--- title: Uber Is Using Drones to Advertise in This Fast-Growing Market description: A fleet of drones led by the ride sharing company Uber, have flocked drivers in Mexico City with ads for its UberPOOL service. authors: - name: Kristen Bahler role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/ bio: Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. Today, she leads Money's sponsored content channel and reader-favorite franchises like Best Places to Live and Best Places to Travel. education: Northeastern University, MA Journalism at_money_since: 2016 articles: 52 covers: - Technology - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-bahler/ published: '2016-10-17T19:19:36.000Z' modified: '2016-10-17T19:19:36.000Z' section: Technology tags: - Advertising - pubdesk word_count: 295 canonical: https://money.com/uber-drones-advertising/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Uber Technologies Inc. drones advertise uberPOOL above traffic on a highway in Mexico City, Mexico, on Friday, June 17, 2016.](https://img.money.com/2016/10/161017_em_uberdrone.jpg) *Uber Technologies Inc. drones advertise uberPOOL above traffic on a highway in Mexico City, Mexico, on Friday, June 17, 2016.* Gridlocked drivers in Mexico City have been getting an eyeful lately. A fleet of drones, led by the ride sharing company Uber, have flocked drivers with ads for UberPOOL — a service that allows passengers to share rides with other riders headed the same direction for a fraction of the cost of a regular ride. Some of the ads, according to [*MIT Technology Review*](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602662/ubers-ad-toting-drones-are-heckling-drivers-stuck-in-traffic/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post), carry shame-inducing signs that nod to the city's famously polluted air: > “Driving by yourself?” some scolded in Spanish. “This is why you can never see the volcanoes”—a reference to the smog that often hovers over the mega-city and obscures two nearby peaks. The ads are part of a broad push by Uber to capture consumers in markets across Latin America. Of the more than 500 cities that Uber operates in worldwide, the company does better business in Mexico City than anywhere else, according to *[Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-13/can-uber-conquer-latin-america)*. Uber isn't the first company to use drones to its marketing advantage. Last year, [*Marketwatch*](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/drones-are-turning-into-flying-billboards-2015-04-07) reported on a company called Hoovy, which hangs banners from three to six foot wide drones and flies them over events and businesses. The company counts Sony, Dave and Buster's Entertainment, and the NFL among its customers. Outside the advertising industry, drones are flying into the consumer space at breakneck speed. Online retailer Amazon started testing drones [last year](https://money.com/amazon-prime-air-drone-video-jeremy-clarkson/?iid=sr-link1) as a way to enable faster deliveries, and [Walmart](http://fortune.com/fortune500/walmart-1/) has been using them to manage inventory at warehouses. In September, [United Parcel Service](http://fortune.com/fortune500/ups-48/) (UPS) said it [began testing](https://money.com/drone-deliveries-ups/?iid=sr-link7) drones for emergency delivery of medical supplies, with hopes to eventually win federal approval of drones as a regular delivery option. Around the same time, GoPro unveiled its [new drone Karma](https://money.com/drone-stocks-to-watch/?iid=sr-link3), a miniature, user-friendly device equipped with a camera that hangs off the front. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/uber-drones-advertising/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Technology", "item": "https://money.com/technology/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "GPS", "item": "https://money.com/gps/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Uber Is Using Drones to Advertise in This Fast-Growing Market" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/uber-drones-advertising/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/uber-drones-advertising/", "name": "Uber Is Using Drones to Advertise in This Fast-Growing Market", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-10-17T19:19:36.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/uber-drones-advertising/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/uber-drones-advertising/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-10-17T19:19:36.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Uber Is Using Drones to Advertise in This Fast-Growing Market", "articleSection": "Technology", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/10/161017_em_uberdrone.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "161017_EM_UberDrone" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kristen Bahler", "url": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/#author", "description": "Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. 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