Australian Uber drivers could soon be able to make extra incomes by plastering ads over the side of their privately-owned vehicles.
A San Francisco company called Wrapify is already trialling the concept on Uber vehicles in the US and reports say the concept has the traditional out-of-home players worried.
Wrapify has reportedly raised over $US1 million to get the venture up and running and says, on average, a driver with Wrapify (removable) branding can add another $600 per month to their incomes.
And it’s not just some car motoring about with an ad plastered over it. Wrapify uses GPS technology to track the mileage of the Uber driver and brands get to see how many cars saw their ads. It also uses data to best serve an ad to an area at a certain time of day.
A recent campaign saw Wrapify put five cars on the road with pet care branding in the San Francisco area for two months. The campaign received 3.2 million impressions, more than any billboard in the region.
“Wrapping your car isn’t for everyone, but what we’ve found is that almost everyone wants to do it,” Wrapify’s 28-year-old CEO James Heller told The San Diego Union-Tribune. In fact, finding willing drivers, “has been the easiest part of our business model.”
As yet there have been no reported plans to bring Wrapify into the Australian market which now has about 20,000 UberX drivers.
Yesterday, Uber Australia announced a deal with lending group SocietyOne that helped would-be Uber drivers purchase new vehicles and pay them off while working for the ride sharing platform.
SocietyOne is backed by some of Australia’s biggest media heavyweights including Lachlan Murdoch, James Packer and Ryan Stokes.
And it appears taxi/ride-sharing will be advertising’s new battleground. Last week the taxi industry announced it would be introducing in-car touchscreen headsets into its vehicles.
