Inside Uber Eats' plans to hog the limelight

Food-delivery platform Uber Eats might have been late to the food-tech party as compared to other players in the category but has aggressive plans while at it. The brand has pumped in big marketing spends behind the launch of its new marketing campaign #EatsNewEveryday featuring Alia Bhatt and Dulquer Salmaan.

“We are making sure we are putting all our muscle behind the right marketing channels to ensure high visibility for Uber Eats,” Bansi Kotecha, Head of Operations, India and South Asia, Uber Eats shared in conversation with exchange4media.

Kotecha revealed that coming to the marketing mix, digital occupies the lion’s share for the brand (60%) followed by traditional at 40%. “We’ve seen a strategic shift in terms of how consumers use the app. In the beginning, when the food-tech industry was new, people would look for a restaurant. Over time people have started to look at cuisines, not a specific restaurant. So the search on the app has now moved to from I want to order from ABC to I want to order XYZ. Our brief to our in-house agency who conceptualised the current campaign was that I want to showcase this massive shift,” he explained.

Sharing how the brand rides on location data for efficient marketing, Kotecha said, “The app is structured in a way that as and when you open the app, you will see restaurants that are near-by to you.” 

The ongoing campaign targets youth between the ages of 18 and 25 and addresses their need to seek new experiences while ordering food. “We’re trying to talk to these folks who are trying to experiment and explore. Probably eating out every day and multiple times each day. We are trying to connect with them. This campaign with Alia and Dulquer for Hindi and regional language respectively talks to them about where Uber Eats fits into their life, where it delivers to their expectations, how it can break the monotony and give them choice in terms of tons of restaurants, tons of cuisines and items to choose,” Kotecha said. 

He shared that the multi-media campaign will run across digital, out-of-home and print and in-cinemas apart from restaurant branding. “A lot of restaurants who are working with us will see the campaign come to live in their restaurants,” he revealed. 

The previous campaign featuring Bhatt fetched the brand a whopping 60 million-odd views. Kotecha is hopeful that Uber Eats will garner similar traction with this one. He acknowledged that collectively between Uber and all the competition, the brand might be still scratching the surface but is working towards getting there. “The market is pegged to be a $15m market in the next three years. And we are far away from there, collectively as a business. Right now, we are just making sure that we are delivering to our business plans,” Kotecha contended.