Uber's big bang campaign on car sharing not for odd-even

Since its inception, on-demand mobility app Uber has been a purpose-driven brand and aims to disrupt mobility. The brand always tries to create campaigns that are purpose-driven and beneficial for the environment and society.

Purpose-driven marketing patched with topicality and relevance can work wonders for the brands. Adhering to the same philosophy and coincidently timed around the Delhi government’s ‘odd-even’ initiative, Uber has launched the campaign, #LeaveYourCarBehind.

When you leave your personal car behind, you leave behind much more than just one car. Choose public transport, or pick from Uber's CNG fleet and #LeaveYourCarBehind, to ride towards cleaner air and a better future for Delhi. pic.twitter.com/0zGeDbaetW

— Uber India (@Uber_India) November 4, 2019

Manisha Lath Gupta

Manisha Lath Gupta, Marketing Director, Uber India and South Asia, said, “We are actually selling something which has a huge amount of purpose in people’s lives. All of us have been in situations in the past where mobility has been a huge challenge. Uber has really changed that and made it convenient to move from one place to the other. There is a lot of purpose and mission in our brand and we don’t have to go looking for it.”

Gupta said that at the heart of building a purposeful brand, the product should be fixed first. The product must actually be important and useful for society. A lot of consumption brands don’t have a purpose and are a bigger burden on the planet than they are beneficial.”

“The problem arises when the brands go and look for purpose and try to force-fit it in their brand. A lot of times, the purpose is too much layered and quite an extension of what the brand can actually deliver. It is too much of a leap and the brand ends up losing credibility.”

Gupta suggested it’s time that the companies should start having chief sustainability officers.

#LeaveYourCarBehind encourages Delhites to choose ride-sharing and cut down on vehicular pollution.

The latest brand campaign #LeaveYourCarBehind for the Delhi market aims to encourage citizens to help improve New Delhi’s air quality by sharing mobility assets and choosing options such as ridesharing and carpooling, instead of the one-person-per-car routine.

Commenting on the campaign insight, Gupta said, “Through the campaign, we wanted to nudge the citizens of Delhi to leave their cars behind and use public transport. The minute you do that, you become the contributor to solving the problem.”

The campaign was co-conceptualised and executed along with the digital agency Dentsu Webchutney and Radio Mirchi, which went live on November 4, 2019.

Gupta said that the brand’s larger objective is to be the operating system of every city and want people to just open the app and go from one place to the other. “We are looking to build penetration for our products. We want people to try public transport during this time. Once people try out this, they are more willing to adopt it,” added Gupta.

Uber offers services like UberPool, Uber Auto, UberMoto and UberGo at affordable prices, encouraging them to leave their cars behind for seamless, affordable, safe and convenient commutes.

She said the campaign did not have origins in the ‘odd-even’ initiative. “The timing of the initiative worked well for the campaign. We were just anticipating this as the air in Delhi gets bad after Diwali and one of the contributors to pollution is vehicular pollution.”

The campaign was conceived 3-4 months ago and spans over four weeks.

Talking about the execution of the campaign, Gupta said, “We had a big bang launch with a very impactful front cover of Times of India. We will continue to do a few more print insertions over time. There is a strong out-of-home plan with a lot of hoardings and bus shelters around the city. Along with a strong digital plan, we are also activating the campaign on radio.”

On Radio Mirchi, the brand is creating more organic content rather than regular advertising. The radio jockeys will be seen having a conversation with the listeners around curbing air pollution by changing our own habits of giving up personal vehicles and choosing public transport. The jockeys will also be seen doing out-bound activities outside metro stations and interacting with people on the same lines.

On social media, Uber has developed small digi-bites of the content of various used cases and which mode of transport is right for which used case. For example, if one is taking a ride to the metro station, they can use Uber Auto or UberMoto. For long-distance, one can use an UberPool.

For its driver-partners as well, the brand has been running the ‘odd-even stars’ campaign, encouraging them to pledge their support for the Delhi government’s ‘odd-even’ scheme to make this campaign successful.

The brand intends to create more and more educational and awareness content in the future.

The campaign is being supported by associations like URJA (Apex body of Resident Welfare Association), Delhi Clean Air Forum and the Lung Care Foundation.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com