Skip to main content
https://www.highperformancecpmgate.com/rgeesizw1?key=a9d7b2ab045c91688419e8e18a006621

Rideshare and taxi ad startup Firefly acquires Strong Outdoor’s out-of-home ad business

Firefly is expanding its ad business in New York City by acquiring the out-of-home business of Strong Outdoor, as well as by becoming the advertising partner for fleet operator Sally.

Firefly launched in 2018 by offering Uber and Lyft drivers a digital display that they could place at the top of their vehicles, making extra money by running ads that can be targeted based on geography, time of day, demographics and more. It expanded into advertising on regular cabs last year, an expansion accelerated by the acquisition of Strong’s digital business.

Firefly co-founder and CEO Kaan Gunay explained that with this new deal, the startup is also taking control of Strong’s non-digtal taxi-top advertising.

The plan is to eventually transition those ad units to digital, but he suggested that the timing will depend on how quickly the ad business returns. After all, out-of-home advertising is a lot less appealing when everyone’s stuck at home. In the meantime, Gunay said he’s happy to selling traditional ad inventory as well.

He also said that even though Firefly’s business slowed with the pandemic, he’s confident that the company’s more targeted digital approach can bring new customers to taxi-top advertising (brands advertising with Firefly in New York have included Puma, Dunkin’, Truly, Colgate, Stella Artois, 7-Eleven, Papa Johns and Postmates). And Firefly is still expanding and investing, as shown by this acquisition.

Asked whether these moves into traditional advertising put Firefly at risk of becoming just another taxi landscape, Gunay said, “Absolutely not.” He said Firefly is still very much a technology company, while also pointing to the appeal of traditional taxi-top ads, which he described as “New York institution.” He added that these deals give Firefly 42% marketshare in New York.

Firefly raises $30M to bring more ads to Ubers, Lyfts and taxis

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp steps back from board director role

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp is relinquishing his role as a board director and switching to board observer — where he says he’ll focus on product strategy for the ride hailing giant. Camp made the announcement in a short Medium post in which he writes of his decade at Uber: “I’ve learned a lot, and realized that I’m most helpful when focused on product strategy & design, and this is where I’d like to focus going forward.” “I will continue to work with Dara [Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO] and the product and technology leadership teams to brainstorm new ideas, iterate on plans and designs, and continue to innovate at scale,” he adds. “We have a strong and diverse team in place, and I’m confident everyone will navigate well during these turbulent times.” The Canadian billionaire entrepreneur signs off by saying he’s looking forward to helping Uber “brainstorm the next big idea”. Camp hasn’t been short of ideas over his career in tech. He’s the co-founder of the web 2.0 recommendatio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leading VCs discuss how COVID-19 has impacted the world of digital health

In December 2019, Extra Crunch spoke to a group of investors leading the charge in health tech to discuss where they saw the most opportunity in the space leading into 2020 . At the time, respondents highlighted startups in digital therapeutics, telehealth and mental health that were improving medical practitioner efficiency or streamlining the distribution of care, amongst a variety of other digital health markets that were garnering the most attention. Where top VCs are investing in digital health In the months since, the COVID-19 crisis has debilitated national healthcare systems and the global economy. Weaknesses in healthcare systems have become clearer than ever, while startups and capital providers have struggled to operate while wide swaths of the market effectively shut down. Given significant volatility and the rapid changes seen in the worlds of healthcare, venture and startups broadly, we wanted to understand which inefficiencies might have been brought to light, w...
Post a Comment
Read more

News-reading app Flipboard expands local coverage, including coronavirus updates, to 12 more U.S. metros

Earlier this year, personalized news aggregation app Flipboard expanded into local news . The feature brought local news, sports, real estate, weather, transportation news and more to 23 cities across the U.S. Today, Flipboard is bringing local news to 12 more U.S. metros and is adding critical coronavirus local coverage to all of the 35 supported locales. The 12 new metros include the following:  Baltimore, Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and Tampa Bay. They join the 23 cities that were already supported:  Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, D.C. To offer local news in its app, Flipboard works with area partners, big and small, like The Plain Dealer’s Cleveland.com , ...
Post a Comment
Read more