Uber Takes You Anywhere with First UK TV Ad from BBH London

Uber UK is today launching its new brand campaign ‘Where to?’. The campaign saw Uber’s first UK TV advert air at the weekend, with a series of out-of-home media going live from today.

The ‘Where to?’ campaign has been developed over the last seven months by Uber’s in-house team, BBH London and MG OMD. The brand philosophy of ‘Where to?’ represents the possibilities available when you open up the Uber app. By putting your city within reach at the touch of a button, Uber helps you be anywhere, effortlessly.

The TV advert, directed by Kim Gehrig - whose previous work includes John Lewis’ ‘Man on the Moon’ and Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’, is centred around the ‘the effortless journey’ and the advert brings to life the simple product truth of Uber: its seamlessness. The film tells the story of Grace and Miles, a young couple on their first date, and uses the track ‘You’re the Boss’ by Elvis Presley - further highlighting how Uber puts users of its app in control.

The out-of-home concept, which will be going live in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh, brings to life the ease of using Uber. Whether you need to go to the shops, a restaurant or just get out of the rain, with a tap of a button you can be in a car within just a few minutes.

This national campaign will run for six weeks across TV, out-of-home, online, cinema and press. Uber is available in more than 25 towns and cities across the UK and is used by millions of people every month.

Rachael Pettit, Uber’s UK Head of Marketing, said: “We are really excited to be launching the first chapter of our brand idea. ‘Where to’ represents the endless possibilities when you open up the Uber app and this theme will run through all of the creative work. Millions of people rely on Uber to get a reliable ride at the touch of a button and we wanted to bring this simplicity to life through the ad.”

Ian Heartfield, Deputy Executive Creative Director of BBH London, said: “You don't often get the chance to set the tone of voice for a game changing global brand from scratch. It was an awesome brief, one that we wanted to smash out of the park with work that is simple, joyful and above all else, different from everything else out there."

Kim Gehrig said: “It's always a privilege to direct a first commercial for a brand as you get to create it's entire world. I love doing that. When we embarked on our film, the brief was to make it look as effortless as possible. We rehearsed for days, and the challenge was how to get our dancers from one end of the set to the other in 60 seconds. As the film is one shot we had nowhere to hide. Every action and movement needed to be efficient, telling the story and getting us through cars as quickly as possible.

“Every scene needed to have its own story as well as move us through the set. We designed the set to start feeling real, then it deconstructed as the film progressed. The more our couple fell for each other, the simpler the set became. The car’s always a portal to a new location. It was a lot of fun to do, even though it took all day and night to achieve one shot…”