Special Group and Uber Eats takes ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ platform to US and Canada with new TV spots featuring Mark Hamill and Patrick Stewart
Special Group Australia has launched Uber Eats’ ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ brand platform in the United States and Canada, debuting with a showdown between iconic megastars Mark Hamill and Patrick Stewart.
The launch of ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ in the US and Canada follows its profound success in Australia, Taiwan and Japan. The recent iteration of ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ featuring global superstar Kim Kardashian-West and renowned Australian character Sharon Strezlecki from Kath & Kim was widely celebrated and managed accolades from all over the world.
Special Group Australia and Uber Eats have been recognised globally for their work, including at D&AD, Cannes Lions, Spikes Asia, LIA, AWARD Awards and Campaign Brief.
With the help of Uber Eats’ Australian Open Ambush campaign, Special Group was also the most awarded Australian agency at last year’s Cannes Lions.
To launch the campaign in the US and Canada, Special Group Australia has created a showdown of two movie icons, embodying one of the longest running cultural debates of all time – which beloved franchise is better. The pair even battle over how to say tomato.
In a series of two other 15 second spots Mark Hamill and Patrick Stewart are also seen competing against each other for the better Uber Eats meal, while simultaneously trying to beat each other at Air Hockey and Connect Four.
The campaign will run in the US and Canada across TV, online, radio, CRM, out of home and social.
Says Cade Heyde, founding partner, Special Group Australia: “The ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ brand platform has had immense success in this market as well as across Asia Pacific. Expanding the platform to the other side of the world is a real honour and an incredibly proud moment for our agency. We couldn’t be more thrilled to share this loved campaign with the US.”
Says Georgie Jeffreys, head of marketing for the US & Canada at Uber Eats: “I’m thrilled to bring our ‘Tonight, I’ll be eating…’ (TIBE) platform to the US and Canada. It was a natural progression since TIBE has proven to be a highly effective advertising campaign for Uber Eats. It has helped drive record levels of customer penetration and brand affinity in the five markets in which it’s now live, and we’re excited to continue to expand the franchise with this latest launch.”
Says Tom Martin and Julian Schreiber, joint CCOs and partners at Special Group: “We’re very proud ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ has become such a cultural phenomenon in Australia and is being taken to the US and Canada. Bringing together two iconic space legends who’s appeal crosses generations feels like the right way to introduce ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ to the US’. It is not often Australian creative work travels to the other side of the world, and we are extremely excited to watch this platform grow.”
SPECIAL GROUP AUSTRALIA
Lindsey Evans: Founding Partner
Cade Heyde: Founding Partner
Julian Schreiber: CCO & Partner
Tom Martin: CCO & Partner
Rebecca Stambanis: Strategy Director & Founding Partner – Melbourne
Jon Marshall: Creative Director
Stuart Brown: Creative Director
Caitlin Miller: Business Director
Will Sealey: Business Director
Esther Perls: Producer
Eileen Cosgrove-Moloney: Team Lead
Emily Stewart: Casting Director
Lachlan Stewart: Social Lead
Jesse Sinkiewicz: Business Affairs
UBER EATS
Danielle Trivisonno Hawley: Global Executive Creative Director
Georgie Jeffreys: Head of Marketing, US & Canada
Lauren Hussey: Senior Marketing Manager
Natalie Purbrick: Creative Director
Jessica Van Rooyen: Marketing Manager
Otto Linwood III: Creative Production Manager
Lexi Levin: Consumer Communications Manager
Rashad Suarez: Business Affairs Manager
Gracie Childress: Media Manager
SMUGGLER
Brian Carmody: Owner
Guy Shelmerdine: Director
Alison Junzman: EP
Donald Taylor: Producer
Edu Grau: DP
CARTEL EDIT
Andy McGraw: Editor
Matt Beradi: Jr. Editor
Roy Herbert: Assistant Editor
Greer Bratschie: Prodcuer
MPC
Dmitri Zola: Colorist
Diane Valera: Producer
PARLIAMENT VFX
Phil Crowe: CC & Founder
Enca Kaul: Head of Prodution
SINGING SERPENT
Glen Galloway: Owner/ Composer / Sound Design
ELEVEN SOUND
Jordan Metzler: Audio Mixer
Melissa Elson Brewer: Producer
Marco Tornillo: Assistant Mixer
38 Comments
Brilliant. A great advertising platform that just keeps giving. A gift for all of us. Well done.
Best campaign to come out of ANZ in the last 5 years.
Let’s use celebrities!
So good to see this exported. Well done guys; that’s a massive effort.
Special are going from strength to strength. Congrats to Jules, Tom, Cade and Linds.
Great to see this campaign going abroad. It’s a rare example of brand salience and consistency done well. .
Shame it’s not as funny as the local versions.
Super simple, super well done. Nice.
can someone explain the “tonight, i’ll be eating…” thing? It’s just celebrities ordering food. Doesn’t stand out to me at all.
Remember when this campaign first came out, and 99% of the comments on this blog shat on it? Said that Special Group should be ashamed and everyone who worked on it should lose their jobs? This is why most creatives aren’t good business people. Campaign idea is a cracker, proves it can be executed a million different ways and worked like crazy from day one – even with the original ads. If you have to see an idea work before you can tell it’s good, then you have no capability of being a decent CD, or let’s face it, a decent creative with any sort of vision or imagination.
Also, this is excellent. A very Mark Hamill script.
Actually, creatives shat on it because the campaign can’t be executed a million different ways. Those who work in creative departments would have recognised this from the start. It literally only works when you pay a celebrity a butt-load of cash. No massive investment, no ad. Look at the comments in the social posts. Everyone digging the free entertainment but no one digging uber eats. At least the Menu log ads that feature snoop hero the brand.
Amazing, fantastic and very Special.
Why haven’t these 2 been used together before, very funny. Well done.
Has always reminded me of this flashback
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-z5T8meC84
Kudos. Very, very well done.
Mr Cummins summed it up perfectly.
This made me genuinely happy – for all sorts of reasons.
Tom, Jules and crew, a huge achievement. Congrats.
Tonight I’ll be eating paying a celebrity instead of bothering to be creative, and a pathetic attempt at Joss Whedon dialogue on the side.
This is great work, what an export. Well done.
Easy on mate, are you that pathetic? – credit where it’s due. Its the celebs they roll out each time that makes it better and better.
I reckon it’s great, Special should be so proud of themselves – not many campaigns from down under leave our shores and
grace the world. Good on you guys, look forward to the next round.
This campaign / platform makes me love this brand – genuinely warm, funny and entertaining. Hats off SG.
This could have been so much better.
Same with all the Uber Eats work other than Kim K which was on point.
I must admit, I have really never gotten this campaign or why people seem to love it so much. But hey, what do I know.
And you know what, my subjective feelings aside I know how hard it is to sell work out of AU into the US. At the very least you usually have a dozen American agencies doing all they can to torpedo anything that they haven’t thought of, and that’s before you start having to deal with US clients.
So, for the sheer force of will it must have taken to push this through, bloody good work. And it’s great for all of us when AU works gets exported to the global stage.
These guys have never been on-screen foes, so I’m confused as to why we are seeing them pitted against each other. James Earl Jones (the voice behind Darth Vader) would have made sense. Anyhoo, like the “tomatoes” gag!
They represent the two mass-market space franchises.
Star Something & Star Something-Else.
Was that really so difficult to comprehend?
How dare Special come up with a platform that doesn’t hide the fact that it’s selling something, is entertaining, uses celebs unashamedly to push product and is so effective it gets adopted globally!
Anyone criticizing this is either jealous, or has lost touch with what the purpose of advertising actually is.
Well done to all involved.
Couldn’t agree more.
Good advertising does not have to make perfect sense. In fact, it is often better if it doesn’t.
This is great, well done everyone.
Australian advertising serves up mediocrity most of the time and yet expects to get a pat on the back.
This is different.
This is great.
Are the Uber Eats ad memorable? Yeah.
Do they appeal to everyday Aussies? Yeah.
Are they effective? Yep.
Are they based on a big Idea? Nah.
Do they rely heavily on a celebratory? 100%.
Are they the pinnacle of creativity? Absolutely not.
Does it make me want to order from UberEats over all my other options? Nah, never.
I’ve never understood what the actual idea is for this campaign. Using famous people is not an idea.
I applaud Special for creating something that people know. But just like Bunnings ads, they are not the best creative but they work a treat and seem to be effective. Embrace what they are and do not try pass them as a big idea.
^^ More advertising people showing they are out of touch with the general public… the very people who consumes advertising.
Shock: the public doesn’t care about ‘ideas’… (only ad folk in an echo chamber care about ideas).
The average person will love this. Well done guys.
I think that’s the point @yeah,nah is making. Average people will love it. Award judges won’t.
…hold my pencil, @ ^^^.
Um, can’t hold something you don’t have, @ One Show 2020
Mmm, making sense is important, otherwise, whatever you’re making has a logic flaw, and that is often distracting. “Making sense” makes work, work harder. And lastly, “making sense” is important because people can relate to it easier, giving the story a reason for being. I’m guessing you’re one of those people who show work to a decent client and they say “I don’t get it, it doesn’t make sense” and you say, ” It’s better if it doesn’t” Good luck with that!
Tonight I’ll be sucking off borrowed interest.
Idea or no Idea. This campaign in my opinion is crap, however credit were credit is due for selling it to the US market.
I’m pretty sure this campaign was the most awarded Australian job at Cannes last year. Not to mention winning at every local show. But yeah….it’s just celebs.
Great work special.
Tonight i’ll be ordering an all-star cast to do the heavy lifting.