Uber Japan turns Reichi's rap into a taxi-button tutorial
Uber uses rapper Reichi's original track to show Japanese Eats users how to book taxis, addressing a little-known feature in an existing app.
A taxi button is not the most obvious subject for a rap track. But Uber Japan has handed that tiny piece of interface design to Osaka-born rapper Reichi, turning the act of switching from a food order to a ride into a chorus.
Her new song, Switch Up, is the soundtrack to Uber's latest "Eater 2 Rider" campaign. In an official announcement, Uber says its problem is not necessarily that people dislike booking taxis on a phone. Many Uber Eats users simply do not know they can request one from the app they already open to order dinner.
Table of contents
Jump to each section:
- Reichi makes the app switch sound like a chorus
- Why Uber wants Eats users to think Taxi
- The music video turns ordinary errands into a track
- What marketers can learn from Switch Up
Reichi makes the app switch sound like a chorus
Reichi wrote the beat and lyrics for Switch Up herself, rather than stepping in to sing an existing advertising jingle. That matters because the campaign puts a working musician's creative format around a simple product instruction: move from Eats to Taxi in one app.
The song's Japanese hook translates to "From Eats to Taxi, switching is a breeze." Its repetitions are deliberately easy to recall, but the subject remains unusually practical for a rap track. The action being celebrated is not a new phone or a dramatic night out. It is finding a button that was already there.
Reichi, born in Osaka in 2000, began rapping in 2016 and made her major-label debut in 2018. Uber's campaign material says she uses both its delivery and mobility services in her own routine, including trips to the studio. That is a more grounded connection than asking a musician to pose next to a product they would otherwise never use.
The full music video makes the handoff between services visible. Reichi and her friends move from home to the sauna, studio and nightclub, ordering food and requesting a taxi at different points. The feature demonstration becomes part of the story instead of interrupting it.
Why Uber wants Eats users to think Taxi
Uber has a specific awareness problem to solve. In its September 2026 survey of 6,072 Uber Eats users in Japan, about 40% said they did not know taxis could be requested through the Eats app. The company's internal September data also found that roughly one in three first-time Uber Taxi users in Japan started through Uber Eats.
Those figures describe different populations and are not evidence that the new campaign has already changed behavior. Together, though, they explain why Uber is advertising an existing feature instead of introducing a separate download. The audience has already formed one habit, and the company wants to extend it to another occasion.
The campaign is the third installment of "Eater 2 Rider", developed with creative agency Special. It also includes a limited introductory offer of 99% off the first two eligible Uber Taxi or Uber Premium rides booked through Uber Eats, subject to conditions and a per-ride cap. The offer gives people a practical reason to try the feature after seeing the video.
Uber Japan has recently used a different entertainment route to promote taxi trips, putting comedian Hollywood Zakoshisyoh's exaggerated reactions at the center of a discount campaign. Switch Up is a separate effort: rather than make the price the whole joke, it puts a product behavior into a musician's rhythm.
The music video turns ordinary errands into a track
Directed by Takuto Shimpo through production company ROBOT, the 70-second film cuts between everyday locations and night-time scenes. A food order at home flows into a taxi journey and then the next destination, letting the visuals demonstrate what the lyric is talking about.
The campaign also comes in shorter 15-second and 30-second versions. Uber plans to use YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X and Spotify, plus placements inside Uber Eats, with media focused on Kanto and Kansai. The wider campaign runs from November 4 through December 15, 2026.
Norio Ichikawa, executive creative director at Special, summed up the assignment this way: "The creative challenge was making that worth listening to." In this case, the ad does not ask audiences to remember a list of features. It asks them to remember a melody associated with one action.
For viewers already familiar with Reichi's music, that format gives the campaign a reason to exist beyond the app's navigation. For people who do not know her work, the video still makes the product idea legible without any prior knowledge of the artist.
What marketers can learn from Switch Up
The interesting part of Switch Up is how an overlooked interface feature becomes a piece of entertainment. A small action that would be dull in a screen recording is made more memorable through an artist's own creative language.
- Use an established habit as the starting point. Uber is talking to people who already know Eats, rather than treating the taxi service as a completely new app to learn. The shift being requested is deliberately small.
- Give the creator room to make the message their own. Reichi wrote the track, which makes the product phrase part of an original song rather than a line inserted into somebody else's performance.
- Keep the product visible inside the entertainment. The video includes the actual act of switching services. Without that connection, a catchy track might build attention without helping anyone find the taxi option.
- Separate awareness from outcomes. Uber has disclosed the size of the knowledge gap, but not whether this music campaign increases first-time rides or repeat bookings. The result remains to be seen.
The larger point is not that every app needs a rap song. It is that product education has to compete with everything else people choose to watch, hear and share. A memorable tune can make one functional detail easier to recall.
Japan's taxi market also gives the message a useful tension. Hailing a car on the street remains familiar, so switching to an app is not simply a question of knowing a service exists. Uber has to give people a reason to change their routine.
For brands working with musicians, the standard worth watching is whether the collaboration changes how the audience understands the product. Switch Up gives that question a concrete test: after hearing the track, will more Eats users actually notice the Taxi button?
