Retail Media is not limited to pure retailers and anyone with a customer-facing ecommerce site and a ton of first-party data on those customers can play. Ride sharing and food delivery company Uber is a fine example of this.
Uber Journey Ads was launched in October 2022, when the transit company saw the opportunity to connect brands with consumers throughout the ride-booking process and subsequent journeys with ads on both its booking app and in the cars themselves. With an average of 32mn trips per day worldwide, it can reach quite a hefty target audience.
However, the company’s embrace of takeout and essential grocery delivery during the pandemic has since extended the scope of its ad business to not only face many more consumers but also place it in an ideal position to sell ad real estate to those brands that its customers are looking for.
This has seen the company rapidly create a highly lucrative and powerful Retail Media Network, powered almost entirely by onsite offerings and, in 2024, thought to be turning over at least $1bn from selling ads in 40 countries that aim to reach its delivery app user base of some 161mn active monthly users.
Uber’s RMN offers a range of options for advertisers across the portfolio of what the company does.
- Journey ads – Capturing consumers’ attention during their trip on-device and in-vehicle
- Sponsored listings – Placed across Uber Eats in order to capture the attention of ready-to purchase consumers
- Homepage billboards – Giving brands the ability to prominently display messaging on the Uber Eats homepage
- Post-checkout ads – Promoting to purchaseminded consumers as they wait for their order updates
- In-menu ads – Enabling restaurants to feature seasonal or specially priced menu item to entice consumers to take advantage of a promotional offer
This profile appears in the newly published Retail Media: Onsite 2025 report.
The new report takes a look at what onsite retail media is, the models underpinning its operation, the measures of success and steps to create an onsite retail media strategy, drawing on extensive sector research and analysis.
Retail media will also be discussed in person this May as Retail MediaX uncovers the opportunities for scaling RMNs, powered by retailers, brands and agencies across three compelling content tracks.
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