Taxi for R/GA: Uber parts ways on global social account after 10 months

News 26 Oct 2021 - 3 min read

Taxi for R/GA: Uber parts ways on global social account after 10 months

By Sam Buckingham-Jones - Senior Writer

Uber parts ways with R/GA global social account after less than a year

“They just couldn’t land social tone or voice,” a source close to the Uber-R/GA relationship said.

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Tags: Uber Uber eats R/GA Special Group MediaCom

Just 10 months after announcing it had appointed R/GA as its global social agency of record, Uber has informed R/GA it is parting ways, globally. “They just couldn’t land social tone or voice”, one source said. Now its social account is going to pitch, globally.

What you need to know:

Uber has given notice to its global social agency of record, R/GA, about 10 months after announcing it had won a global pitch.
Despite a powerful pitch, R/GA failed to deliver at the pace required for a global company like Uber, a source close to the relationship said.
Locally, the social and digital account is going to pitch – as it will in markets around the world. Media will be held globally by GroupM for the foreseeable future and will not be pitched in Australia.

Uber has parted ways with its global social agency of record, R/GA, just 10 months after signing a deal.

R/GA was officially appointed in January this year after a pitch concluded late 2020, taking control of, among other things, Uber’s $5 million social account in Australia.

R/GA was notified in the past two weeks.

A source close to the relationship, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agency didn’t keep up with Uber’s pace on social.

“They just couldn’t land social tone or voice,” the source said.

What they took to Uber “felt like TV”, the source said, suggesting the agency struggled with a global agency of record assignment.

After 10 months with R/GA, Uber is taking its social and digital accounts to pitch in most markets. In Australia, Hello Social is currently understood to be undertaking most of the work, having previously lost the business to R/GA.

R/GA said it had ongoing work with Uber. “In addition to having active work with Uber, we’re doing award-winning and business-building social media work for numerous global organisations clients, which recently brought home a Cannes Grand Prix,” said a spokesperson for the agency.

Other industry executives said any group will struggle with a consolidated social remit. One Australian senior digital agency exec said: “A global social strategy executed locally doesn’t work. They need different groups in different markets.”

Uber manages its Australian creative through Special Group, which developed its ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ campaign. Earlier this year, the campaign, which has been adopted by the company in markets around the world, recruited Simon Cowell as the fifth, grey, member of The Wiggles.

GroupM’s MediaCom holds Uber’s global media account, and despite some industry chatter, the account is unlikely to be in play locally any time soon as Uber is understood to be deepening its relationship with GroupM.

“Media will always be global,” the source close to the Uber and R/GA relationship said.

Uber declined to comment.