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In October 2022, Uber formally launched its advertising division in the U.S. promising in-app ads with the power to grab people’s attention while they waited for a car or tracked a takeout delivery. Now, it’s scaling that business with the appointment of Paul Wright in the U.K.
Wright will join the tech company as its first head of Uber Advertising in the U.K. and Ireland. He brings with him experience from Apple where he lead its now-shelved iAd mobile ad network in EMEA and APAC. He more recently served as head of international tech business development and partnerships for Amazon, followed by a position onboarding brands to retailer FarFetch’s ad platform.
He confirmed his appointment on LinkedIn, saying he would be tasked with setting up a dedicated team in the market. Adweek has reached out to Uber for further information.
Mobility media
In late October, Uber unveiled a dedicated advertising division which launched with 100 staffers in the U.S. and a new ad format called Journey Ads, which will target “purchase-minded” consumers.
Uber’s big pitch to advertisers is ultimately built around using its first-party data and insights across its ride hailing and delivery apps, giving big brands “compelling new surfaces and closed-loop attribution to reach Uber’s audience of 122 million monthly active users.” Other options to reach Uber’s 122 million active users include sponsored emails, sponsored listings, post-checkout ads and in-menu ads.
Uber has positioned these buys as “mobility media.” However, the premise is similar to retail media offerings from the likes of Amazon, Walmart and Deliveroo, which recently unveiled its own media and ecommerce platform for brands.
According to GroupM, retail media spend will represent 18% of global digital advertising and 11% of total advertising by the time 2022 is out. By 2027, it estimates that retail media advertising will increase roughly by 60% to reach $160 billion.
When it launched its ad business Uber announced plans to ramp things up quickly with offices in Australia, Brazil, France, Mexico and the U.K., saying its ambition is to scale Journey Ads to more than 30 countries out of the 70 Uber operates in. Wright’s appointment is part of this strategy.
Other key hires have included ex-LinkedIn exec Michael Levine to lead Australia and New Zealand and Grégory Blay-Desforges joining from TikTok to lead France.
Uber Advertising is being overseen globally by ad veteran Dr. Mark Grether, who also worked at Amazon, as well as being at the helm of ad tech companies Sizmeka and Xaxis. His big sell to brands is that Uber can engage customers with messaging relevant to their purchase journeys.
“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,” he said.
Over 40 clients have already partnered with Uber to run Journey Ads including NBCUniversal and Heineken. The business said early results showed customers were exposed to ad content for two minutes, resulting in “two to six times the brand-performance lift compared to other benchmarks.”
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