Waze Launches Useful Hyper-Local Ads

When I am stuck in traffic, I resort to my Waze app in order to find quicker routes and stay entertained with the crowd-sourced social traffic infromation. My rush hour strategy has always been to detour to a restaurant or run errands in order to pass the time until the traffic dies down. The Waze app took advantage of this exact situation and launched a clever hyper-local advertising program that adds value to users by directing them to local businesses when users are stuck in traffic. 

Example:
While stuck in the usual 405 traffic, I noticed an icon that looked similar to the app's social and traffic icons. It was an unobtrusive and egaging native advertisement for Ralph's Grocery Store. Upon clicking the ad, it provided useful information such as the distance to the store and a promotional incentive to shop there.  

Read more about this campaign on Digiday. What do you think about the Waze advertising program?