Renovation and expansion of airports all over the world continues at a rapid pace as flyer demands grow and change. As a result, we’ve seen an increased drive for more integrated advertising within the airport environment, focused on reflecting passenger journeys and enhancing these through service provision. James McEwan, Managing Director, PSI, looks at four factors enabling more engaging and timely advertising from operators throughout the travel sector:

1. Renovation and expansion of airports all over the world continues
at a rapid pace as flyer demands grow and change. As a result,
we’ve seen an increased drive for more integrated advertising
within the airport environment, focused on reflecting passenger
journeys and enhancing these through service provision.
Here are four factors enabling more engaging and timely
advertising from operators throughout the travel sector:
Four Key Factors
that will Accelerate
Air Travel Advertising
in 2019 By James McEwan, Managing Director, PSI

2. 1.
As the collection, interpretation and
simulation of data becomes ever more
sophisticated, we can better respond to,
and even anticipate, passenger traffic
growth and volatility in response to real-
world events. Our close partnership
with travel experts ForwardKeys is
giving us expansive global passenger
data access, and enhanced
interpretation and forecasting of this is
enabling us to create more targeted and
relevant location-based communications
throughout the Global Travel Corridor
(GTC).
Data

3. Greater data access and sharing
is aiding more enhanced personal
experiences in terms of communicating
with passengers, servicing passengers
and retailing to passengers, the latter
particularly driven in response to
Generation Z’s purchase behaviours.
Digital technology now enables
advertisers to serve dynamic content
to specific locations, in real-time and in
multiple local languages.
Visa Bank of China recently took
advantage of this capability to activate
English and Mandarin content across
a range of travel touchpoints including
within the airport, downtown and in
visitor hotel rooms.
Personalisation
of Experiences2.

4. Increased device connectivity will have
a significant impact throughout the
travel corridor, blending the offline and
online worlds. A great example of this is
FLIO’s app, which is currently connected
to around 3,000 airports globally,
providing wayfinding information, but
also additional features such as lounge
booking access, parking reservations,
plus promotional vouchers for shop
and restaurant use. FLIO has recently
partnered with easyJet which will have
a very positive impact on its passenger
reach and penetration.
JD Sport’s latest airport-based targeted
campaign integrated tactical digital
screen placements with location-based
messaging on the FLIO app, delivering
significant footfall increases and
forecast-beating product sales.
Airports themselves are also
increasingly investing in their own digital
infrastructure to engage passengers
before, during and after travel to
improve the experience. Gatwick has
installed 2,000 navigation beacons
throughout its terminals to support
its “App, App & Away” service which
provides personalised, real-time flight
updates, gate information, check-in and
security queue times, plus shopping,
eating and airport offers, all instantly
redeemable from your phone.
Increased
Connectivity for
Travellers
3.

5. In Asia there is huge growth in
downtown duty-free retail which is
fundamentally changing the travel
purchase funnel and a trend that will
quickly reach other territories.
Digital transformation is set to change
this even further - a growing array of
price comparison and customer advice
platforms are entering the market and
it’s been estimated that between 50-
75% of Chinese travellers now plan
shopping lists and locations ahead of
travel. Here’s where on and offline
begin to work in harmony in the travel
corridor. Research has found that
online touchpoints can increase the
likelihood of visiting duty-free shops by
40% and the probability of making a
purchase by over 100%.
Airlines are increasingly partnering
with airports and duty-free operators to
offer passengers a more diverse and
personalised shopping experience -
accessing this wherever and whenever
they want to shop. Driven by the Asian
market, many passengers can now
pre-order purchases and arrange to
pick these up at the airport or even have
them delivered to their seats. Home
and hotel delivery for such duty-free
purchases is not far away.
Digital
Duty Free
4.

6. Overall, the travel sector is becoming an
increasingly complex commercial landscape
for advertisers to navigate. With increased
penetration of new technologies to assist
passengers throughout their travel, and much
wider duty-free influence on purchase funnels,
it is important to understand how the power of
all these different touchpoints and the data from
them can be most effectively harnessed.
The focus for brands must now be on the
end-to-end engagement of audiences
throughout the entirety of their journey -
it no longer begins and ends at the airport -
and advertisers need to adopt a much more
omni-channel approach. An effective campaign
will need to communicate with travellers at
numerous offline and online touchpoints across
the Global Travel Corridor.