Continuing its rollout of new partnerships and collaborations in the commerce media space that it’s announcing at Cannes Lions this week, Digiday has learned that Omnicom Media Group has partnered with Uber Advertising on a data collaboration that will let the media agency network serve up its clients’ advertising using Uber’s mobility and delivery signals.
It’s the first partnership with an agency holding company that Uber has struck to date.
The pact kicks off in the U.S., but according to Dr. Mark Grether, Uber Advertising’s general manager, the hope is to expand to include Uber’s global markets. Megan Pagliuca, Omnicom Media Group’s chief activation officer, added that OMG will also be considered a priority partner for new product releases from Uber advertising.
Uber Advertising’s platform is said to reach some 130 million active users globally. And the data it’s throwing off that OMG can use will be fed into Omni, the operating system that powers all of parent Omnicom’s data and insights. Pairing the two, agreed both Grether and Pagliuca, makes for a potent combination that generates deeper insights using consumers’ specific commerce journeys (since Uber helps get them there) along with Omni’s open architecture that allows for data to be imported from an external source to support activation and precise measurement. They stressed that all the data is privacy-safe.
“Uber is just in such a unique position where we can reach an individual in real time and know where they’re about to be — whether they’re going to an event or they’re going to a bar, whether they’re going to a retailer,” said Pagliuca. “The only thing I like to think of comparing it to is search intent.”
Grether said the appeal for Uber is Omni. “It is an ideal place for us to be used as a measurement and activation platform … they have the proper technology [via Omni] to actually make it a reality.”
But he added having early access to OMG’s client roster, which includes CPG, quick serve restaurants, food and beverage and automotive advertisers, is a plus. “We can jointly provide more value to them so that they can actually spend their dollars more effectively and efficiently, using more data using more audience segments on their platforms, but also on our platform,” he added.
The two have already been working behind the scenes testing out the partnership, with client HBO Max sponsoring a Lizzo concert via a takeover through Uber. Read full story here.
Originally published in Digiday
