Tuesday Tip: Focus on how you empower your user, as did Uber

"Shankar moves forward, Uber moves Shankar." With this simple sentence as the premise, Uber launched its first brand campaign in India, "move forward" and within a week, received 1.2 million views on YouTube. Rather than talking specifically about what Uber offers or being explicit about what they're selling you, the creatives BBH India use a real life story to draw you in and place Uber's brand in at the end. Today's Tuesday Tip: highlight how your company empowers users.

The video starts in a rush hour situation, as Shankar (the Uber driver) drives a young girl to school. She's worried as she has a test to be on time for, so he finds a way to drive her through the back roads. As is revealed in the end, Shankar is actually the girl's father, and they exchange a sweet goodbye. Then he's immediately into work mode as he switches his Uber app into "online" mode to pick up his first actual customer.

A post on The Drum points out,

"For users, it explored the concept of having the freedom of mobility in an affordable way and for the drivers, it shows how it can turn them into micro-entrepreneurs."

The video sells both sides of Uber's business, all while playing with the audience's heartstrings. It empowers the cute young girl: the takes her seriously, getting her to her destination on time. Additionally, we see how Uber makes it so her father has a flexible work schedule and can drive her to school. At the same time, we follow the kind dad who cares for his daughter's worries and takes his work at Uber seriously. Shankar is empowered: he is able to help his family and to go straight to a job as a "micro entrepreneur" afterwards.

So back to our tip: As stated in The Drum post, the creators at BBH assert this type of campaign is replicable. How can you portray your service empowering its users?

Let's start off with some questions to get the creativity flowing:

1. What do you do / offer in just a few words?

For example, Uber offers "the freedom of mobility" for riders and enables drivers "to improve their livelihoods." In a nut shell, they move users forward. Hence "Move Forward" is the name of the campaign.

2. What does your audience look like? What are their day-to-day needs that your service helps fulfill?

The rider (the daughter) needs to get from place to place in an efficient manner. The driver (Shankar) needs a job with flexible hours and an employer he can trust.

3. What scenario could you portray that catches this user / customer in a moment of need? What are they feeling in that moment and why?

The daughter is feeling anxious as she needs to get to school. Shankar is feeling nervous as he wants to get her there on time and be a good father. Then, as Uber works well for them, the daughter feels relieved as she gets to school and Shankar can be proud of his job.

Watch the full video below. To learn more about ArcStone's video process take a peek at this infographic. 

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