Uber Knows How to Move People and Products. Next: Showing Up

Telling people to avoid its service during the pandemic, wear a mask and not be racist won Uber several Adweek Media Plan of the Year awards. But can the ride-hailing and courier service maintain that message and expand service while avoiding the #deleteUber debacles of its past? Uber CMO Thomas Ranese admits he was once among the company’s critics. But now, he’s the one explaining how Uber’s marketing will embrace the rideshare and delivery company’s new voice and identity. This interview has been condensed and edited. Adweek: Building off of the “Move What Matters,” “No Mask, No Ride” and “Delete Uber” campaigns, what marketing opportunities do you see for Uber going forward?Thomas Ranese: The last few years have given people a reason to reconsider Uber as a brand in their everyday lives, and to reconsider who we are and what our purpose is. We're no longer just a brand about transportation; we're about delivery as well, and our delivery business is now as robust as our mobility business. We're no longer this brand who's thought of and defined by our past. We're a brand that can show up and be a responsible corporate citizen at a time of need. The role that marketing plays is helping to tell that story, helping to stitch together all the elements of our service. How has that thinking changed how the brand interacts with partners and incorporates them into Uber’s marketing?When you go to a concert, we think about how to get you in and out but also the experience you can have with things like Postmates Live, which gets food delivered to your seat. Or, when partnering with someone like Marriott, how do we not just get to and from the hotel for your business meetings more effortlessly, but get your food there? On the community side, there's work to be done in providing more access to transportation and what transportation unlocks. We did this with 10 Million Rides, beginning with World Central Kitchen and the Gates Foundation, by getting people medicines in places like South Africa. The next effort that we're launching on our anti-racism initiative is to educate people about bias. We’re using our platform, which connects real people every day who are strangers, to create more trust by educating them on the things that they can do to build that trust by challenging biases that they bring to those interactions. Uber spent part of 2021 delivering vaccines. Have you attempted to address other gaps in transportation access?We’ve talked a lot about food deserts. But one of the things that I've learned being at Uber is there are also real pharmaceutical and medical deserts where people are not close to hospitals or pharmacies but need access. We partnered with Morehouse Medical and a number of local organizations as well as national groups like the National Urban League. [That involved] even going so far as to offer people ways to access those rides even if they didn't have a smartphone, which is the next frontier in thinking about access. Uber Said Not to Use Uber During the Pandemic, and Found Its Purpose in the Process When discussing topics like bias and access in its marketing, how can Uber speak with authority on issues that have been problematic for the company in past years?The work we did in response to the murder of George Floyd two summers ago is some of the work I'm most proud of the company for standing behind. But it wasn't easy to do. We acted very quickly and committed to a number of organizations with funding, but we actually became very introspective. Obviously, it's a journey. And we have a lot of work to do to get to a place that we feel great about. But we've done the work to look at ourselves and put those commitments on the table. Now we have a plan to move forward so that we can stand by the things that we said. Along that journey, where do you see the blind spots? Where's the work to be done?Look, a majority of our earners are people of color. So how do we make sure that they feel that they have a place that's safe, and that they belong and are supported? We often think about the consumer and the rider. But in this case, we're talking about the earner: the person of color who is behind the wheel actually taking someone somewhere. How do we make sure that they're treated with the respect and the decency they deserve for the service that they're providing to the community and to the person in the back seat? With a large chunk of the workforce either forced out of employment by the pandemic or reconsidering its employment options, how does Uber address its relationship with its workers? We have to think about, "How do we focus on them, and how do we form more of a partnership versus a transactional relationship?” One thing we recently piloted that we're excited about is something called Uber Crew, which is actually how we co-create with our partners solve the problems that earners are experiencing on our platform How has Uber’s marketing addressed the evolution of Uber Eats as it relies less on food delivery?It started as burritos. The idea was when someone needs a burrito, there are cars driving around with heated burritos in the trunk that will be able to get your burrito pretty instantly. It was not successful. Now, as we're recovering from the pandemic and the brand has really grown, we've invested a tremendous amount in brand marketing over the last few years. The aspiration is to be the service provider for everything in your local community so that you can get it within the next hour. We obviously started with restaurants, but grocery, alcohol and convenience is a big focus. We just announced baby and kids products in the U.S. We've even had white label partnerships with Sephora and Apple. So are we going to see a rebrand of Uber Eats anytime soon?That’s probably a little bit of a setup for the Super Bowl ad. As we expand, Uber Eats may not be the brand that you think of when you think about diapers. Lil Nas X and Elton John Trade Wardrobes and Delivery Orders for Uber Eats

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Uber Knows How to Move People and Products. Next: Showing Up

CMO Thomas Ranese on how company will balance community and commerce

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Jason Notte