Uber Partners Up with Adomni to Bring Ads on Top of Its Vehicles

Uber is partnering up with Adomni, an out-of-home ad-tech company, to place ad displays on top of some of the company’s vehicles and thus create a new stream of revenue and an opportunity for Uber drivers to make money in a new way. Uber will even create a new business unit called Uber OOH (which stands for Out of House) powered by Adomni partnership.

The pilot test will be initially run until April 1 in three US cities: Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix. During the pilot program, Uber and Uber Ears drivers of 1,000 cars will get $300 for installing ad devices on their cars and $100 for every week driving more than 20 hours with a topper. The ad displays will show eight-second static images and videos that will depend on geolocation or time of day.

Jonathan Gudai, the CEO of Adomni, said: "We have all of these other screens — many of them outdoor — that are connected to our system, so advertisers can not only buy the Uber screens, but they can also have it stitched to have their story connected to the big screens.”

Once the program is fully launched, drivers will be paid based on the amount of time they spend driving. At first, the drivers will need to buy space for ads from Uber OOH manually; however, they will be able to do this with the help of programmatic advertising beginning with May 1.

Brett Baker, the lead of Uber OOH, said in a statement: “After exploring this idea for over a year now, we realized that the timing is perfect to launch this new ad network and we couldn’t ask for a better partner than Adomni. Their expertise with mobile vehicle digital out-of-home networks and programmatic ad sales is compelling.”

The new partnership comes not long after Lyft, another ridesharing company, acquired Halo Cars, a startup that lets drivers earn money by putting ads on top of their vehicles.