Airport Advertising, Navigating the Skies of Opportunity

With the recent resurgence of travel comes a wealth of advertising opportunities. Frequent travelers often spend a lot of time in airports, and are typically in business or vacation mode, both of which lend themselves to a certain type of spending. This makes the airport a very fruitful OOH advertising hub. What is OOH, you may ask? Out-of-home advertising is signage erected at specific locations outside of your business’s physical location.

If you’re a company looking to connect with your target audience in a new way, promoting in a major airport may be exactly what your marketing efforts need. In this guide, we’ll go over exactly what airport advertising is, how it works, why it works, and how it can boost your business.

Airport advertising is a form of OOH or out-of-home advertising that you see when you’re within an airport. This type of transit advertising is effective because it reaches a wide audience.

When choosing how to optimize your airport advertising budget, consider the many creative and dynamic options available.
First, consider how extensive an average trip through an airport is for a frequent flyer. That person may see a bus or shuttle with a banner plastered on the side as soon as he or she arrives at the airport. After going through security, that person may sit down for a bite to eat and reach for the tablet at the restaurant table to put in their order. Digital ads will pop up between menu items as that person scrolls through the menu.

Since airports are confined spaces with lots of people moving through them, they are great places for advertisers to reach their target audiences.

Let’s walk through some of the different options for airport advertising:
Airport buses & shuttles – This includes static stickers that you see posted on the outside of buses as well as digital ads that you see on screens inside the buses and shuttles.
Banners – These will vary greatly in size and can be plastered on the walls anywhere around the airport.
Digital video screens –These are typically mounted to the walls and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes with the ability to constantly oscillate or remain the same.
Spectaculars – These are typically a very large and bold piece, which makes them one of the more expensive options but makes it VERY hard for the consumer to miss.
Digital kiosks – These are free-standing digital ads similar to where you’d find the map at a shopping mall, typically placed at a person’s eye level.
Digital restaurant tablets – Many restaurants now offer ordering through a table tablet, it’ll often have games to play, access to wifi, etc—another smart spot to grab consumer’s attention.
Luggage pushcarts – This is a unique and fun option because you won’t control exactly where the cart will go. Airport goers will push the cart around for you and expose your airport advertisement as they do so.
Baggage claim displays – Airport dwellers often spend at least five to twenty minutes waiting for their bags at baggage claim, this is a clever time to attract them to your product.

Travelers are often more willing to engage and spend while in “travel mode.”
The benefits of airport advertising include:
Large foot traffic area
24/7 brand messaging
Cost-effective
An abundance of display options
An unskippable and welcome distraction for the consumer

Captive Audience
The audience at an airport is captive and attentive, making it a good place for advertisers to reach out to travelers.

According to the OAAA, digital airport OOH engages consumers and drives action:
When asked how often they noticed digital airport ads, 54% of study participants responded “all” or “most” of the time.

68% of study participants said they engaged in follow-up actions after they saw a digital airport ad. A study of consumers who were exposed to digital ads in an airport found that 68% of participants reported engaging in follow-up actions after seeing an airport advertisement. These actions included searching for a brand on a search engine, visiting the brand’s website, or stopping by the brand’s brick-and-mortar and social media locations.

A Omnipresent and Welcome Distraction For Travelers
In general, OOH advertising is difficult for consumers to ignore because the ads cannot be skipped, fast-forwarded, or muted. This is even more prevalent for airport dwellers. Travelers must remain in the terminal until their flight leaves and may look for something to distract them while they wait. This makes it very likely that they will engage with the ads surrounding them at some point.

Travelers Are Ready to Spend
People who travel tend to have a certain amount of money that they are primed and ready to spend.
Affluent travelers – People who travel regularly, typically tend to be on the affluent end of the economic spectrum and therefore are more likely to spend money on products that are advertised to them in the airport.
Vacation mode travelers – People save up money for vacations and tend to feel more comfortable spending money on products when they are already in the mindset that they are on vacation and therefore it is okay to splurge.
Business mode travelers – People who travel for business are often in the mindset of making deals, discovering new ideas, and exploring new territory, making them open and receptive to new products.
Media buyers can tailor their campaigns to reach target audiences, such as the travel enthusiast who takes two vacations a year and wants a memorable experience or the businessman who takes the same early-morning flight Monday through Friday.

When you decide to use airport advertising for your business, it is important to make sure that your advertising budget is spent wisely and productively.
Things to consider:
Location – Do you want to place a spectacular or will your target audience appreciate a smaller more nuanced kiosk display?
Timing – Since a lot of advertising has gone digital you can decide exactly what and when your ads are shown.
Is the message clear and precise? – Whatever campaign you decide on, make sure that the message you want to get across is strong, bold, and crisp.
Will it attract consumers? – Do you want your message to be bold, flashy, and in your face? Or simple, cool, and laid back?
Will it convert consumers to customers? – The airport will give your campaign the visibility it needs, all you have to do is look for the right method to grab the consumers’ attention and show them how your product will benefit them.

Airports are hubs of activity, which makes them excellent venues for advertisements. However, buying ads in airports can be tricky because there are many options.
You can buy one large advertisement at the front of a terminal or you can spread out your budget by purchasing several smaller ads throughout the airport. Whether you choose to go big or small, True Impact Media is here to help simplify OOH advertising in airports for you.

Using True Impact’s universal OOH media buying platform, managing your airport advertising campaign has never been easier. With this platform, you will be able to streamline every aspect of your campaign from start to finish.