Heading into the holiday season, a time of year when there are more celebrations and festivities, we wanted to more personally connect with Canadians to deliver the critical message of choosing safer rides home when drinking. But we needed this message to feel personally relevant.

Enter Uber Moms: an activation designed to disrupt the targeted riding experience with an important anti-drunk driving message told from a very specially-selected Uber driver: a mother who had personally felt the devastating loss of a child due to impaired driving.

Someone who’s own circumstance could be directly shared in the moment that matters most - riding home from a bar. But a local activation is limiting to drive national action, so we broadened Uber’s brand experience and introduced the “Late Night Hero” Compliment badge. This allowed late night riders to thank all drivers giving safe rides and through this compliment, donate $1 to MADD.

The core of the idea was to create an action that enabled Uber to come face-to-face with the real issue of impaired driving. We wanted to target bar patrons during party-filled December with our powerful message.

Following the free-ride activation, digital videos that recapped the experience were placed placed on YouTube and Facebook extended reach beyond just the driving experience itself.

Uber and MADD leveraged their database of members, riders and drivers to share the message through Email, Web landing pages, In-App cards and digital screens at the Uber Driver Support Centre. A joint press release with MADD was shared with trade. Finally, the Uber App was used as the donation vehicle via the Compliment Badge.

By taking a disruptive stance consistent with Uber’s brand, the campaign gave people a new reason not to drive while impaired. Uber Mom efforts reached 1.8 million Canadians, generated 11.5 million earned media impressions. Additional Uber In App Card messaging reached 1.5 million monthly active riders and 50 thousand monthly active drivers. Post-campaign brand lift studies showed our Uber Moms reached the intended audiences, with a 14pt lift in recall with the targeted 35-44 demographic. Through the “Late Night Hero” compliments on the app, we successfully reached our $100,000 MADD donation goal in 19 days, 37% ahead of target.