Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
We knew it was coming but it doesn’t make it right and like every other “let’s stick a screen on a roof rack on a ride-share vehicle great idea” it is not something that we think will work.
Uber has been testing the idea of rooftop ads on its ride sharing fleet with Cargo for a little while now but this latest announcement at least sees them (Uber) do a deal with a business that actually knows something about digital out of home and indeed AdTECH.
We are told that during the three-city pilot program in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix, Uber will offer drivers USD 300 to install the vehicle-topper and an additional USD 100 each week they drive more than 20 hours.
Once the program is up and running, drivers will be paid based on how many hours they drive. The displays will show eight-second still or video ads, based on location and time of day.
Advertising will be overseen by a new Uber business unit called Uber OOH Powered by Adomni.
We repeat what we have written elsewhere. There may be hundreds of thousands of ride share drivers but you cannot build a business when the driver pool churns every few months and the drivers who do stick with it don’t actually spend a ton of time on the road (20 hours is nothing compared to the average licensed taxi cab).
February 25th, 2020 at 13:38 @609
Hi there,
Full disclosure – I am the CEO of Adomni and the guy that signed the deal with Uber to take the new Uber OOH ad network to market.
Here is a little more color on this topic:
1. For this new ad channel business to be successful, we knew that it first needed scale (vehicles, impressions, market coverage). There is no one in the world better equipped to provide the scale than Uber themselves.
2. The participating vehicles needed to be reliable. By working with Uber directly, we are hand-picking the drivers who can participate in the program. Only Uber Pro drivers can participate, which means that if you do not drive at least 40 hours per week and have a history of doing that, you are likely not eligible.
3. To sell this medium, you need more than just a manual sales team. By connecting the inventory to programmatic DOOH platforms (like Adomni) as well as programmatic digital selling platforms (like Amobee and Zeta Global), we are able to create multiple lanes of inbound revenue.
4. You need great technology to pull this off. We have been building and refining our mobile vehicle ad tech since 2016. It is not the same setup as selling digital billboards. Moving vehicles, with dynamic routes, that turn on/off unexpectedly, bring a slew of challenges. We have mastered this over the years.
So that’s my take on this.
If we did not see a massive opportunity with Uber, we would not be dedicating the substantial amount of time and investment to make this a success. Time will tell, but we cannot be any more bullish than we are now.
Onwards.