Australia has become a testing ground for the growing advertising side of ride share company.
Summer strategies can be tried out in Australia before being applied in the US.
All of Uber’s core businesses - Rides, Eats and One - are “thriving” down under.
“We’re ahead from a seasonality perspective, and because we're a star market we get products very closely followed by or at the same time as the US,” Uber's agency development lead Shalyce McLean told AdNews.
“We are trying to bring new products and new buying methodologies to market and streamline existing processes.”
Uber rapidly expanded its team at the start of this year and has confirmed plans for further expansion in 2025.
McLean said Uber has bolstered its leadership team and is now looking to hire more ad specialists.
“Our ads business is one of the fastest growing outside of the US and Canada region and that's really why we're growing the team so significantly,” she said.
“We started with media agencies, but we actually just hired a creative strategist and that roll out into creative agencies is planned for 2025.
“I think it's a really exciting opportunity for creative agencies to be able to have a digital environment that still captures so much attention.”
Uber is anticipating a “bumper summer period” despite Guideline SMI data showing a drop in ad spending year-on-year.
A study commissioned by Uber, in collaboration with Global Web Index, found that 40% of Australians plan to increase their spending this summer.
McLean said Gen Z and Millennials are what Uber call their “power users”.
“In Australia, summer is actually Uber's busiest time of year,” she said.
“Through the study we found both Uber and Uber Eats were in the top 10 apps that Aussies can't live without over summer.”
McLean said Uber's ad formats are “unique” and offer deterministic 1PD signals.
She said Uber Ads help brands connect with customers when they're highly attentive and tracking their route or watching how far away their delivery is.
“Our journey ad format has an average global view time of over 90 seconds per trip which is very unique for a digital platform,” she said.
“We're able to personalise ads on a user's current activities, so if they're heading to an airport or a concert, as well as their interests demonstrated by their previous trips.
“Being able to capture a user's attention while they are actively spending delivers a better return on investment for advertisers.”
Uber globally has more than 156 million monthly active users who are on the go and exhibiting commercial intent.
McLean said they are a valuable audience that advertisers want to reach because they are receptive to ads and often end up purchasing from the brand.
“They're engaged and curious and on the prowl,” she said.
“Also, everyone who is on the platform is logged in and authenticated.”
Looking to the next year, McLean said Uber is actively trialling many new products around the world.
“It's most important that we continue to innovate so that brands can engage with their consumers creatively through our platform,” she said.
“We regularly conduct research and look at the performance of the ads on our platform to make sure they continue to be able to drive impactful campaigns.”
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