Lyft Inc.
has fashioned Lyft Media, a brand new enterprise unit consolidating and increasing the promoting choices on the ride-hailing firm.
The information comes greater than two years after Lyft acquired Halo Cars Inc., which makes displays to run digital advertisements atop vehicles, and as Lyft faces an more and more crowded market for promoting in and round automobile providers.
Lyft hopes the brand new promoting merchandise can generate income and assist it compete towards rivals like
Uber Technologies Inc.,
which entered the media enterprise in 2019, when it began promoting advertisements by means of its Uber Eats app. Uber later started providing advertisements atop its vehicles and inside its main ride-hailing app.
Beyond the rooftop advertisements, Lyft will now permit manufacturers to serve content material on in-car tablets that riders can use to trace their routes, tip and charge drivers, and management the music in every automobile. Lyft has been testing that service in Los Angeles in current months and expects to supply it in 25% of all rides by year-end in Los Angeles and three different cities, in accordance with a spokeswoman.
The firm can be promoting advertisements on digital show panels at docking stations for bike-share providers it owns, together with New York’s Citi Bike and San Francisco’s Bay Wheels, a spokeswoman mentioned.
Lyft has additionally been providing in-app sponsorships that embrace banner advertisements and branded icons. In one early instance,
Vita Coco Co.
ran a marketing campaign referred to as “The Hangover Shop” on the day after Super Bowl LVI, changing all automobile pictures within the Lyft app with coconuts, mentioned Vita Coco Chief Marketing Officer Jane Prior.
Lyft will work with third-party companies to assist advertisers measure marketing campaign efficiency utilizing mixture knowledge, however received’t accumulate private knowledge from riders, mentioned
Kenan Saleh,
basic supervisor of Lyft Media and former chief govt of Halo. Targeting for app, pill and rooftop advertisements shall be primarily based on the time and site of journeys, and riders can flip the tablets off at any time, although fewer than 1% have performed so in check research, Mr. Saleh mentioned.
A portion of income from the show and pill advertisements will go to Lyft drivers, although the corporate declined to say how a lot.
“We hope to provide a place for advertisers and drivers to engage with our network, while ultimately providing independent opportunities for drivers to earn money,” mentioned Mr. Saleh.
Lyft’s chief rival has formidable plans for its personal advert enterprise.
Mark Grether,
basic supervisor of Uber promoting, informed attendees on the firm’s most up-to-date investor day in February that it may attain $1 billion in advert income by 2024, and Chief Executive
Dara Khosrowshahi
mentioned on Uber’s most up-to-date earnings name that the corporate would proceed increasing its advert gross sales staff.
Lyft declined to touch upon anticipated advert income.
Other corporations have additionally entered the ride-hailing advert enterprise lately. Last 12 months, out-of-home promoting firm Firefly Systems Inc. acquired Curb Mobility LLC, a New York-based firm whose app helps riders hail each yellow taxis and Uber drivers; it additionally sells advertisements atop taxis and thru in-car video service Taxi TV. The community contains greater than 25,000 screens producing 174 million month-to-month advert impressions across the U.S., mentioned
Jason Gross,
vice chairman of cell at Curb.
Telecommunications large
T-Mobile US Inc.
in January acquired Octopus Interactive Inc., which runs interactive video screens in Uber and Lyft autos to develop its promoting know-how enterprise. A T-Mobile spokeswoman mentioned this service presently reaches 10 million riders every month, although she declined to supply advert income totals. Lyft mentioned this enterprise is unrelated to Lyft Media.
Lyft has lately tried to chop prices by shedding 2% of employees and folding the a part of its enterprise that allowed customers to lease vehicles on the app. Last week, the corporate reported stronger-than-expected income within the second quarter, which President
John Zimmer
attributed partly to cost-cutting measures.
Demand for ride-hailing providers has remained sturdy regardless of the financial downturn, with inflation main extra individuals to complement their revenue by changing into drivers, mentioned Mr. Khosrowshahi on Uber’s earnings name.
Write to Patrick Coffee at [email protected]
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