Social Samosa dissects Father's Day campaigns by Ola and Uber, to see which worked better. Ola’s Rear View v/s Uber's #DadsWhoMoveUs - see who won the social game.
While the India v/s Pakistan ICC Finale somewhat impacted the Father’s Day thunder, brands did reserve the first half of the day for patriarchal recognition with campaigns. Amongst the lot were Ola Cabs and Uber India, armed with content reaching to the masses.
While Ola went the native route, by tying up with Terribly Tiny Talkies, a video offering by short story publisher, Terribly Tiny Tales, Uber took the real-life approach featuring their driver-partners.
As both the brands speak to the same audience, with almost similar vehicles of communication, Social Samosa tries to understand the difference in approach the resulted in a corresponding difference in results.
Ola Cabs – Rear View
Released on Terribly Tiny Tale’s page, Rear view was a Father’s Day short film with Ola at heart. A father-to-be, the Ola driver and a single father, the customer, share a moment during the trip. The customer, an antsy character headed to the airport, while the driver is a chirpy bloke.
The conversation between the two starts, as the driver enquires about the passenger’s child after a short video call. While the passenger keeps the conversation short, he urges the driver to answer his wife’s call! The call reveals that the driver is to be father, whose wife has been taken to the hospital. The passenger than reveals that he couldn’t be with his wife during the delivery and the Ola driver should be. The latter however, completes the ride.
The story culminates with the passenger, who appears blunt and irate throughout the ride, leaves a pack of sweets for the driver in the car and decides to surprise his son by flying home early.
The story is an ode to fathers who might fail to express their love but always go that extra mile for their loved ones.
Uber - #DadsWhoMoveUs
A complete paradox of what is Ola’s campaign, Uber’s #DadsWhoMoveUs features real driver-partners and their families. A social experiment, Uber interviewed kids of their driver-partners getting them to share their thoughts on their Superhero, and broadcasted it for their father’s, as their family waits in a separate room.
The fathers and then united with their family, as the savour the warm feeling, giving the family an opportunity to appreciate and celebrate a father’s love.
Rear View v/s #DadsWhoMoveUs
With a difference in approach, arch rivals Uber and Ola, tried to create tearjerkers that would move their audience, however, could create only a limited reaction.
The core difference between both the campaigns was the approach – while Ola chose to camouflage their message in a story, Uber created an ode to the real fathers in a candid video. Unfortunately, with promising starts, both the campaigns bite to dust.
While Ola falls prey to a lengthy story and slightly predictive storyline, Uber offers a half-baked social experiment, that looks coloured on various levels. The stories and the subsequent reactions appear camera conscious.
Uber further tried to amplify the reach of their campaign with active influencer outreach, as influencers from various backgrounds indulged in tweets and posts.
Ola on the contrary, partnered with TTT and relied on their collective reach to take the campaign to the next level.
Ola received 920k views and 84k reactions on Facebook with 5255 shares, n TTT’s page the video received 148k views and 2k reactions. Uber on the other hand received 522k views and 24k reactions.
A campaign for every occasion?
On auspicious occasions, it’s become important for brands to show up for recall and engagement. However, as the trend enhances, objectivity starts phasing out. Secondly, no matter how good a piece of communication is, the cycle of engagement completes only with happy consumers, which is not the case with either of the brands.
For instance, despite the efficient attempt, both the campaigns attracted complains about Ola and Uber services. Very few interactions were about the campaign, and those too eventually converted into a customer rant.
Back in 2013, experts predicted video is the future. However, there isn’t much to this future unless a clear motive and apt services are peddled to it.
“If you remove mask the brand’s logos from both the campaigns, you could easily pass the short film as Uber’s campaign and the social experiment as Ola’s,” opined K, V, Sridhar a.k.a Pops. “Brands these days run in any directions. They need to convey the brand’s tone, personality, and objective, only then they can create consistent communication.”
Between, Ola and Uber, Ola (basis social reaction) clearly seems to have struck a stronger chord with the audience. But, it could easily be a case of best between worsts!
Expert Opinion
Social Samosa caught up with K.V.Sridhar, of Hyper Collective, seeking his opinion on which campaign performs better.
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“For me Uber’s #DadsWhoMoveUs falls flat. The idea of social experiment has been overused and could not get me to emote. It could have still worked, had they executed the idea better. Ola on the other hand, narrates a brilliant story, with a good premise and an established cast like Arjun Mathur. The story can create an impact, provided users have the patience to go through it. It is a very lengthy film; an idea brand film should be between two and half to three and a half minutes.”
Pops shared that if you’re taking an idea which has been done to death, you need to execute it well enough to compensate for the originality.
“My heart goes out to Uber,” Pops added. “On ground Uber offers better services than Ola, however, they couldn’t translate it in a good campaign.”
Which campaign resonated with you? Share your thoughts with us on team@socialsamosa.com or in the comments below.
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