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Gnomad launches Uber back seat mobile advertising at SXSW

Julie Campbell | March 21, 2016

The Houston based mobile ad platform will target the ride share program’s customers.

Gnomad took the opportunity to use the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in order to launch its mobile advertising platform which will make it possible to display ads to passengers sitting in the back seats of dozens of Uber vehicles around the Austin, Texas area.

The Gnomad mobile app was developed by a company called Poetic Systems, Inc., out of Houston.

The way it works is that it displays mobile advertising and content, among other features, that are geared toward travelers who are visiting from elsewhere and who are seeking to find out more about what there is to do within the area, particularly throughout the duration of the festival. So far, the mobile marketing content in the app is featuring the Greater Houston Partnership, which is a SnapStream based in Houston. It has also placed the spotlight on the Capital Factory co-working space and an assortment of startups in Austin.

Mobile advertising content was also assembled for Gnomad along with the Tasting Table culinary website.

That site is based in New York under Rich Winley, the co-founder and CEO. Ahead of the SXSW, he explained that “We’re expecting to be in about 75 Uber cars,” and that “We’re expecting 20,000 people to see the GHP ad over the weekend.”

That said, despite this mobile marketing agreement, Gnomad is not considered to be an official partner with Uber as each driver with the rideshare program is considered to be an independent contractor. This has given them the opportunity to create individual partnerships with Gnomad if they wish to do so. Those drivers, who are currently facing fare cuts, are frequently seeking additional opportunities to generate an income. By working with Gnomad, Winley explained that they can take part in a revenue sharing model.

Over the long term, Gnomad will continue these types of mobile advertising opportunities and intends to take its ad tech to New York throughout Fashion Week. For that event, it has partnered with a handful of ad agencies in New York, which had not been identified by the time of the writing of this article.

Mobile tracking in latest Uber privacy update to boost accuracy

Julie Campbell | June 8, 2015

The ride share service mobile app has just confirmed that its update includes critical changes to its privacy policy.

The leading company in ride share services, Uber, has now announced that it has updated the privacy policy of its app in order to improve the mobile tracking that it is capable of achieving and, therefore, enhance its accuracy.

There are a number of strong changes that have taken place to make the service more efficient and enjoyable.

According to the announcement from Uber, these mobile tracking improvements should benefit both the drivers and the passengers, alike. According to a blog posted by the company in advance of the changes, “Our riders and driver partners will start receiving e-mails in the next few days about the new Privacy Statements.” It did go on to say that it will be going to great lengths to ensure that it is guaranteeing the privacy of its users. That said, it pointed out that geolocation will become central to the service.

Mobile tracking through geolocation technology is the largest change being made to the Uber platform.

Mobile Tracking - Privacy Policy Update The announcement by Uber explained that the mobile app would request access to the location of the rider while the app is open in the background on the device. That way, it will make it possible for drivers to be able to locate their customers more quickly and conveniently. Overall, using geolocation technology as a part of the Uber app means that drivers will spend less time trying to find riders, and riders will spend less time waiting for their cars to pick them up.

The company also added that “In addition, these changes would allow Uber to launch new promotional features that use contacts — for example the ability to send special offers to riders’ friends or family. In either case, users will be in control: they will be able to choose whether to share the data with Uber.”

The changes to the mobile tracking portion of the privacy policy and geolocation features of the app will become effective on July 15th, said the announcement. What has yet to be seen is how many people will be interested in using the feature.