Australia – Independent agency Special PR has been tapped as the PR partner for PepsiCo brands Pepsi, Red Rock Deli, and Smith’s, extending Special Group Australia’s remit with the global giant.

This extension follows a successful competitive tender process in 2022 which saw Special Group awarded PepsiCo’s creative and advertising accounts for the Pepsi, Red Rock Deli, and Smith’s brands. 

The appointment will see Special PR develop creative earned campaigns, PR strategy and activation, content development, media relations, publicity, and influencer relationships across Australia, with a focus on Gen Z and culture.

Alex Bryant, founder at Special PR, shared, “When thinking about the type of clients and work we want to do with Special PR, PepsiCo fits the bill in every way. The ambition, bravery and incredible partnership ethos built between PepsiCo and Special so far has already allowed us to unlock such exciting work, which we can’t wait to unveil. This partnership aligns with our strategic ambitions of building a strong cultural and consumer lifestyle practice.”

Vandita Pandey, chief marketing officer ANZ, snacks & beverages at PepsiCo, said the company is thrilled to continue its partnership with Special in Australia.

“Special PR’s passion for culture, creativity and ideas which really get people talking was a clear selling point for us. The team’s ambitious spirit and individual track records across the consumer and lifestyle space proved Special PR to be the perfect partner,” she said.

Meanwhile Lindsey Evans, partner, and CEO Special Australia, commented, “We couldn’t be more excited to bring our incredible teams in both Special Group and Special PR together with PepsiCo. With the clever and creative minds working on these brands we look forward to continuing to create standout work that challenges conventions.”

The combined PepsiCo work for Special Australia and Special PR has so far seen the unveiling of Pepsi Max’s latest ‘Tastes OK’ campaign as well as Red Rock Deli’s launch of their new brand platform ‘Awaken Your Senses’ with a unique collaboration with Pnau with both campaigns launching earlier this month.

Hong Kong – Uber Eats’ famous campaign, ‘Tonight, I’ll Be Eating’, has just been debuted to the Hong Kong audience. This follows the latest installment that was recently released in Australia by Special Group, the brains behind the campaign, which features famous talent judge and critic Simon Cowell and Australia’s iconic household entertainment group, The Wiggles. 

The highly-awarded TIBE campaign first graced TV screens and social media platforms in 2017, which then was highly focused on the Australian audience featuring stars hailing from Australia. A big part of the campaign’s traction among viewers is its use of sarcasm and humor, basing the narrative on the featured famous star’s well-known quirk and characteristic. Some of the widely-known personalities that have already appeared on the campaign were British singer Boy George, actress Naomi Watts, and professional rugby league footballer Beau Ryan. Some of the most recent are comedian Leslie Jones and hockey legends Patrick Roy and Mario Tremblay. 

Still showcasing that trademark charm and humor, the debut in Hong Kong will be taking a different turn, where the campaign has been developed to spread the advocacy of loving and supporting local businesses. It has been named ‘Make Local Famous’ and was developed by Special Group Australia in partnership with creative group Uth Hong Kong. 

The ad features the country’s most loveable and dynamic duo, singers Joyce Cheng and Alfred Hui. Set in a lavish and stylish home, Joyce and Alfred are donning denim jackets covered in the logos of many local favorites. In the commercial, Joyce playfully irons patches of logos from some of their favorite local shops they will be ordering from. Towards the end of the scene, the duo is seen promoting many local restaurants and their food with an entire wall of televisions sitting behind them, while Alfred is seen in a classic Mary Poppins moment pulling out dishes after dishes of food out of an Uber Eats paper bag. 

Aside from the focus on local businesses, the Hong Kong installment is also flipping the traditional celebrity endorsement model on its head by picking the said duo. The ‘Make Local Famous’ campaign will see Joyce and Alfred advocate for the thousands of small and medium restaurants on Uber Eats. The campaign will also be providing a wide number of restaurant partners with ready-to-use content for them to repurpose on their owned channels.

Elisa Janiec, general manager of Uber Eats Hong Kong, said that the campaign genuinely speaks to their culture where food is a huge part of their cultural distinctiveness, with the “collision of West and East, old and new, hawker street stalls and Michelin-starred restaurants.” 

“It’s lively, creative, social, and deeply ingrained into the fabric of the city. There’s no better way to pay homage to this than to hero local restaurants and their food. Hong Kong is built around great food, and this campaign is all about celebrating that,” said Janiec. 

Ally Doube, APAC head of brand strategy & social at Uber Eats, commented, “Across APAC, we are passionate about unlocking local consumer insights to bring to life in all of our marketing, whether through brand campaigns or social ads. We are blessed with having the ‘Tonight, I’ll Be Eating’ platform at our hands, one of the most award-winning campaigns, as our creative hook. The team in Hong Kong has done an amazing job pairing it with the strongest local insight to bring to life a magical and compelling campaign.”

A mock-up of the campaign’s marketing asset on an HK tram shared by the agencies

Meanwhile, Max McKeon, Special Group Australia’s creative director, added, “Introducing the ‘Tonight, I’ll Be Eating’ brand platform in Hong Kong is in itself incredibly exciting, but to do so with Uber Eats offering up one of their biggest brand assets – celebrity – to all the local restaurants in the region makes this an especially unique way to celebrate Hong Kong culture.”

Aside from Hong Kong, the TIBE campaign has also been launched in Asian markets Japan and Taiwan. In September last year, Uber Eats and Special Group saw one of its biggest celebrity partnerships when it featured Sci-Fi icons, Star Wars’ Mark Hamill, and Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart for the campaign’s debut in the US and Canada. The ad took audiences by storm due to the spot igniting each of the franchises’ fans’ cultural debate of which is the better franchise. 

The integrated campaign in Hong Kong will air across TV, social, OOH, digital, and through restaurant partners. 

Australia – Special Group Australia has debuted Uber Eats’ “Tonight I’ll be eating” (TIBE) campaign in the United States and Canada, starting with an ad featuring Hollywood superstars Mark Hamill and Patrick Stewart.

The TIBE campaign is the brain child of the agency, and after gaining traction in Australia, Taiwan, and Japan, Uber Eats has decided to add the two countries in the campaign’s audience reach.

In the 45-second spot, Hamill and Stewart who are both in full black suits with a bat in hand are seen approaching each other in a dark warehouse as if on a showdown. Hamill starts delivering a line of “Tonight I’ll be eating,” saying the food he wants to get delivered, then Stewart thereafter. Before they go on a brief verbal showdown, their fierce exteriors momentarily break off as each of their Uber Eats delivery arrives, to say a casual ‘Thank you” and ‘Bravo” to the deliverer. 

The reference is made on the perpetual cultural argument of which sci-fi franchise is better between “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” in which both actors have starred in.

The latest spot follows the same format of past TIBE campaigns. The TIBE ads date back to its early spots in 2017. The campaign has been featuring prominent stars both in Australia and abroad such as British singer Boy George, actress Naomi Watts, and professional rugby league footballer Beau Ryan. The most recent TIBE iteration has global superstar Kim Kardashian-West and renowned Australian character Sharon Strezlecki from the sitcom Kath & Kim gracing the ad, where they are shown having a sarcastic argument on the right pronunciation of the word “nice.”

Hamill and Stewart’s ad follows a series of two other 15-second spots where the two actors compete against each other for the better Uber Eats meal, while simultaneously trying to beat each other at Air Hockey and Connect Four.

Cade Heyde, founding partner of Special Group Australia said, “The ‘Tonight I’ll be eating’ brand platform has had immense success in this market as well as across Asia Pacific. Expanding the platform to the other side of the world is a real honor and an incredibly proud moment for our agency. We couldn’t be more thrilled to share this loved campaign with the US.”

Meanwhile, Head of Marketing at Uber Eats for US and Canada Georgie Jeffreys believes that the launch of the Australia-grown campaign to the US and Canada is a natural progression as TIBE has proven to be a highly effective advertising campaign for the brand.

“It has helped drive record levels of customer penetration and brand affinity in the five markets in which it’s now live, and we’re excited to continue to expand the franchise with this latest launch,” said Jeffreys. 

Joint CCO and partners at Special Group Tom Martin and Julian Schreiber share that for them, the extension of the campaign is no common feat.

“We’re very proud ‘Tonight I’ll be eating’ has become such a cultural phenomenon in Australia and is being taken to the US and Canada. Bringing together two iconic space legends who’s appeal crosses generations feels like the right way to introduce ‘Tonight I’ll be eating’ to the US. It is not often Australian creative work travels to the other side of the world, and we are extremely excited to watch this platform grow,” they said.

Uber Eats is an America-headquartered food delivery platform first launched in 2014. It is the extension of the ride-hailing app Uber.