Attention, humour, and creativity: Uber's Lucinda Barlow on elevating marketing for the future

Ahead of her appearance at the ADMA Global Forum this month, Lucinda Barlow, Senior Director, Head of International Marketing, shares her insights on the power of humour in brand-led growth, scaling global platforms with local relevance, and how the fundamentals of marketing will still hold true in an AI world.

Tell us a little about yourself and your current role?

I lead international marketing for Uber, bringing Uber’s mobility services and Uber Eats to 60 markets in APAC, EMEA and LATAM and driving brand-led growth. I’ve spent my career as a creative champion within consumer technology companies, working at the nexus of art and science. 

What is one thing marketers should do to ‘Elevate for the Future’? (This year’s Global Forum theme is “Elevate for the Future”) 

Remember that even in our changing future the basic tenets of marketing remain constant - invest in long-term brand building, stay consistent, keep it simple, and harness the exponential impact that bold creativity can have on your business. These foundational principles are the bedrock of successful marketing, providing stability amidst the chaos of new trends and technologies.

It's easy to get distracted by the latest innovations, whether it’s AI or the newest social media platform. But while these tools can enhance our strategies, they should never overshadow the enduring truths of our craft. Consistency builds trust, simplicity cuts through the noise, and bold creativity captivates and inspires.

What was the biggest professional challenge you faced this past year and how did you overcome it? 

When I took on an international remit a year ago, my goal was ambitious: I wanted to bring more scale for efficiency and more consistency for effectiveness across our markets, without compromising local relevance or holding any market back from growth. 

This is a constant balance but scaling successful global platforms like “Get Almost Almost Anything” allowed us to achieve efficiencies and consistency in our communications. Paired with consistent, but localised executions in various regions, we were able to ensure that our message was both universally strong and locally relevant.

How do you continue to upskill or further your own development and career?

The most fun part of my job is learning from the diversity of cultures and the challenges that we tackle around the world. We have formal training with our own internal Marketing Academy, we form sprint teams of marketers around the world to tackle hard problems, and I set expectations across our global team to share everything we’re learning - successes, failures, pilots and capabilities - to help all teams accelerate their evolution and impact. 

I also do some form of formal personal learning and development every quarter. I’m thrilled to be part of the Marketing Academy APAC Fellowship this year. And I’ll dabble in any other personal development which sparks my curiosity - from art to acting to AI. 

What’s something that you think hasn’t gotten enough attention over the past year, that we should all be thinking about?

What does attention look like when all media is algorithmically programmed?  Attention itself has been a hot topic, but much of the conversation has focused on diagnosing the current issues of media fragmentation. The challenge of capturing attention is only going to get harder. 

As agencies and marketers are reliant on AI for planning, optimisation and content generation, will we see more derivative ideas driving less cut-through and impact? There is a vital role for media and creative strategic agencies to work even closer together to build original, and human ideas for brand fame in an automated world. 

Can you give us a teaser for your session at Global Forum? What’s one thing you hope the audience takes away from your talk?

That we, as marketers, shouldn't take ourselves so seriously! 

My session is titled “Learning to laugh at ourselves”. There’s a lot of power in being humble about your brand’s small role in people’s lives. We should recognise that providing light relief via humour is a better gift for your consumers than virtue, and it can reap outsized commercial results. In my session, I’ll dive into Uber’s history in self deprecating humour and share some hopefully funny insights about how we’ve used humour in our campaigns around the world. 

Can you share your perspective on the importance of brand marketing in today’s competitive landscape?

Brands built on relentless consistency and a growing customer base are more vital than ever in today’s competitive and fragmented landscape. People are creatures of habit and brands with high recognition and a trusted value proposition can help people make fewer decisions in their busy lives.  

What are the key elements that make brand marketing essential for a company like Uber?

The most important thing is simply showing up! We need to be top of mind when people are going places or needing food and groceries. We’re expanding our proposition in our two categories of personal mobility and on-demand delivery. We need consistency in tone of voice, message and distinctive brand assets. And we need to deliver on the reliability in our service that our consumers expect from Uber and Uber Eats.

How do you balance brand marketing with performance marketing at Uber? Any advice for marketers who may struggle to do so?

Both are vital for growth. The marketing industry, probably influenced by big tech, pivoted too far to performance marketing over the last few years, and it’s good to see the long-term power of brand to drive outsized growth almost universally recognised now. 

You’ve led a number of Uber’s successful campaigns, such as “Tonight I’ll Be Eating...” and “Get Almost Anything”. Can you give us a run down of your process when it comes to developing these platforms? How did they get off the ground?

These platforms are a great example of the power of brand as a business growth strategy.  Both were born from Australia as products of our creative partnership with Special and both have been scaled and localised to many markets around the world.  Their strength lies in being damn good entertainment for our audience, in consistency with our tone of voice and brand codes, and in driving attention through breaking category codes and investing for impact.  Uber Eats was the fourth brand to enter the category but “Tonight I'll be eating” catapulted our growth by building fame for selection and changing people's beliefs that takeaway was just for pizza and Chinese food. When we needed to expand the meaning of Uber Eats to our growing on-demand grocery and retail offering, we kept as much consistency as possible and launched “Get Almost Almost Anything”. 

It's a self-deprecating brand platform that acknowledges we don't actually get everything but we're on our way. It's been amazing to work with talent who get the vision and who are also prepared to have a laugh at themselves - like Tom Felton whose desire to bring back magic goes awry. 

Lucinda Barlow will be speaking at ADMA Global Forum which takes place on August 20 in Sydney. She will be appearing alongside a host of world class thinkers including Professor Scott Galloway, Mark Ritson and Tom Goodwin and senior CMOs including Nine’s Liana Dubois, IAG’s Michelle Klein and Joanna Robinson of The Iconic. See the full lineup and get tickets here.

Find out more