New Uber Eats ad sees Ash Barty face Sacha Baron Cohen’s rogue umpire
As the tournament moves into its second week the Australian Open’s rogue umpire – AKA Sacha Baron Cohen – is causing more havoc on the court with women’s world number one, Ash Barty, falling victim to his efforts to keep love on the score board.
The mischief the rogue umpire gets up to includes pausing the game on love while he pretends his mother’s calling, and deliberately miscalling faults.
The campaign, from Special Group, launched last week when the Australian Open commenced, kicking off with a teaser of Nick Kyrgios clashing with the umpire.
The rogue umpire’s determination to keep love on the scoreboard is driven by Uber Eats’ exclusive offers with its partner restaurants released on social media only when the score hits love.
It is the second year Barty has collaborated with Uber Eats during the Australian Open. Barty said of this year’s campaign: “After 2020 I was keen to see what was coming this year. When I saw the scripts and the cheeky comments from Sacha Baron Cohen’s Rogue Umpire I knew it would be a laugh. I hope people have as much fun watching it as I had making it.”
Uber Eats head of marketing, David Griffiths, noted Barty was the perfect talent for the campaign given in her first round match against Danka Kovinic she won 6-0, 6-0 and only lost ten points.
“Having the world number one and young Australian of the Year in our campaign for a second year is huge and it’s a partnership Uber Eats is incredibly proud of given Ash Barty’s class on and off the court,” Griffiths said.
“Ash brings a great warmth to the campaign alongside our cheeky Rogue Umpire and did a great job helping us explain the campaign mechanic – when the score is at love, you could eat for love. Given Ash only dropped ten points her entire first match there was plenty of love on the scoreboard, and understandably she’s getting a lot of love from fans on our channels who’ve been the recipients of thousands of free meals as a result of her on court dominance.”
Marketing manager, Rebecca Kemp, added: “There’s unsurprisingly been a huge amount of hype and buzz about the star turn of Academy Award winner and Golden Globe nominee Sacha Baron Cohen in our spots to date – the Rogue Umpire get more wild and closer to the line as the tournament goes on. But we’ve been just as delighted to see the positive reception Aussies Nick Kyrgios and Ash Barty are soaking in across our channels.
“The performances of both Aussies on court has been incredible and we’ve been able to have a lot of fun continuing the conversation with fans, while seeing tens of thousands of redemptions from our partner restaurants during three thrilling matches so far. The players are building momentum and so are we – there’s a lot more fun to come.”
The campaign crosses TV, social, out-of-home, digital and Tennis Australia’s and Uber Eat’s owned channels. It has also amassed earned media attention from morning shows, news and even during player interviews.
Julian Schreiber, chief creative officer and partner at Special Group Australia, said: “The first week of the campaign has been going gangbusters. People are really getting into the second screen experience of watching for when the score is love so they can snap up codes on Instagram in order to score food on Uber Eats.”
The OOH execution
