Why is this work relevant for PR?

Uber Eats as a marketing strategy strives to create not just ads but explosions in storytelling to promote themselves. Trying to build on this competitive edge and raise the cultural bar again, we used their long running ‘Tonight, I’ll be eating…’ platform to not just be part of culture, but to create and earn it. By pairing Sharon (of Kath & Kim) and Kim Kardashian-West, our aim was to further cement the Uber Eats brand by enhancing its reputation and virility. We wanted to gift Australia with content that was watched, shared and shared and engaged with by choice.

Background

Tasked with implementing Uber Eats’ ‘Tonight, I’ll Be Eating’ campaign and launching the latest iteration of the award-winning platform, we created and implemented the world’s most unlikely duo – iconic Aussie character Sharon Strzelecki of ‘Kath & Kim’ fame, alongside global megastar Kim Kardashian-West. Shot like a scene out of ‘Kath & Kim’, the campaign aimed to build on Uber Eats’ competitive edge to raise the cultural bar. By using their long running ‘Tonight, I’ll be eating…’ platform and taking one of the most iconic Australian characters - Sharon Strazlecki, and pairing her with not her best friend and on-air partner Kim, but instead the most famous Kim in the world. Kim Kardashian-West. The huge culture explosion created by this simple substitution was not only hilarious, but as intended, it captured the attention and imagination of the entire nation, garnering headlines and national news coverage.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

We knew we needed to create a journey for Uber Eats’ ‘Tonight, I’ll Be Eating’ campaign that catapulted it well beyond television and made it a genuine part of Australian culture and beyond. In order to make that happen we paired Kim Kardashian-West who manages an Instagram following of 202M and Magda Szubanski with 188k, the campaign was sure to tap into both those cult fan followings and drive media awareness, earn attention and attract cultural engagement from the beginning. The ad, which was shot like various scenes out of the iconic Australian TV series ‘Kath & Kim’, saw the duo sharing pre-dinner banter which was strategically interrupted by none other than a dinner order from Uber Eats. The campaign sent Australian into meltdown and was played in full on every news bulletin and morning show in the country, shared, watched and tweeted millions of times within only 24 hours.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

After Uber Eats had reached #1 market position for online food delivery, we set ourselves a goal to heighten the fame of the brand by firmly cementing it into culture. Our strategy consisted of creating cultural moments not ads. We did this by finding new, innovative and newsworthy ways of getting the campaign into newsfeeds and onto national news. We also took an earned media approach, which involved using higher tier talent, celebrities and media integrations to create highly impactful cultural moments in their own right. This strategy also allowed us to be more relevant to more specific audiences. We shifted our campaign strategy to be more branded and content focused. This meant rather than one story around our celebrities or cultural moment, we created multiple media assets with Kim and Shaz to allow for lots of mini stories across organic and paid social.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

The iconic pairing transcended advertising and earned local and global fame. It became a genuine part of Aussie culture. As a true indication of this, re-creating the ad became a top challenge on Tik-Tok, with thousands of people dressing up in costume and reciting the full commercial word for word. In addition, ‘Shaz and Kim’ became a top party outfit over the Xmas period, including spawning a drag-show performance where an entire dance to a DJ remix of the ad was performed in nightclubs. Other brands made parodies (such as Coca-Cola posting ‘Share a Coke with Sharon and Kim’ on their channels), countless memes were made and cartoon fan art was posted all over the internet. The ad topped many ‘Ad of the decade’ polls and has since become an instant classic.

List the results (30% of vote)

The response to the campaign was, in a word; noice. Within 24 hours of airing, the internet was sent into meltdown, with the campaign becoming a trending topic on twitter and watched and shared millions of times on social. But the results saw engagement even money can’t buy. By the time the results of the came in the enormity of the success was clear: - 50m media impressions - 1,000+ individual news stories - Organic reach 2.5x bigger than paid - Trending on Twitter - 90,000 shares - 98% positive sentiment - 18% uplift in brand preference for Uber Eats Noice work if we do say ourselves.