RoadNinja
Digital Scientists partnered with Lamar Advertising to build RoadNinja — a GPS-powered road trip companion that earned the #1 spot in the Travel category and surpassed 1 million downloads across iOS and Android.
The ultimate interstate travel companion
RoadNinja transformed the American road trip by putting real-time travel intelligence at drivers' fingertips. Built in partnership with Lamar Advertising — the largest outdoor advertising company in the United States — the app combined GPS-powered navigation with live gas prices, hotel booking, and targeted promotions to create a comprehensive interstate travel companion.
What began as a mobile app grew into a multi-platform ecosystem spanning iOS, Android, desktop web, and even connected car dashboards, earning the #1 spot in the Travel category and surpassing 1 million downloads.
The app featured promotions from major brands like McDonald's, Wendy's, Subway, Domino's Pizza, Community Coffee, Holiday Inn Express, and Hampton Inn — making it possible to deliver targeted promotions and engage customers on the interstate for the first time.
Downloads
Road Trip App
Sessions
Cities Covered
Bridging the gap between billboards and digital
Lamar Advertising needed a way to extend its physical billboard network into the digital world. Interstate travelers relied on fragmented sources for trip information, and there was no unified platform connecting drivers with the brands and services along their route.
Fragmented Travel Data
Interstate travelers relied on dozens of separate apps and websites for gas prices, hotel availability, restaurant reviews, and points of interest — with no unified source.
No Digital Bridge for Billboards
Lamar's 350,000+ billboard faces generated awareness but had no way to connect physical signage to digital engagement or measurable conversions.
Real-Time Pricing at Scale
Gas prices change hourly across 8,000+ cities. Aggregating, normalizing, and displaying accurate pricing required a sophisticated data pipeline.
Safe UX for Drivers
Building an app that drivers could safely use at highway speeds demanded a fundamentally different approach to information architecture and interaction design.
A complete road trip platform
Digital Scientists designed and built a multi-platform ecosystem that organized every US interstate exit into a browsable, searchable index — complete with live gas prices, hotel booking, user reviews, and geo-targeted promotions from major national brands.
Intelligence at every exit
Exit-by-exit navigation
RoadNinja organized every US interstate exit into a browsable, searchable index of points of interest. Drivers could see what's at each upcoming exit — gas stations, restaurants, hotels, attractions — without leaving the highway.
Custom-built interstate highway and exit data was aggregated and curated from several sources, combined with OPIS (Oil Price Information Service) for real-time fuel pricing across the country.
Live gas prices & hotel booking
Real-time gas price aggregation across 8,000+ cities helped drivers find the cheapest fuel along their route. Integrated hotel search and booking turned the app into a one-stop travel platform.
Drivers could compare prices at every upcoming exit, view guest ratings and amenities for hotels, and book rooms directly from the app — all without pulling over.
Targeted promotions
Major brands like Subway, McDonald's, and Shell could deliver geo-targeted offers to drivers as they approached relevant exits, creating a new digital advertising channel tied to Lamar's physical billboard network.
The ad platform supported dayparting for delivery of offers and promotions by nearby retailers and restaurants, bridging the gap between outdoor advertising and measurable digital engagement.
Built for the open road
We began by analyzing the complete travel lifecycle — from trip discovery through arrival — and designed features that served drivers at every stage of their journey.
Smart Search
Find gas, food, hotels, and attractions by exit number, city name, or category with predictive search.
Reviews & Ratings
User-generated reviews and ratings for every point of interest helped travelers make informed decisions.
Social Integration
Share favorite stops, routes, and discoveries with friends through integrated social features.
Push Notifications
Location-aware alerts for deals, price drops, and points of interest along the driver's current route.
Trip Planning
Save favorite exits and build custom road trip itineraries with offline access for areas with poor coverage.
Desktop Web App
A full-featured web companion at RoadNinja.com let users plan trips from their computer and sync to mobile.
Nationwide adoption across 48 states
60.5%
iOS Users
39.5%
Android Users
Tech stack & deliverables
Tech Stack
Deliverables
Managing content at scale
Behind the consumer-facing apps, Digital Scientists built two comprehensive admin platforms. The Promotions Admin gave advertisers tools to create, schedule, and geo-target promotional campaigns tied to specific exits and routes. The Reviews Admin provided content moderation, analytics, and quality management across thousands of user-generated reviews.
Promotions Admin
Create, schedule, and geo-target promotional campaigns with dayparting controls for national brands like Subway, McDonald's, and Shell.
Reviews Admin
Moderate user-generated content from Foursquare, Google+, and RoadNinja users. Flag, archive, and manage reviews across 3,400+ listings.
Highway & Exit Admin
Manage the complete interstate directory — exits, points of interest, brand logos, and location data for every highway in the system.
From phone to dashboard
In partnership with AT&T's Drive Studio, Digital Scientists adapted the RoadNinja experience for in-vehicle infotainment systems. The connected car prototype reimagined the app's core functionality — exit navigation, gas prices, and promotions — for the unique constraints of automotive displays, bringing the road trip companion directly into the car's dashboard.
“Lamar Co. merges an app with a highway sign to create an immediate call to action for the consumer.”
— Jonathan Salem Baskin, Ad Age, Oct. 19, 2011
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