[case study] How PepsiCo partnered with Uber Eats for retail media

In France, Uber‘s applications are used daily by millions of people for transport and home delivery. Uber (Passenger car with driver) and Uber Eats have altogether 9 million quarterly users in France, according to the company, and Uber had 5.9 million unique monthly visitors in March 2023, according to Mediametrie company. It is hardly surprising that Uber decided to launch an advertising network in October 2022 to connect brands to consumers, facilitating a purchase journey. The e-retail media offering, “Sponsored Items”, launched in partnership with Criteo in June 2023, initially in the USA and Canada. The service has gone live in France from September.

Two major FMCG advertisers have signed up. These are PepsiCo (Pepsi, Tropicana, Doritos and others) and Unilever (Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum and others), who began pilots in the summer. Other advertisers seen in France by our colleagues at mind Media include, to date, Yoplait, Coca Cola, Danone, L’Oréal and Ferrero.

The context

Uber Advertising was launched simultaneously in all Uber’s major markets, including France, where Grégory Blay-Desforges was poached as the new Director. Having worked for TF1, Google, Pinterest and TikTok, Blay-Desforges spent a few months alone but has now added a staff of 10.