College Campus Food Delivery Robots Now Sport Ads On Cargo Boxes

September 24, 2024 by Dave Haynes

Some sort of advertising is slapped on everything from commuter trains, cube trucks and taxis, and all the way down to the cargo boxes on the rear of scooters, so it is no surprise that a company that does its deliveries by autonomous rolling robots sees an opportunity in advertising.

Berkeley, CA-based Kiwibot, most known for using little cargo-bots to make “last mile” food deliveries on college campuses, has acquired a company that specializes in vehicle wraps for advertising, and started wrapping its fleet with vinyl graphics that market brands – supported by low-rez screens on the fronts of the units.

Kiwibot acquired Tampa-based Nickelytics for $25 million, with the intention of generating incremental revenue from campaigns on its fleet of some 500 mobile robots, active in 20 U.S. states.

Nickelytics started in car-wrap advertising, but has added other formats like truck-side ads and digital displays tied to ride-share vehicles. The company has data analytics capabilities, that combined with Kiwibot’s route mapping, allows advertisers to geo-targeted ads.

Obviously that’s going to be more impactful if the bots evolve from vinyl wraps to digital screens on the side, with motion.