The power of everyday relatable scenarios
The challenge
Uber Lebanon had entered the market and at the end of 2017 found that rides were very low.
There were spikes in summer and winter that came with an influx of visitors from abroad – testament to the brand’s international success. However, local Lebanese had not transitioned to using Uber as a primary mode of transportation.
Additionally, public transport is considered low-end with people preferring to use their own cars or car-pool with friends. Furthermore, when seeking alternate transport, Lebanon has no shortage of local and neighborhood taxi services as well as cabs that serve as public transport on the streets. Uber’s own research found that the Lebanese were accustomed to their next-door taxi service or hailing a cab on the street.
Our strategy & work
Based on the above insights on the country’s difficulties – we created a campaign that offered a solution to the hassle that the population goes through on a daily basis, positioning Uber as an ideal place to feel comfortable and vent as well as a higher-end alternate transportation option.
We produced content that empowered both riders and driver partners via an end-to-end campaign with one over-arching message: take it easy and let it go. This formed the campaign hashtag used in Arabic and the message was mirrored across all touch-points, from outdoors to radio and mall communication.
Across social media we created a series of engaging comedy sketches, using comedian influencers to demonstrate Uber as a perfectly funny place to vent about their day-to-day problems to their drivers. We tapped Abbas Jaafar, Hicham Haddad, and Anjo Rihane & How I Take My Coffee – comedic influencers with a strong local following to create and disseminate these sketches that simultaneously and subtly showcased the ease of using Uber and a first person user experience.
