The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2026
Uber Eats lets fans build their own Super Bowl ad in-app — Media Grand Prix
Fans cut their own Uber Eats Super Bowl ad from 1,000+ celebrity clips inside the app, unlocking deals — 3.7M visits, best-ever sales.
Uber Eats (Uber)
What it had to solve
Uber Eats wanted to extend its Super Bowl LX investment beyond one expensive 60-second broadcast. Audiences now watch with a second screen in hand, so the brand needed a way to turn passive viewers into participants — and drive app engagement and sales.
How it works
For Super Bowl LX, Uber Eats faced the oldest problem in advertising: a 60-second slot on the most expensive broadcast day of the year, watched by people holding second screens. Instead of buying more reach, it decided to make the commercial itself something fans could build.
Building on two years of its 'Football Is For Food' conspiracy platform — Matthew McConaughey as a theorist convinced football was invented to sell food — the brand opened a world-first in-app 'restaurant' where fans assembled their own Super Bowl ad. Mixing more than 1,000 content pieces drawn from 36 hours of unaired celebrity footage, each user's selection was rendered into a personalised film and paired with a deal, while the 60-second TV spot seeded the mystery.
The mechanics made participation the media plan: 16.5 million seconds of fan-made films, 3.7 million new app visits, a 38% offer-redemption rate (10 times higher than typical deals) and Uber Eats' best-ever Super Bowl sales, up an estimated $36 million. The Cannes jury called it modern marketing at its most transformative, and awarded it the 2026 Media Lions Grand Prix.
Why it lands
- It treated the Super Bowl buy not as a broadcast moment but as raw material users could re-cut themselves.
- Every creative choice — clip, scene, joke — was wired to commerce: each selection unlocked a deal, so engagement converted directly into sales.
- It captured the second screen precisely when competitors were paying to shout into it, moving attention from TV to the app.
- One 60-second spot seeded a platform with 36 hours of content, so a single ad buy produced millions of seconds of user-made films.
What it did
The 60-second spot became 16.5 million seconds of fan-made and shared films; Uber Eats gained 3.7 million new app visits, a 38% offer-redemption rate (10x typical) and its best-ever Super Bowl sales, up an estimated $36 million. It won the 2026 Cannes Lions Media Grand Prix.
What you can take
When the ad slot gets too expensive, don't buy more reach — turn the format into a participatory product. If participation unlocks a deal, every viewer becomes media and a customer at once.
Since then
The win capped a two-year evolution of the 'Football Is For Food' platform, and the in-app builder kept paying out after game day: D&AD's archive records it as a world-first in-app restaurant, and Uber Eats reported $290 million in earned media value on top of record sales. At Cannes Lions 2026 the campaign took the Media Grand Prix, and it was also recognised at The One Show and D&AD.
Sources
- Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity announces Lion winners on day three
- Cannes Lions 2026 Grand Prix Winners in Creative Data, Direct, Media, PR, and Social & Creator
- Uber Eats Triumphs on Day 3 of Cannes Lions 2026 Among 5 Grand Prix Winners
- Uber Eats earned Cannes' top media honor with an interactive ad strategy
- Build Your Own Super Bowl Commercial
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