It’s getting increasingly difficult to escape ads on your daily commute.
Billboards for snacks and exotic travel destinations loom large over tube platforms, black cabs are plastered with visuals for make-up and fashion brands, and even the streaming services we turn to for escapism during rush hour make us watch advertisements.
Soon, you won’t even be able to find refuge from promos during your Uber trips.
By the end of this year, not only will you be forced to sit through video adverts in Uber’s apps, but you’ll also have to watch them on tablets inside select rides, Uber told The Wall Street Journal.
Although the scheme is kicking off in the US, it’s slated to arrive here in a matter of months. Uber has previously said that the UK is one of its biggest markets, which makes it a prime target for the expansion of new features.
As such, you can soon expect to see 90-second ads on Uber’s apps - including Uber’s eponymous ride-sharing app and Uber Eats - and ads inside cars.
Annoyingly, the duration of the adverts is longer than those on other mobile platforms.
YouTube, for instance, makes you watch a mixture of skippable and non-skippable ads before, during or after videos. These can last from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the length of the video you’re watching.
Uber is reportedly installing tablets that will run the adverts on a city-by-city basis in the US. There’s no word on whether you’ll be able to use the displays to watch Netflix or play games.
What you see while browsing Uber on your phone will be different from the in-car experience.
Uber’s apps will show ads on mute from a single advertiser, while passengers will need to manually turn off the sound and display on the in-ride tablets. The latter will also feature ads from multiple brands.
Alcohol maker Campari is among the brands to have tested video ads inside the Uber Eats app ahead of their launch. Uber’s main goal is to target riders with adverts based on their travel and purchase histories. So, get ready to see ads for a restaurant near your destination when you hop in a ride.
Uber says it won’t share customer data with ad buyers, which will be able to purchase inventory from the company using an automated bidding process. It will also reportedly allow customers to disable targeted ads based on certain characteristics such as gender and ride history. But, you will not be allowed to opt out of advertising altogether.
Of course, privacy isn’t the only concern Uber is facing. Customers who already pay for the luxury of taking an Uber over public transport or taxis may be turned off by the emergence of ads.
The move sees Uber joining a horde of companies that are opening up their platforms to external marketers. Supermarkets led the way with so-called retail media offerings that allowed brands to promote their wares to shoppers in-store and online. Amazon has since supercharged the market by allowing sellers to buy a range of ads on its online store.
Delivery app users are also already accustomed to seeing static ads on the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats.
