Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

Amidst a world gripped by pandemic, the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics provided the ultimate in light relief. Despite the lead-up controversy around whether the Games should even go ahead, Japanese people tuned in in record numbers to tune out of reality. To escape all things Covid and be entertained by the World’s best athletes. THIS was the content our campaign successfully competed with. Providing a second screen experience so enthralling and addictive that it stole precious eye-balls and thumbs from one of 2020’s peak moments in entertainment. All without referencing it a single time.

Background

Despite nervousness around the 2020 Olympics going ahead, over three-quarters of the Japanese population still planned to tune in and watch, making it by far the highest-engaged national sporting event. And given there would be no spectators amidst a State of Emergency where people couldn’t dine in restaurants or drink in pubs, the majority would be watching from home on TV. This represented a huge opportunity to - Tap into a heightened moment of need for at-home food delivery Continue establishing the Uber Eats brand’s ‘glocal’ cultural relevance Problem was, Uber Eats wasn't an official Olympics sponsor, so would need to somehow evade the World’s most tightly-guarded sponsorship regulations. The brief and objectives were simple - but hard. Hijack the hype around the Games to acquire new users onto the app in a way that drives positive sentiment towards the brand. And don't get caught by the IOC.

Describe the creative idea

THE NAME GAMES: In a world of internet virality, there’s something new and exciting trending every single day. Something that everyone is talking about. And during the Olympics with all eyeballs firmly locked on a TV and / or phone, this would be magnified. Except as a non-Olympics sponsor, we wouldn’t be able to talk about what everyone else was talking about! So to get around this and be part of the action, we got our audience to say what we couldn’t for us. We created a daily NAME GAME, dropping a ‘promo code of the day’ which just happened to be the name of the most spoken about person each day. Which also just happened to be Olympics athletes that we weren’t allowed to talk about ourselves. So by simply dropping a daily hint at who this might be, we let our audience say what we couldn’t.

Describe the strategy

Our idea was based on the insight that despite the tensions around Covid, we knew that as soon as the Games got going people would rally together in a much-needed moment of shared release and celebration. No-one would want to miss out on what everyone’s talking about… especially once Japan starts winning medals, or an underdog over-performs, or someone does something meme-worthy. It was this spirit of heightened national excitement, pride and camaraderie that we aimed to tap into, above and beyond the sports and competitions themselves - to create a Game on top of the Games. As a non-sponsor, we needed to follow extremely tight restrictions around what could be said and done, cut through the ‘noise’ of every other brand and leverage ‘second screen’ behaviour - people watching the Games at home on TV, whilst also on their phones, on social media and messaging apps.

Describe the execution

Implementation - The campaign look at feel was a pastiche of the news in Japan. We used news anchor talent to deliver our daily clues in a fun, tongue in cheek manner, dropping over-the-top hints whilst being careful never to mention anything ‘officially’ Olympics related. All our audience had to do was guess who the person of the day was, then use that as a promo code in the Uber Eats app, with successful guesses receiving 50% off their order. Timeline - short-lived campaign during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics campaign. Placement - daily online video and social media content that dropped the ‘name’ clues, as well as owned channel support (CRM, in-app) and an influencer strategy. Scale - new executions posted daily across Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Line (including using 15 local influencers) in response to whatever ‘name’ was trending.

Describe the outcome

With just $238,000 USD in paid spend (including influencer budget), the campaign generated: 8% increase in acquisitions during the campaign period. 3% increase in total orders and revenue during the campaign period. 35% increase in social platform followers Total reach: 19,826,870, one-third of which was organic (4.88 million) Engagement rates: 10% Instagram, 2% Twitter Codes sold out within 3 minutes each day.