Airports : B2B advertising mecca
Considered one of the most highly desirable ad
locations anywhere, airports attract the most dominant
business-to-business (B2B) advertisers. The out-of-home
advertising industry posts more B2B ads in airports
than any other transit hub, urban
business centre, or elsewhere.
Out-of-home advertising in
airports captures the
attention of passengers
at every step of their airport
experience - as they enter via
ticketing, proceed along the
concourses, at gate areas and in
the jet bridges as they enter the
aircraft. On the plane, advertising
can now be seen on seat backs.
Upon return, add baggage claim
and ground transportation, and
the power of airport advertising
is omnipresent.
One outdoor advertising
company’s airport displays deliver
over one billion targeted
advertising exposures annually
and every day, the company’s
digital ad networks reach 6 out of
10 American air travellers. The
Outdoor Advertising Association
of America’s airport research
indicates 81% of frequent
flyers can be reached at least
once during a three-month ad
campaign and 82% of frequent
flyers say they actually read
airport advertising. This is the kind
of attention advertisers die for.
With more people travelling
by air than ever before, it may
be the only ad medium with a
growing audience which is
certainly contributing to the
strength of airport advertising.
Airports provide a unique way to
reach a highly attractive, elusive
audience. Because frequent
business travellers are the
backbone of the airline industry
and airports are where more
influential and affluent people
congregate than anywhere else on
the globe, the outdoor ad industry
regards airports as practically a
point-of-purchase for businessto-
business marketers.
The growing visual creativity and
emerging technology of today’s
outdoor ads are capturing the
attention of the hard-to-reach
business traveller. Unlike most
traditional media that’s finding
new technologies are making it
harder to hold onto their
audience, the opposite is true for
outdoor. The cutting-edge digital
technology that is currently being
introduced in airports goes handin-
hand with the airport trend of
creating kiosks for passengers to
expedite and arrange their own
travel needs. This technology
includes the use of bluetooth and
text messaging that allows hectic
business travellers to interact with
ads and digital networked signs.
Digital ads with the ability to
change content instantly permits
airport advertisers to change the
text of their ad every few seconds
from a remote location. Thanks
to this new digital media, the
oldest ad medium is undergoing
a radical transformation and
outdoor ad companies reports
they’re having great results from
the interactive displays installed in
a number of airports.
According to Helene Goldfine,
vice president of research for
Clear Channel Airports, new
categories are emerging in airport
business-to-business advertising.
For example, legal firms have
become one of the largest
segments of airport advertisers.
Lawyers have decided that if they
want to hire lawyers, they should
advertise where lawyers are - in
airports. Goldfine notes other
airport trends include campaigns
going into multiple airports for
longer periods of time. And since
the FAA began mandating
passengers arrive at airports at
least one to two hours prior to
departure, advertising viewing
time in airports is now measured
in hours, not seconds or minutes
as with other media.
One of the biggest trends in
advertising in airports is toward
domination and larger size
displays — as in ‘construction site’
size or ‘indoor outdoor.’ Current
thinking is ‘the bigger the better
and then let’s go bigger than that,’
according to Bob Cilia, executive
vice president of sales and
marketing at JCDecaux NA.
Advertisers want new ways
to dominate in the airport
environment and are using larger
format signs to do that. To Cila,
airports are literally cathedrals
where advertising stands out.
The future of airport advertising
will bring more innovative and
interactive advertising designed to
enhance the ambience of the
airport, improve services to
passengers, and provide state-ofthe-
art solutions to enable
advertisers to reach their target
audience.
For more information on out-ofhome
airport advertising, contact
Alexandra Walsh at 301-523-3318
awalsh@oaaa.org or Heidi
Kershaw at 202-833-5566
hkershaw@oaaa.org.
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