To build on fan excitement around the new 2017/18 NFL season, Uber has begun rolling out a regional campaign based on 17 different short spots leveraging its official NFL tie-ups: that’s one per week through the regular season.
The ride hailing app, which has more than a dozen official team partnerships, has created a different, regional 15-second spot for each week of the 17-week NFL season.
One for each of the 17 teams Uber is the official ride-share company for.
One commercial will air locally each week in one of the playing teams’ cities and will feature a local driver and fan displaying their spirited support.
This campaign, Uber’s first under new chief brand officer Bozoma Saint John, kicked-off with the 7 September season opener between the current Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs.
The second spot will run during the game between the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys.
The campaign is also linking itself to the league across its digital and social platforms including Twitter,
Friend: Uber over, the game’s on
You: I can’t
Friend: I ordered @UberEATS
You: pic.twitter.com/blcP9f4UDL— Uber (@Uber) September 11, 2017
We’re here to make sure you don’t drop the ball tonight. Check out our Gameday Glossary: pic.twitter.com/6HruF2g7Ed
— Uber (@Uber) September 7, 2017
Football season kicks off today. It’s also #NationalBeerLoversDay. Coincidence? We think not. Enter Uber—the official ride of gameday.
— Uber (@Uber) September 7, 2017
and Instagram.
This is the first time that Uber has run a brand campaign with NFL teams.
“We’re excited to feature driver super fans in Uber’s first television brand campaign with NFL teams and look forward to being part of fans’ experience on game day and beyond,” commented Saint John.
Comment:
It was back in 2013 that Uber first started working around the NFL in the form of a partnership with the NFL Players Association that aimed to provide safe rides for athletes.
But the new 2017/18 season year marks the first time Uber has run a brand campaign with NFL teams.
The campaign leveraging the USA’s biggest sports league and most watched TV broadcasts comes after Uber has been hit by public scandal around its employment practices and a leadership crisis around its founder.
Indeed, it was only a week before the NFL season kicked off that Uber filled its previous CEO Travis Kalanick’s job by recruiting Expedia boss Dara Khosrowshahi.
The new appointment also follows hot on the heels of the June hiring of former Apple marketer Bozoma Saint John as as the ride-sharing app’s first chief brand officer.
Saint John, who was also a previous Pepsi marketer where she steered the brand’s NFL partnershiop, is tasked to spearhead a turnaround of the Uber brand’s public profile and to improve its internal culture too.
Uber isn’t the only brand in its ride app space to leverage the NFL in its marketing.
Over the last 12 months rival Lyft has featured several NFL stars in its digital and social campaigns like ‘Undercover Lyft’.
Links:
Uber
https://www.youtube.com/user/UberWorldwide
https://www.instagram.com/uber/
NFL
http://www.nflshop.com/source/bm-nflc…
http://www.nfl.com/fantasyfootball
https://www.nfl.com/gamepass?campaign…
https://www.youtube.com/user/NFL
http://www.youtube.com/nflnetwork
http://www.youtube.com/nflfilms
