Australia – The western market’s top food delivery Uber Eats has released a new iteration of its famous ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ (TIBE) campaign, and this time, it features American Got Talent’s Simon Cowell and Australia’s household entertainment group, The Wiggles.
Created with Special Group Australia, Uber and the agency have been roping in famous stars and developing tongue-in-cheek narratives that play around the stars’ trademark quirks.
The new spot centers around Cowell’s known hard-hitting personality as a popular talent contest judge. He plays, ‘Grey Wiggle’, the latest member of the family-favorite band, and as the band jams while waiting for their Uber Eats delivery, Cowell calmly sits on the couch, dishing out on brutally direct feedback on the group’s singing.
In the latter part, Cowell, in a sarcastic portrayal, says, “Thank you. Congratulations, I now hate music.”
The ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ campaign franchise is now in its fifth year. first debuting in 2017. Starting out purely catered to the ANZ audience, early campaigns featured Aussie stars Naomi Watts, and professional rugby league footballer Beau Ryan, among others.
The most recent TIBE spot was launched last September 2020, which was an inaugural campaign for the North America audience. The specific spot drew in heightened excitement from the audience especially from Sci-Fi fans as it featured notable actors of the Star Wars and Star Trek franchise Mark Hamill and Patrick Stewart.
Uber Eats ANZ’s Head of Marketing David Griffiths noted that more and more, they are seeing Aussie families come into the food delivery category.
“The Wiggles are an Aussie institution and Simon was the perfect person to join the band as The Grey Wiggle. The campaign builds from week to week across all forms of traditional, digital, and social media so keep an eye out for some amazing collaborations and VIP appearances,” said Griffiths.
Max McKeon, the Uber APAC creative director at Special Group Australia, shared that the ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ brand platform has made its way now to over seven different countries but that their latest campaign has brought it home again, pitting the harsh critique of Cowell against the unbending optimism of the Wiggles.
“It not only shows what great sports everyone involved was, but every adult who’s ever had to watch the family-friendly group will automatically empathize,” said McKeon.
The agency said that more Wiggles characters are set to appear in upcoming featurettes, including fan-favorites Henry the Octopus.
The integrated campaign is already running across TV, out-of-home, radio, social, and digital, as well as owned channels.
