that we pride ourselves on. And when we briefed the Super Bowl for this year, back in June last year, whilst core OFD was always part of the brief, we actually didn't intend to do this “Football Is for Food” campaign, we had a different route and idea.
This is the second part of the of our “Football Is for Food” campaign that's running with the NFL. When we launched that in September, it had such an outsized and strong, positive reaction from consumers, and it's performed really well for us as a business. So we actually pivoted in October, and decided to completely change routes and and make this our Super Bowl platform. So it was always intended to be core OFD, but taking it in this specific direction was actually a bit of a last minute change.
How did the actual ad spot come together; who had the vision? Who was in charge of picking, say, the right celebrities for this kind of thing?
We work really closely with our agency of record, Special Group. We've worked with them for for many, many years. They've done all of our Super Bowl ads.
We briefed them. They ultimately landed on the creative platform “Football Is for Food,” and it's been a close partnership since, in terms of talent. So the way that we think about talent is, first and foremost, we're looking for a hero star that really amplifies the idea, and Matthew McConaughey — and all his eccentricities — does that.
And then, on top of that, we're looking to fill out the ensemble and the cast such that we actually have celebrities that appeal to lots of different audiences when you put them together. So Charlie XCX obviously really appeals to Gen. Z and females. That is very different than someone like Kevin Bacon, who's a national treasure and has a different type of audience that he taps into.
You’ve used celebrities in some of the previous ad campaigns. Are there any people that have moved from campaign A to campaign B with you? Or are they all fresh faces.
Not from Super Bowl to Super Bowl, but we used Matthew [McConaughey] in our NFL campaign, “Football Is for Food.” He's just fantastic talent. Everybody loves him. He's very charismatic. He's also a real creative partner on this campaign. So of course, Special Group is leading the charge, but he brought a lot of different creative ideas to the table which which informed both the original NFL spot and then this Super Bowl campaign. So it made sense to bring him across and keep him as a hero.
We definitely try to keep it fresh with talent. We don't think of them as traditional brand ambassadors; they're always a part of the creative and media strategy.
Do you think of yourselves in a bit of competition with other Super Bowl advertisers, not just DoorDash per se, but anyone else fighting for consumer dollars or share of stomach?
Yes and no, there can be many winners coming out of Super Bowl. We don't subscribe to the idea that you know only one brand wins. I think that as many brands will win as there are really good ads. So in that sense, we know we have to bring our “A game” because everybody does, and you know you certainly are fighting for attention to some degree. The stakes are high.
Everybody shows up with their best work. But it's not as though it's “winner takes all,” there can be multiple brands that come away at the end of the night having really captured attention and conversation.
How do you decide after the game if you've been successful? What are you looking for?
We don't just look at it after the game. We actually look at it in the the lead up as well. We launch a lot of teasers, and then we actually do launch our spot before Super Bowl Sunday.
There's a lot of different metrics that we look at on both the brand and the business side in the immediate vicinity of the Super Bowl. One is “media cut through,” so you know how much conversation have we driven with press and and through media coverage as well as social conversation, and then sentiment across that. We certainly want to drive buzz and and conversation and in the lead up to [the Super Bowl,] but also the very next day.
And then post-Super Bowl, what we're looking at is how we shift medium-term metrics. This year, those metrics include things like brand favorability and salience, as well as business metrics: everything from sales to new user acquisition.
How does this dovetail with a larger Uber Eats or Uber corporate marcom campaign?
If you want to know what's important to Uber at any point in time… what we're focused on: looking at our Super Bowl ad gives you a lot of clues. We first and foremost ladder back to our business priorities. That's how we decide where to focus, and so our business strategy and our marketing strategy are always one and the same.
The Super Bowl has always been a delivery-led moment because of the contextual environment around food. Food and football go so well together.
We also do parent-brand marketing, which brings together both rideshare and Uber Eats. In fact, we launched our first major parent-brand campaign in 2024 at the Olympics, which was wildly successful, and then add in different layers of the marketing strategy where it makes sense. We bring the brands together, particularly when we're marketing Uber One, our membership program.
Final question, one for the football fans. Georgie, who are you rooting for in the game?
It's got to be the Chiefs; I’m a Swiftie!
I actually really wanted the Bills to beat the Chiefs, because the Bills are in our final Super Bowl spot, so that just would have been a real cherry on top. But now that they are no longer in contention, I am all for chiefs.
Make it a fairy tale.
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