Custom-Cars Platform
ROLE: Innovation Lead | EP | GM
The Custom Cars platform allows Lyft passengers to personalize their map-cars, celebrating holidays, icons, and thousands of hobbies, brands, and experiences.
I developed Custom Cars as a low-cost, turnkey platform to digitally scale moments of hospitality and delight to Lyft riders.
The uniqueness of the platform allowed Lyft to leverage A-List IP at no cost, and was monetized by the Lyft Media team as an ad sales channel.
I led all aspects of Custom Cars as the end-to-end creator, owner, and operator of the platform.
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Rideshare is inherently a commodity, and the best way to differentiate a commodity is through Brand Preference.
Custom-Cars was a hospitality platform designed to drive Brand Preference by digitally scaling moments of delight.
We leveraged the platform to create moments of delight in three different ways.
PERSONALIZATION:
Riders could enter a promo code into the Lyft App to personalize their cars to icons of their own choosing.
GEO-FENCING SURPRISE & DELIGHT:
Lyft had the capability to geo-fence specific locations on the map to showcase car icons themed to that location. For example, near a sports stadium we could have sports-themed cars.
HOLIDAY/EVENT TAKEOVERS
Lyft could change ALL map cars in a specific region, or across the whole platform, to celebrate holidays, or localized events like Pride Cars for a pride parade.
INNOVATioN Story…
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Vision Document
Feasibility Analysis
Cross-functional Buy-In (Marketing. Growth, Tech, Ops)
Executive Buy-In
Budget Approval
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UX Research
Product Requirements
Product Design
Product Engineering
Analytics Dashboard
Customer Support Integration
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Cars/Icons Creative
Social Media Creative
Comms Creative
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IP Partner Negotiations
IP Upload & Scheduling
Platform Data, Analytics, and Reporting
RESPONSIBILITIES
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One method of implementing Custom-Cars was via Promo-Code Unlock, allowing Lyft riders to enter a promo code that customized their own map-cars.
Lyft partnered with Cardi B to help launch her Grammy winning album, Invasion of Privacy, with Custom Cars.
The campaign garnered millions of earned media impressions and social shares at no-cost to Lyft.
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The Custom-Cars platform also supported custom geofences, allowing Lyft to customize the map-cars in a specific location.
One example was geofencing the sub-region of cities in celebration of their pride parades with Rainbow cars.
These small moments of delight helped differentiate Lyft with passionate groups of customers.
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Custom-Cars had the ability to create a “Magic Mode” in a specific location, granting access to events for the lucky passengers.
At SXSW, Lyft partnered with HBO + Westworld to provide access to an exclusive Westworld experiential activation that conference attendees were waiting in line for hours to attend.
At no-cost, Lyft becaome a headline partner of HBO’s multimillion dollar activation by merely changing the car icons and granting exclusive access.