UBER - Uber launches Journey Ads division to drive ad business growth

Uber ( NYSE: UBER ) has launched Uber Journey Ads , a dedicated advertising division led by industry veteran Dr Mark Grether.

Uber Journey Ads will use first-party data and insights from Uber's mobility and delivery businesses and place brand content on the Uber and Uber Eats apps.

Over 40 marquee brands have already partnered with Uber to run Journey Ads. These include NBCUniversal, Heineken, and United Artists Releasing.

Journey Ads will include prominently placed sponsored listings across Uber Eats, with Uber claiming clients such as Shake Shack have already seen increased engagement, ROI and customer acquisition.

It also includes sponsored emails to Uber and Uber Eats consumers, homepage billboards, post-checkout ads, storefront ads, menu ads and digital out-of-home car top ads, along with a tablet advertising pilot.

Grether said: "While these consumers are making purchase decisions and waiting for their destination or delivery we can engage them with messages from brands that are relevant to their purchase journeys. And with 1.87 billion trips last quarter, that means we can connect advertisers to consumers on average five times per month across rides and delivery."

Uber has a reach of 122M monthly active users globally, and targeted $1B in advertising revenue by 2024 when it entered the business in 2019.

Meanwhile, rival Lyft ( LYFT ) also created an ad business unit, Lyft Media , which will also house Halo Cars, which runs ads on top of cars in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington D.C., with more to come "soon".

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