Late October saw Uber launch a national TV ad campaign across the USA featuring ESPN’s Cari Champion as an Uber driver taking NBA stars around for an in-vehicle interview series called ‘Ride Confessionals’.
These taxi cab style, unfiltered confessionals, which aims to ensure players genuinely open up so viewers/fans can learn a little more about their heroes, has been created in tandem with new digital media company Uninterrupted.
The first 60-second ‘Rolling With The Champion’ spot, which debuted during ESPN’s noon SportsCenter show, sees Champion picks up Los Angeles Lakers rookies Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma as part of a staged UberPOOL ride.
This opening instalment sees Ball discuss the media and fan attention swirling around him during his debut NBA season, as well as ruminating on topics ranging from rapping to Magic Johnson.
Uber logos are prominently displayed through the creative.
The full film is primarily hosted on Uninterrupted – the company co-founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter.
This will be followed in the coming weeks with further videos featuring the Los Angeles Clippers’ star DeAndre Jordan and retired NBA icons Chauncey Billups and Paul Pierce.
Comment:
This is the first major nationwide Uber campaign since Bozoma Saint John took the marketing reigns at the ride hailing app outfit (and since controversies and missteps over the past 12 months resulted in the exit of founder Travis Kalanick).
“The way I’m theoretically thinking about it is that Uber is the official ride of pop culture,” she says. “It’s convenient, but it’s also the way of life now, how you experience all the things you do in pop culture, whether it’s sports, music, fashion or art.”
Earlier this year, Saint John began rolling out a sports-focused approach with a localized campaign around the NFL, which highlighted drivers who are also NFL fans getting ready to transport other sports fanatics on game day in various team cities.
This tactic, influenced by the likes of James Cordon’s Carpool Karaoke, is also straight out of rival Lyft’s ‘Undercover Driver’ sports star social spot playbook – which included the likes of Richard Sherman,
Rob Gronkowski,
Odell Beckham,
Chris Bryant,
Shaquille O’Neal
and Danica Patrick.
The sports marketing strand also follows on from Uber’s localized NFL team campaign for the season (see case study).
Links:
Uber
https://www.youtube.com/user/UberWorldwide
https://www.instagram.com/uber/
Uninterrupted
https://www.uninterrupted.com/
http://www.youtube.com/uninterrupted
https://instagram.com/uninterrupted
https://twitter.com/uninterrupted
https://facebook.com/uninterrupted
https://www.snapchat.com/add/uninterr…
Cari Champion:
https://www.twitter.com/CariChampion
https://www.instagram.com/CariChampion
