Lucinda Barlow Champions Creative Bravery: Efficiency Led to Uber “Death Spiral”

Marketing teams that attempt to maximise their return on investment by over-indexing on measurement and efficiency risk pulling their business into a “death spiral”, according to Uber’s head of international marketing, Lucinda Barlow.

The key to long-term success lies in marrying creative bravery with marketing science — because entertaining audiences drives measurable business growth.

“We have exited markets because we pivoted so far to efficiency,” she said, speaking on a panel of senior marketers at Hello’s upfront event this week.

“We loved the measurements but became myopic. We saved money, demonstrated efficiency, and then — panic. We saw further degradation, flooded the market with incentives, created marketing mediocrity, and then death.”

A hyperfixation on performance marketing can result in short-term gains but long-term losses in brand equity and customer loyalty. On the other hand, a brand that emotionally connects with its customers, that surprises and delights, enjoys commercial rewards.

“Our job is bravery,” Lucinda said.

“Extraordinary, outsized growth that only marketing can do, that only a really extraordinary brand that you are building on, growing, delighting, investing in with all of the wonderful art of emotion.”

Uber Eats has embraced bravery alongside creative consistency, developing tongue-in-cheek humour and recruiting a roster of stars like Kim Kardashian, Victoria and David Beckham, and Cher for its old ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ and current ‘Get Almost, Almost Anything’ platforms. 

“We saw the benefit and power of fame, entertainment, and the compound effect of creativity in driving our business,” she explained.

“We’re here to make sure our consumers feel good, are entertained, and change their habits in our own way. It’s such a no-brainer.”

Erin O’Neill, marketing director at Paramount Pictures, warned bravery alone is not enough, sharing a cautionary tale from the marketing push for ‘A Quiet Place Part II’.

The team’s soundproof ASMR booth at Sydney University’s O-Week — a seemingly “genius” idea — cost hundreds of thousands of dollars but failed spectacularly when the team failed to properly understand the difficulties associated with producing ASMR content nor the nature of the ASMR community online.

As a result, not a single piece of user-generated content was created on the back of the activation.

“We couldn’t even give the booth away afterwards — we ended up paying $30,000 to get rid of it,” she recalled.

“Bravery alone isn’t enough …There needs to be marketing science behind it — thinking about how the idea will live on and reach the right audiences.

“The key learning for us as a team was that we hadn’t thought about the science behind the bravery. We leaned on our laurels a bit, assuming that because we were a film studio with an inherent interest in what we did, we didn’t need to think about the digital distribution of our ideas.”

This realisation prompted Paramount to rethink its strategy, specifically in its promotional campaign for the film ‘Bob Marley: One Love.’

By partnering with DJ Fisher to rework a Marley track for Gen Z audiences, Paramount successfully bridged the gap between the reggae legend’s legacy and modern dance music culture.

“Post-campaign data showed we successfully converted Gen Z audiences, who likely wouldn’t have engaged with a Bob Marley film otherwise,” Erin noted.

Sera Awad, head of marketing and strategic alliances at Tyro, also highlighted the importance of distinctiveness in creative campaigns.

“We can’t afford to be dull,” she said .”As a challenger, we couldn’t afford to be cautious. We had to bring bravery into the mix. We had to be distinctive.”

This has meant adhering to a core brand principle of being “unbank-like”.

“This forced the marketing team to continually ask, ‘Are we being unbank-like?’ If you presented any idea or put a creative brief in front of us, that question was always there.”

Lucinda echoed this, emphasising the role of culture and trends in creative expression.

“Culture and trends are an opportunity for self-expression,” she said.

“You need to know your brand inside out — your tone of voice, your identity.”

This sentiment was echoed by Lucy Fynes-Clinton, head of performance marketing at Budget Direct. She shared how the brand’s campaigns featuring characters like Sarge, Jacs, and Chief evolved from TV-centric ads to a social-first strategy.

The company’s initial approach of repackaging successful TVCs into social content failed to make an impression with users who could swipe to the next video if their attention wasn’t grabbed in a single second.

By creating shorter, trend-driven social videos versus TVC cutdowns, Budget Direct humanised its brand and engaged younger audiences while also expanding the brand platform beyond TVCs.

“The data showed we were reaching more people, engaging a younger audience, and making a better first impression than before,” Lucy said.

Daniel Hill, director of media and marketing science at Hello, noted that “Media and advertising are an investment, not a gamble.”

“When you work with a media or advertising agency, you want to feel like you’re trusting your money with someone who can drive a return,” he said. “It shouldn’t feel like you’re placing a bet with a bookie.”

But as Lucinda put it, marketing science and creative bravery aren’t mutually exclusive. “Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too. Enjoy it. It’s your job. Gorge on it.”