2019 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

Despite most brands over-using the football star Mohamed Salah, Uber capitalized on his popularity to be controversial and visually bold. Uber used language that linked to the brand’s function, as well as creating memorable phrases that Egyptians used to express their sentiments about the star. The brand launched a day before the champion’s league final, which gave the audience an impressive dynamic piece of content to support Salah. The film’s visual execution using an Egyptian star was new to his fans which gave them more of a sense of pride.

Background.

Situation: Uber Egypt was the last to sign famous footballer Mohamed Salah, after most brands have used him in their communication. This also gave Egyptians the feeling that he was too commercialized. The champion’s league final was almost a month away which meant a great deal to Mo Salah’s career. Brief: Being the last to sign Mohamed Salah, Uber needed to find a fresh and visually stunning way to use the star in their advertisement. Objectives: Create an attention grabbing film that stands out from the clutter of all the other ads featuring Salah, while creating a direct link to what the brand stands for.

Describe the creative idea.

Everyone else was singing praises about Mohamed Salah and talking about his family and upbringing to play on emotions, but Uber went controversial. Through an impressively executed film, the brand positioned itself as a “driving” force in Salah’s journey, telling him he hasn’t reached his “destination” and he still has “miles” to go, but Uber was with him all the way. The film is loaded with symbolism of past incidents as well as things to come.

Describe the strategy

Uber planned to stand out from all the other ads featuring the star, their strategy was to goad him and state that he has done nothing yet, and since the brand is all about the ride, their rhetoric was perfectly linked to the famed footballer and his “journey”, while being controversial. The brand planned to hijack the conversation about Salah by creating catchphrases and content for fans to express their sentiments. So whether it was metaphorical or literal, Uber had positioned itself as the brand that would take their consumer to their final destination. Uber was telling Salah and the audience, they’re “with you all the way”.

Describe the execution

Implementation: Uber launched a film that would provoke the audience, something that didn’t just glorify their idol but boldly say that he has done nothing yet. Followed by outdoors with catchphrases that became popular with the audience as well as extra content that featured two comedians sent by Uber to Salah comically discussing his journey and ambitions. Timeline: The campaign started with an outdoor teaser a week or so before the match featuring Salah in shadows and a question “where to next?”. The film was launched only one day before the champions league final, when people were already fueled up about the game and wishing Salah to play his best. Placement and scale: A film was launched online one day before the game, and outdoors were spread all over with catchphrases from the film, and Uber created extra content later discussing further Salah’s journey and career.

Describe the outcome

The film has the highest engagement levels in Uber Egypt history, reaching 73% TOM awareness and 17.4 million views. With +4PTS trial, +3PTS satisfaction and +3PTS favorability. Uber achieved 43% increase on signups. 52% increase on first trips just a week after the campaign launched.