Cannes Lions

On the Rise

ACE CONTENT, New York / UBER EATS / 2022

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Overview

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Credits

OVERVIEW

Background

During the summer of 2020, at the height of the pandemic and racial unrest, Black-owned businesses were shutting down nearly twice as fast as other businesses throughout the United States. This inequity would undeniably leave a lasting impact on the ability for Black-owned businesses to thrive, exposing systemic inequities that have plagued our communities for ages. We immediately took action.

Idea

Inspired by the best selling book "The Rise" by Marcus Samuelsson, we used the talent, stories and recipes fo Black chefs to create a custom, content-driven, social impact campaign suited for the moment.

Exclusively presented by Uber Eats, we created an original series hosted by Marcus himself, and a multi-channel content brand designed specifically to elevate and amplify black talent around the culinary world and financially support Black-owned business and restaurants who are being disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

"On the Rise" takes viewers on a journey into the thriving world of African-American cuisine to highlight why black food matters and restore African-American cooking to its rightful place as an essential definition of our culture.

Strategy

Using our Content to Commerce model, we set out to build a social-driven platform that could drive both commercial value and equity for Black-owned businesses who were being disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Without a brief or brand assignment, we proactively enlisted partners to help us drive engagement, social action and cultural conversation around Black-owned businesses during the key cultural milestone of Black History Month 2021.

Execution

Presented by Uber Eats on Vox’s Eater, we launched the four-part original series with a series of strategic partners.

We partnered with Dawn Porter (director of The Way I See It and Good Trouble: John Lewis) to bring the story to life, authentically.

We enlisted Sage to build the #BlackBusinessesMatter Matching Fund for meaningful, lasting impact.

We worked with James Beard Award winners Nina Compton, Rodney Scott and Kwame Onwuachi and James Beard Legacy Network member Leticia Skai Young-Mohan to represent the vast, personal and diverse stories that contribute to Black cuisine. New episodes dropped every Tuesday of Black History Month.

Through a coordinated PR effort - which included an exclusive with the Drew Barrymore Show, we were able to use the celebrity power of Marcus Samuelsson to create over 125 million earned media impressions, thereby helping to spread the mission.

And we did it all in five weeks.

Outcome

In one month, “On the Rise” raised $26 million towards Black-owned businesses via the #BlackBusinessesMatter Matching Fund and created a conversation that led to public participation (with individual donations matched with a 5X multiplier).

With no paid media support, the series itself garnered +4.3MM video views (reaching over 172K viewers organically). Across social channels, there was an exceptionally positive reaction with 99% of reactions being classified as positive (like/love/care).

The results point to real impact around this urgent and critical issue, and the beginnings of an equitable platform that can be replicated across industries and communities. We successfully broke down any and all industry barriers in our way at the time, helping to construct an equitable and sustainable platform with a purpose.

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