Uber's advertising division in Australia has launched its Sponsored Items for consumer goods, to leverage a new advertising surface on Uber Eats.
Uber has partnered with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) as its first brand partner to help brands capture ready-to-purchase consumers and increase discoverability.
Powered by commerce media company, Criteo, the network provides consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands with Sponsored Items opportunities directly on the Uber Eats app.
Michael Levine, Uber's head of advertising in Australia and New Zealand, said this advertising service will enable CPG brands the ability to highlight their products across Uber Eats’ marketplace of grocery and retailers.
“To appear with greater visibility on the digital shelves,” he said.
“As more and more Australians turn to Uber for ‘almost, almost anything’, we recognise how significant this opportunity would be to support brands like Coca Cola in a commerce media environment to increase that visibility on our platform.”
Followed by a launch in the US and Canada, this new suite of performance advertising capabilities enhances the customer experience by increasing the discoverability of relevant products and brands, while driving value for both Uber Eats and its brand partners.
Brands in Australia are already enquiring about the new digital advertising opportunities within the Uber Eats app.
Uber has built this product off the back of CPG demand, said Levine, and the company is collaborating with a host of brands who are interested in leveraging this new ad service.
Levine said Uber's goal is to make it as easy as possible for advertisers to buy.
“Our partnership with Criteo extends beyond its AI technology that powers the format,” he said.
“It leverages its demand platform so advertisers can buy self service through Criteo or come to the Uber advertising team for a managed service. We help CPG brands buy across a network of grocery and retail merchants.”
The food and beverage delivery company is looking to service the right product to the right user at the right time.
For Levine, doing so creates a win on advertiser investment and delivers an improved user experience with greater relevance.
“Sponsored Items allows brands to bring their product to a higher visibility placement within the Uber Eats grocery and convenience marketplace,” said Levine.
Criteo’s AI then recommends keywords in real time to help CPG brands identify potential customers, he said.
The advertising will appear in two places on Uber Eats.
“On storefront browse and in-store search; it will be like a digital end cap. If I'm wandering around a grocery store, looking for chips or soft drink, that prominent placement at the end of an aisle helps me see see a particular product and captures my attention,” said Levine.
Likewise, he says, Sponsored Items help CPG brands on the Uber Eats platform - in a native and relevant consumer way - highlight their product within homepage carousels or within in-store search.
The pricing model for these ads will be a dynamic ‘cost-per-click’, said Levine.
"We have seen really strong return on ad spend with early adopters in the US and Canada, and have seen interesting demand from energy drinks, baked good, snack and beverage brands. All of those alpha partners have renewed ongoing campaigns with us, and we are excited by that as an early metric of success," he said.
Colin Barnard, managing director for Criteo in Australia, said Uber’s ever-changing and innovative services are uniquely positioned to develop an engaging retail experience that allows brands and marketers to drive awareness of their brands by interacting with consumers at point of purchase said.
“We look forward to helping brands in Australia best leverage Uber’s new advertising offering and help them navigate a whole new way to market to consumers," said Barnard.
Levine said Uber Australia has already been working with media agencies, and plans to continue establishing relationships with advertisers all around the country.
“And of course their media agency partners and in-house marketers. That's the benefit of having an on-ground ad sales division," he said.
More than 10 million Australians used the Uber or Uber Eats app in 2022, he said.
This quantity, said Levine, puts Uber in a unique position to give Australian brands the tools to capture the attention of ready-to-purchase consumers.
“The Uber advertising division has grown rapidly in the last 12 months. We now have more than 100 employees around the world,” said Levine.
“We announced in our Q2 earnings that we are a $650 million annual revenue, run rate business in Q2, with ambitions to be a billion dollar business before the end of 2024.”
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