Super Bowl LVIII: Uber Eats Expands its NFL Partnership, Pops up a Grocery Store for Fans

“I am and have always been a very firm believer in the power of experiential marketing and being able to really connect your brand with a consumer in a way that’s very meaningful to them.”

–Molly Spychalski, Head of Brand Partnership Marketing, Uber

A secret second room was hidden behind an installation of freezers and refrigerators.

At the Super Bowl LVIII Experience, football fans had the chance to test their athletic skills, peruse memorabilia and meet NFL superstars. Uber Eats, however, brought app-based deliveries to life with the Get Almost Almost Anything Shop on the show floor of Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay South Convention Center. The free-standing, multiroom grocery store demonstrated the array of items that can be delivered (read: not just takeout), from light bulbs to chips and salsa.

Having expanded its four-year sponsorship with the NFL this year, as its official on-demand delivery partner and official rideshare partner, Uber wanted to create “something special and meaningful for fans” for its first activation at the Super Bowl Experience and get users to think about the Uber Eats app in a new way, according to Molly Spychalski, head of brand partnership marketing at Uber.

“If you could imagine what Uber Eats looks like in real life, that is what this shop is,” Spychalski told EM ahead of the event. “Everything about it is designed to put a smile on the fan’s face, like most of the products that you see are made-up and have fun, punny football-related or Super Bowl-related names.”

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The Get Almost Almost Anything Shop combined football and fruit and veggie imagery on the exterior. Surrounding walls featured brick accents, a “Greetings from Super Bowl LVIII” mural, a flower stand, a payphone, a newspaper box with The Daily Delivery and a bike with an Uber Eats delivery bag hooked on the back.

Consumers had to download the Uber Eats app while in line to place an order of select items that would then be ready for pickup at the end of the store walkthrough. A geofence ensured that app users were only able to order from the Get Almost Almost Anything Shop, blocking out nearby restaurants or stores.

Through glass doors, attendees stepped into a room full of produce stands and shelves of fake wine bottles, sodas, chips and boxes. With the push of a button on a wall of canned goods, a green-gloved hand popped out from a trap door and gave out a Starry can, a bag of Cheetos and avocado keychains. Adding to the freebies collected in their green grocery basket, participants could pick up a cooling eye mask with gel beads from inside an ice chest.

Products featured in the shop were inspired by the top items ordered in Las Vegas on Uber Eats, like Gatorade Cool Blue.

At the end of a line of freezer and refrigerator displays containing ice cream, eggs and milk, a pair of doors opened to reveal the second room. Giant versions of fries, Starry soda, a toothbrush, floss, steaks and an apple created a dynamic photo op inside a mirrored, green-illuminated tunnel.

The final space featured stacks of soda boxes, bouquets, shelves of household products, banana racks and a checkout area where two brand ambassadors outfitted in Uber Eats jumpsuits passed out the app orders to the shop’s “customers.” Additionally, throughout the pop-up store’s open hours from Feb. 7 to 10, a couple of NFL players stopped in for meet-and-greets.

The products included in the shop were inspired by the top items ordered in Las Vegas on Uber Eats. For instance, Gatorade’s cool blue flavor displayed in the shop’s fridge is the No. 1 sports drink ordered in Vegas.

Following a successful first showing at the Super Bowl Experience, Spychalski said Uber intends to activate at the event in the future.

“Uber Eats is here for the fan,” she said. “It’s about figuring out what the right way in is for you and always marrying what is unique to your brand with the audience that you are engaging with and why they are there. If you can put those two together, that’s really where you’re getting the magic.” Agencies: David Stark Design and Production, experiential; LaFORCE, p.r.

Take Spin Through the Get Almost Anything Shop:

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