Grab launches GrabAds online-to-offline advertising platform for brands

By Digital News Asia August 23, 2018

Consumers will have new ways to discover, engage and receive deals from brands
GrabAds’ offerings are modular and customisable for each market

Grab launches GrabAds online-to-offline advertising platform for brands

GRAB on Aug 21 announced the launch of GrabAds, the company’s advertising business unit to provide brands with an online-to-offline (O2O) platform to engage with Southeast Asian consumers.

GrabAds marries an on-ground fleet of vehicles with a digital presence across eight countries and more than 200 cities in Southeast Asia.

GrabAds provides additional revenue streams for driver-partners and delivery-partners who have full flexibility in choosing their preferred advertising option to best complement their driving income.

On average, driver- and delivery-partners across the region who participated in past ad campaigns earned up to 10% in additional income after joining GrabAds.

GrabAds’ offerings, for example in-car advertising or in-app customer engagement, are modular and customisable for each market.

With GrabAds, consumers will have new ways to discover, engage and receive deals from brands.

GrabAds will use its big data capabilities, local market insights and O2O presence to create customer engagement for brands that lets them segment their audience and cut through the noise.

For consumers, this means a selective, personalised experience that brings them closer to services and businesses that may interest them.

GrabAds has signed partnerships with numerous market leading advertising management companies across the region.

Partners include StickEarn, Karta and Interads in Indonesia; United Neon in the Philippines; Carblicity, IRIS, Display Science and MMI in Singapore; and DrivAdz in Vietnam.

These partnerships draw upon partners’ industry expertise to deliver maximum results and seamless campaign management for brands and driver-partners.

In Malaysia, Grab is working directly with brands such as Pepsi Black, Head&Shoulders and Tamago LIVE App to leverage Grab’s fleet as an alternative platform for brands to engage with their customers.

In addition, the company is also in discussions with various content developers to provide interactive videos and content for their in-car tablets.

GrabAds has signed exclusive partnerships with numerous market leading advertising management companies across the region. In Indonesia, GrabAds will work with Stickearn, Karta and Interads to help global and Indonesian brands execute impactful and engaging marketing campaigns across the country.

StickEarn will manage GrabAds’ four-wheel campaigns, Karta for two-wheel campaigns, and Interads for digital car top campaigns.

These partnerships draw upon partners’ industry expertise to deliver maximum results and seamless campaign management for brands and driver-partners.

“GrabAds is a great way for our driver- and delivery-partners to increase their incomes. Together with our campaign partners, we are committed to helping driver- and delivery-partners achieve additional and consistent monthly income from GrabAds, while helping brands achieve maximum exposure and engagement with their customers,” added Islam.

GrabAds allows brands to distribute appealing content and create memorable in-car and digital experiences for consumers. Brands will be able to run integrated campaigns through the GrabAds platform that will allow them to achieve their branding and marketing goals by targeting the right audience segment.

GrabAds’ offerings are modular, with a list of solutions under three broad categories:

Mobile billboards

Brands can turn Grab’s fleet of cars, buses and bikes into roving billboards to generate mass offline awareness.

In Indonesia, ads on GrabBike generate the highest brand recall among all out-of-home advertisements.

Using a fleet of 1,000 GrabBikes, Shopee achieved 85% in brand awareness within 90 days. In Singapore, bus wraps are especially suitable for location-specific campaigns as they run on pre-scheduled, high-traffic routes.

In-car engagement

From in-car branding and digital display to in-car sampling and in-car retail, brands can creatively turn car interiors into their canvas.

They can showcase short-form content on Grab’s in-car tablets and transform cars into mini mobile pop-up stores for customers to learn, test and purchase new products while in commute.

In-app engagement

Build and customise interactive widgets – games, quizzes, content, etc – in Grab’s everyday app. Brands can go a step further with exclusive promo codes for Grab rides along with a little message.

Unveiled last month, Grab’s new app experience features a news feed that provides information relevant to exactly when consumers need it.

Featuring news, reviews and entertainment, brands can co-create contextualised content with Grab for specific occasions and serve them to customers while they are on the go.

Other GrabAds regional clients include, Dove, Shopee, Tokopedia and Bukalapak.

GrabAds is part of Grab’s open platform strategy to enable partners and brands to expand more efficiently across Southeast Asia by leveraging Grab’s user base and offline distribution channels.