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DUBAI: Global ride-hailing company Uber has launched an advertising unit to enable brands to market within Uber’s app — even within Uber.
Uber’s advertising division was launched earlier this year under the leadership of advertising veteran Mark Grether, who worked at Amazon Advertising as CEO of online advertising firm Sizmek and co-founder of media agency Xaxis.
Uber also rolled out “journey ads,” which it described as “an engaging way for brands to connect with consumers throughout the ride.”
This means that Uber riders will now receive ads in the app while they are waiting for a driver, or even when they open the app to track their journey.
Uber will use first-party data to help brands reach its 122 million monthly active users. Bombing of ads will at least be limited to a single advertiser, meaning users will see ads from the same brand repeatedly before and during their trip.
Preliminary tests showed that users were exposed to ad content for about two minutes, which improved brand performance by a factor of 2 to 6 compared to other benchmarks.
“We have valuable, buying-minded consumers around the world who, as part of our core business, tell us where they want to go and what they want to get,” Grether said.
Uber will also enable ads in Uber Eats at different stages of the food ordering process — from opening the app to checking out.
Brands can place ads on the Uber Eats homepage, pay for sponsored listings, advertise specific items in their own menus, and even post-checkout ads when users check frequently to track their food.
Uber’s list of ad formats is long. Brands can send sponsored emails to Uber and Uber Eats’ user databases; or advertise via digital out-of-home advertising on Uber cars in “top U.S. cities,” which enables brands to target ads based on location and time of day.
The company also said in a statement that it is also piloting in-car tablet devices at “strategic partners” in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“While these consumers are making a purchasing decision and waiting for their destination or delivery, we can enable them to engage with information from brands relevant to their buying journey,” Grether said.
“There were 1.87 billion trips in the last quarter, which means we can connect advertisers with consumers an average of five times a month, including rides and deliveries,” he added.
Grether told the Wall Street Journal that users can opt out of advertising if that seems overwhelming.
However, this will likely mean more expensive rides for consumers, since according to Business Insider, he said the ads will ultimately make rides cheaper.
More than 40 brands, including NBCUniversal, Heineken and United Artists Releasing, have partnered with Uber to run Journey Ads, the company said.
The move comes after Lyft, Uber’s main rival in Western markets, announced in August that it would be launching its own advertising unit.
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