Say What You Mean: The Art of Authentic Marketing #2

Uber

Dan Sonners

For a moment, let’s go back to the year 2000. The .com bubble had yet to burst (pets.com was still considered a safe investment), kids were downloading music illegally on Napster, Survivor was the #1 show on television, and millions of Americans were trying to figure out what to do with their unused Y2K survival kits.

Now imagine we’re at a BBQ (after discussing the AOL / Time Warner merger) and I told you that within 20 years people would give random strangers satellite directions to their house for rides anywhere they’d like to go. Furthermore, those strangers wouldn’t be driving cabs but their own everyday cars and this would become so accepted that these strangers in unmarked cars would threaten the existence of the taxi industry.

Chances are you would’ve laughed me off and I wouldn’t have blamed you. Well, a lot of people laughed at Uber Founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp when they launched the ride sharing service in 2009. Originally designed for booking black cars in San Francisco, Uber quickly expanded nationwide and by 2017 employed over 750,000 drivers in the US and over 2 million worldwide.

Under the leadership of Co-Founder and CEO Travis Kalanick, Uber not only became one of the largest employers in the United States it fundamentally altered societal norms.

Unfortunately, 2017 was also the year when Kalanick was made to realize that growing a startup isn’t the same as managing it. Uber endured a long string of public relations nightmares which ultimately ended in Kalanick resigning in June of that year after mounting pressure from investor’s. Bad headlines ranged from extensive discussion about the “bro-culture” purveyed by Kalanick, multiple sexual harassment scandals within the company, allegations of IP theft, Kalanick berating an Uber driver, using technology to evade regulators, and privacy concerns all of which culminated in Kalanick’s shocking resignation.

In August, Former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was named Uber’s new chief executive. Khosrowshahi came in with a promise to overhaul Uber’s culture and launched a national ad campaign in May called Moving Forward.

The ad opens with Khosrowshahi looking head on into the camera and introduces himself. He tells the viewer that since coming onboard he’s been focused on listening to ‘you’, cities, communities, and employees. Khosrowshahi says he’s ‘seen a lot good (during his time at uber)’ and that Uber has ‘changed the way people get around’ and ‘provided opportunities’ but that it’s now time (for Uber) to move in a new direction.

He tells us how excited he is to write Uber’s next chapter ‘with you’ and that one of Uber’s core values is to ‘always do the right thing’ and that if they fail they will ‘be open, take responsibility, and fix it’ and that this begins with ‘new leadership and culture’.

Khosrowshahi then promises a slew of improvements including enhanced background checks, 24/7 customer support, and improved pickups and ride quality for both drivers and passengers. After a well edited montage of “everyday” Uber employees and customers, the ad returns to a head on shot of Khosrowshahi who tells the viewer “you’ve got my word that we’re charting a better road for Uber and for those who rely on us everyday”. The ad closes with a “Moving Forward” tagline graphic and Uber’s logo against a picturesque shot of busy city traffic during sunset with mountains in the background.

What’s Authentic?

• Putting a Name on it, although Khosrowshahi’s tone doesn’t exactly scream passion the act of having a CEO personally take responsibility creates a transactional relationship with the viewer. Previously, we’ve looked at Wells Fargo and Facebook’s apology ads which used anonymous voice overs. While an ad’s production values (like Facebook’s effective use of nostalgia) can elicit a desired emotion from the viewer, a personal appeal from the CEO establishes the notion that there’s someone who can be held accountable should the company fail uphold consumer expectations again. By appearing in the ad himself, Khosrowshahi is putting skin in the game allowing the ad to come across as a personal appeal instead of being a focus grouped agency creation.

What’s Not Authentic?

• Prosperity Masked as Virtue, Within the the first 15 seconds of the ad Khosrowshahi touts Uber’s contributions to society before touching on the true purpose of the ad to “Move Forward” from Uber’s PR woes. According to Uber, it’s app has 40 million active monthly users and private studies have shown that anywhere between 25% and 43% of Americans have used ride-sharing apps in 2018 alone so it’s not debatable that Uber has transformed transportation. It’s app has streamlined and made ride-hailing more affordable for everyone from the elderly and disabled to millennials looking for a ride home after last call (there’s even some mixed data that the proliferation of ride-sharing has helped curb drunk driving). It’s when Khosrowshahi hints at the jobs Uber has created that we start to run into some authenticity issues. Although public figures aren’t available, good estimates have the number of Uber drivers in the 1–1.5 million range. While there’s little question that Uber has made it easier than ever to make money in your free time, touting Uber’s job creation record is a slippery slope to discussing the downside of working for Uber ( some studies that show drivers make less than minimum wage after accounting for taxes, gas, wear and tear, and other expenses — Uber has addressed some of these concerns by adding a tipping option). Entrepreneurs have all kinds of motivations, but generally speaking private companies exist to make profits. This isn’t a bad thing as entrepreneurialism is the lifeblood of economic growth, but it does make it inauthentic when companies tout their job creation record in what’s supposed to be an apology ad.
• Moving Forward From What? Half way through the ad, Dara Khosrowshahi mentions Uber’s new leadership and culture but stops short of telling us why those things are necessary. Realistically, no company is going recount all of their sins in an ad which has been created to re-boot it’s image. However, simply touching on what went wrong or mentioning specific solutions to those issues (even something as vague as creating an environment that’s welcoming and safe for all Uber employees) can create the perception that the company really “means” the message they are espousing. Likewise, committing to ‘always do the right thing’ is noble (if not generic) but inauthenticity lies in the fact that we know Khosrowshahi isn’t making this promise to be virtuous, he’s doing it because the company has failed to do the right thing in the past.

Is It Authentic?

It’s a solid attempt. Dana Khosrowshahi deserves a lot of credit for appearing in the ad which helps dispel the notion of Uber being a faceless corporation, and a personal guarantee certainly is more authentic than one from an anonymous voice over.

Unfortunately, the ad is held back by conventional PR and crisis management wisdom. Too often, high profile apologies are restrained by the idea of apologizing without drawing too much attention to your mistake and it’s something that extends far beyond corporations. Think about all of hollow apologies you can remember by athletes who were caught using performance enhancing drugs, or politicians embroiled in scandal. People are naturally forgiving, and most will be willing to give you a second look if you simply tell them what you did and what you’re going to do to help those who were injured by it.

Robert Fulghum has a famous book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten which discusses 15 vital lessons kids learn in Kindergarten which they should carry the rest of their lives. Lesson #7 is Say you’re SORRY when you HURT somebody. It’s a pretty good lesson, I would just add that if you want to be authentic you should actually say what you’re sorry for.

The author Dan Sonners is Director of Non- Marketing at Conrad Direct. The opinions expressed in this piece are personal.

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Dan can be reached at dsonners@gmail.com with any comments, feedback, questions, or to continue the discussion.