Uber Eats' Georgie Jeffreys turned a marketing problem into a Super Bowl hit

Georgie Jeffreys realized she had a problem as she prepared to promote Uber Eats’ service expansion in its 2022 Super Bowl ad: Consumers had trouble grasping the concept that a platform called “Uber Eats” was now also delivering non-food items such as toilet paper.

“When we hear consumer problems from consumers … that sparks for us an opportunity,” said Jeffreys, 34, head of marketing at Uber Eats, US & Canada. “Not only is it a problem to solve but it also quite lends itself to a creative idea.”

That idea lent itself to a wildly successful, celebrity-packed campaign created with Special Group US that poked fun at the disconnect between Uber Eats’ name and its new businesses.

“When you actually think about the celebrity as a creative lever,” rather than a brand ambassador, “for the message and the idea, we certainly found that we were able to get to much richer work,” Jeffreys said. 

Jeffreys also spearheaded the “Tonight I’ll Be Eating” campaign, starring unexpected celebrity pairs such as Elton John and Lil Nas X, as well as an Uber One campaign, starring Tracy Morgan and Sarah Silverman, that dropped in August.

The Australian native joined Uber Eats in Australia in 2015, as the company's marketing department was still taking shape. “And I was able to play a role in building that from the ground up,” Jeffreys said. She moved into her current role in June 2020. 

If you could have dinner with one person, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

If I am optimizing for the quality of conversation at dinner I think it would be [New York Times journalist] Michael Barbaro. If I’m optimizing for proximity to the icon, it would be the queen and her corgis. 

What are the top two social media sites you use on a regular basis?

TikTok and Instagram. However—and this is just a personal opinion—if I didn’t work in marketing and advertising, TikTok would be the first app that I delete from my phone. 

What’s currently on your bedside reading list?

I am actually floating between two different books at the moment, depending on what mood I am in every night. One is “Leonardo da Vinci,” the biography by Walter Isaacson, and the second is “American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins. 

What was the last show you binge-watched?

“The Bureau,’ which is a French sci thriller, and I highly recommend it.  

At what age do you hope to retire?

I’m about to say something that I’m sure everybody under 40 still says, which is, I don’t know if I want to retire. But maybe ask me when I am 50 and I might have a different answer.