Tesco and Uber Eats drop the weekly shop from a billboard into a delivery bag

Key Takeaways

• Tesco and Uber Eats have launched a UK campaign promoting grocery delivery through their new partnership.

• A special-build billboard shows a Tesco poster slipping out of its frame and into an oversized Uber Eats bag.

• The idea runs across large-format digital billboards and cover wraps on commuter publications.

• The campaign was created by Mother, with media by PHD and the special build produced by Grand Visual.

Anyone who has ever carried a heavy bag of shopping home knows the moment of panic when the handles start to stretch and something threatens to escape. Tesco's latest billboard captures that feeling perfectly, except this time nobody needs to catch the falling groceries themselves. Instead, there is a delivery rider's bag waiting underneath.

To launch its new grocery delivery partnership with Uber Eats, Tesco has put up a billboard that looks like it's sliding right out of its frame. The shopping on the poster is tumbling out, straight into a giant green Uber Eats bag waiting underneath. It's a simple, silly idea, and you get the whole message in the second it takes to walk past.

The partnership means shoppers can now order their Tesco shop through the Uber Eats app, with deliveries coming from local stores in as little as 20 minutes. For a lot of people, Uber Eats is still the app they open for a Friday night takeaway rather than a pint of milk, so Tesco needs a campaign that shifts that habit, and a billboard that physically drops the weekly shop into an Uber Eats bag does exactly that.

The billboard is a special build produced by Grand Visual. It's backed by large-format digital billboards across the UK and wraps on the covers of commuter publications. Mother created the campaign whilst PHD handled the media.

It's the public face of a partnership that went live in August. Tesco's Whoosh rapid delivery service, launched in 2021, runs from around 1,800 stores. Around 1.5 million customers use it, and its sales grew by 51% last year. For the first time, shoppers ordering through Uber Eats can get Clubcard Prices and collect Clubcard points too.

Tesco UK CEO Ashwin Prasad said Whoosh "has transformed the way millions of customers shop with Tesco." He added that partnering with Uber Eats makes it "even easier for more customers to shop with Tesco in the way that suits them best."

The pair have already been busy together. Before the billboard went up, they launched Doorbell Drops, a week of half-price hosting essentials on Uber Eats for anyone caught out by surprise visitors. Uber Eats UK General Manager Merve Basci said the "fear of being unprepared" drives many people "to hide rather than host." Tesco Customer Director Suzanne Quinn said the brand is "always looking for little helps that make life easier."

Although the OOH looks good, the campaign lands at a slightly awkward moment for the partnership. Until this summer, Tesco was the only big supermarket that didn't sell through apps like Uber Eats and Deliveroo. Instead, all of its rapid deliveries went through its own service, Whoosh. Joining the apps opened Tesco up to millions more shoppers, but it also means far more orders are being picked by hand in store, and according to The Grocer, some staff are struggling to keep up.

Workers posting on Reddit say that during some shifts, orders arrive every few minutes, often with more than 30 items each. One described the new partnerships as "genuinely destroying the store". Others said the picking pulls them off the tills and leaves shelves only half-filled, and that some of them are "literally sacrificing their breaks" to get through it all.

It's a reminder that however effortless the billboard makes it look, every one of those orders still has to be picked and packed by someone in store. Tesco says it's aware of the pressure, telling The Grocer it is "increasing our investment in our stores and colleagues, with additional hours and a dedicated support team in place to help stores manage demand."

Why The PR Insider loves it

We love a billboard that makes a fairly practical partnership between a supermarket and an app feel far more playful than it has any right to. Much like Apple TV's Widow's Bay billboard touring Cape Cod, it's the kind of outdoor idea that people will stop in the street to photograph and share, giving Tesco a second life for the campaign online long after they've walked past it. The timing does make it a slightly bittersweet one for us, though, because a campaign this eye-catching is designed to bring in even more orders, and we'd love to see Tesco put as much care into supporting the staff picking and packing those bags as it has clearly put into making the whole thing look effortless.

SOURCES

[1] Famous Campaigns

[2] Tesco

[3] The Grocer