Uber Advertising’s Corey Rados: Brands Talk About Moments, But Consumers Actually Experience Them
CANNES, France — Marketers obsess over moments. Uber’s head of Global Creative Studio thinks that framing misses something essential about how consumers actually move through the world and ultimately decide to connect with ads.
“We talk a lot about moments as marketers, but consumers don’t live moments. They don’t live the trip to the airport. They don’t live the global soccer tournament. They don’t live a concert. They experience them,” Corey Rados, head of global creative studio at Uber Advertising, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “With Uber, brands are given a unique opportunity to take advantage of that signal.”
There are 40 million daily Uber trips every day around the world, Rados said, noting that it amounts to 1.7 trips every second. The sheer scale of the real-world intent data Uber collects makes Uber something broader than a retail media platform, Rados contends..
Commerce media, not just retail media
Uber’s mobility side generates consumer intent signals as strong as those on the Uber Eats delivery platform, creating full-funnel opportunities that brands often overlook when categorizing Uber within the retail media ecosystem.
“Sometimes we forget that beyond a retail media ecosystem, Uber is actually a commerce media ecosystem. There’s a whole mobility side of the house that consumers interact with every single day,” Rados said. “That intent and signal is just as strong as on the retail media side of the house.”
A spring Molson Coors partnership spanning Miller, Coors, Topo Chico, and Blue Moon illustrates the approach — combining in-app media with in-real-life activations around stadiums and events to create measurable brand impact across the funnel.
Signals connect physical and digital
Uber’s Creative Studio sits at the intersection of advertising and what Rados calls the broader “Uber-verse.” The term encompasses operational frameworks spanning mobility, consumer marketing, public relations, and communications that enable brands to connect in-app experiences with real-world consumer moments.
“My team is very effective at mining those signals and putting them into the brief in a way that not only pays out against the media component, but also creates an additive and measurable experience for consumers in the real world,” Rados said.
Solving consumer fatigue
As fragmentation and overstimulation drive consumers to actively seek control over their media environments, brands that add value to platform experiences rather than interrupting them will earn attention that pure audience-buying cannot replicate.
“We are all exhausted and overstimulated by this fragmented and unpredictable world. Consumers are actively looking to regain control,” Rados said. “[Practically everyone] talks so much about ‘buying audience.’ But [no one] really focuses in on why that audience comes to their platform.”
By identifying the clear consumer benefit — the reason someone opens Uber in the first place — is where Rados sees the real advertising opportunity. Whether it’s through in-app custom integrations or live onsite experiences that extend campaign value into the physical world, Uber’s goal is to close the loop around all those touchpoints that keep consumers coming back to its services and its platform.
“We’re able to meet that consumer demand and drive that benefit in a way that feels additive, that extends the value of the media campaign and brings the consumer a magical experience to real life,” Rados said.
You’re watching The Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Axonet and Uber Advertising. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
CANNES, France — Marketers obsess over moments. Uber’s head of Global Creative Studio thinks that framing misses something essential about how consumers actually move through the world and ultimately decide to connect with ads.
“We talk a lot about moments as marketers, but consumers don’t live moments. They don’t live the trip to the airport. They don’t live the global soccer tournament. They don’t live a concert. They experience them,” Corey Rados, head of global creative studio at Uber Advertising, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “With Uber, brands are given a unique opportunity to take advantage of that signal.”
There are 40 million daily Uber trips every day around the world, Rados said, noting that it amounts to 1.7 trips every second. The sheer scale of the real-world intent data Uber collects makes Uber something broader than a retail media platform, Rados contends..
Commerce media, not just retail media
Uber’s mobility side generates consumer intent signals as strong as those on the Uber Eats delivery platform, creating full-funnel opportunities that brands often overlook when categorizing Uber within the retail media ecosystem.
“Sometimes we forget that beyond a retail media ecosystem, Uber is actually a commerce media ecosystem. There’s a whole mobility side of the house that consumers interact with every single day,” Rados said. “That intent and signal is just as strong as on the retail media side of the house.”
A spring Molson Coors partnership spanning Miller, Coors, Topo Chico, and Blue Moon illustrates the approach — combining in-app media with in-real-life activations around stadiums and events to create measurable brand impact across the funnel.
Signals connect physical and digital
Uber’s Creative Studio sits at the intersection of advertising and what Rados calls the broader “Uber-verse.” The term encompasses operational frameworks spanning mobility, consumer marketing, public relations, and communications that enable brands to connect in-app experiences with real-world consumer moments.
“My team is very effective at mining those signals and putting them into the brief in a way that not only pays out against the media component, but also creates an additive and measurable experience for consumers in the real world,” Rados said.
Solving consumer fatigue
As fragmentation and overstimulation drive consumers to actively seek control over their media environments, brands that add value to platform experiences rather than interrupting them will earn attention that pure audience-buying cannot replicate.
“We are all exhausted and overstimulated by this fragmented and unpredictable world. Consumers are actively looking to regain control,” Rados said. “[Practically everyone] talks so much about ‘buying audience.’ But [no one] really focuses in on why that audience comes to their platform.”
By identifying the clear consumer benefit — the reason someone opens Uber in the first place — is where Rados sees the real advertising opportunity. Whether it’s through in-app custom integrations or live onsite experiences that extend campaign value into the physical world, Uber’s goal is to close the loop around all those touchpoints that keep consumers coming back to its services and its platform.
“We’re able to meet that consumer demand and drive that benefit in a way that feels additive, that extends the value of the media campaign and brings the consumer a magical experience to real life,” Rados said.
You’re watching The Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Axonet and Uber Advertising. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
