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#BizTrends2018: The rise of AI and gamification in in-transit advertising
Geo-targeted advertising is becoming more and more important for marketers. Utilising platforms like in-vehicle entertainment, marketers are able to know exactly where the passenger has been collected from and where they are going - imagine serving ads to them whilst they're in transit to a specific location. For instance, if you know a passenger is being taken to OR Tambo International and you have a store there, you could pre-empt purchasing behaviour before arrival.

Another option that will be available for marketers is that consumers can order a meal on our platform whilst in transit and have it delivered to their destination. With geo targeted location, we can know in advance if that person is going to Hyde Park for instance, and brands within that area can serve very specific hyper-local advertising.
In-car purchases will be made on the move. This would be relatively easy to input as Uber already has their passengers' account details on hand. Imagine seeing an ad for a product you’d like to buy, you click on the touch screen in front of you, the product is paid for and it’s delivered to your preferred location within an hour.
Considering that the average Uber passenger spends 25 minutes in transit, brands have ample time and opportunity to engage with them with zero wastage.
Artificial Intelligence in vehicle transit advertising will also become more common place over the next few years. The intelligence around predicting what your passenger would like to see based on their trip history and what brand channels they have engaged with in the past are constantly improving. If for example a passenger constantly clicks on car brands then we can assume they will engage with more of them. We’re expecting more intelligent advertising in the near future with hardly any wastage.
Gamification is another trend that is on the up and up. We’re predicting that soon consumers, within an Uber vehicle, will be playing online games against other passengers in separate Ubers – real time. There is massive potential of brand-sponsored augmented reality in the Uber environment. This trend will become more accessible as improved technology becomes more available. Pokemon Go was a good example of gamification in application. Taking it even further, you could point your phone at a certain object or device whilst in transit and receive special discounts or more information on a campaign you’ve just engaged with, or if you’re feeling generous why not gift someone a Coca-Cola in a different car? The opportunities are endless.
Brands are engaging more and more in the gamification space and we’re very excited to see the innovation that results from these few outlined trends. Interestingly, we’ve found that when consumers are asked to test their skills in an application such as ours, they generate three times as many leads for our advertisers.

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