Uber takes on Ola: Woos consumers through personal service themed TV ads

Despite facing a major backlash from customers and its employees at a global level, Uber is aggressively marketing itself to Indian customers, positioning its service as a personal chauffeur driven car.

Uber India has launched a new campaign using 'Apnapan' or togetherness as its core theme. Unlike its previous marketing efforts that were largely done on digital media, Uber has now taken to television as it looks to expand its base of customers and take on rival Ola.

"The Uber experience is as good as having your own car, and sometimes even better. And this experience is something we think everyone should enjoy. So we've attempted to capture the Uber way of life through a simple thought around Apnapan," said Pallavi Chakravarti, executive creative director at Taproot Dentsu, the agency behind the new Uber campaign.

Based on real stories narrated by drivers and riders on its platform, Uber says the public will be able to closely relate to the new advertisements. The point the company will try to drive home is "Isey Apni Hi Gaadi Samjho" - think of it as your own car - which ties in with Uber's goal of replacing car ownership.

While Uber has largely been focused on capturing audiences on the Internet and through a few offline hoardings, its rival Ola has used all major mediums for quite some time now. With the new channel, Uber will follow its rival to target users on digital, television and radio. The TVC and radio ad will air in multiple languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.

Recently Uber announced that it had completed 500 million rides in India over the past four years, and had over five million active riders on its platform on a weekly basis. While the company claimed its service grew by over 250 per cent in the past year, market watchers have pointed out that the ride hailing industry de grew by around 5 per cent since the start of 2017.

As both Uber and Ola look to increase fares and cut driver incentives, the number of customers using their platforms has seen a drop. Moreover, the issue has been compounded due to a shortage of drivers who went off the platforms in protest over reduced earnings, causing longer wait times that dissuaded customers from using them.

Through the new campaign, Uber will look to tap new users while also reinforcing the idea that hailing a cab is an everyday ritual for everyone, rather than just reserved for occasions for a select group of people.

"At our scale, there are millions of amazing stories that we hear each week - stories of heart-warming experiences that take place between riders and driver-partners across the country. It's these stories that keep people coming back to ride and drive with us," said Sanjay Gupta, head of marketing at Uber India.