Billboard Insider talked with Intersection CEO Chris Grosso about how an increase in travel ad spending is helping out of home.
Looks to Billboard Insider like airports are becoming more crowded. Are you seeing any statistics that back this up?
It’s totally true. The TSA tracks and reports this and this is something we watch because we have assets in the airports work. What we’ve seen from the TSA data is 4th July for instance was the highest traffic day ever. I think revenge travel is still up and running. Passenger screened in US airports were up 11% in June 2023. It’s clear people are out and about, they’re flying, they’re going on vacation. Our business representing airports and airlines is very strong this year as well as the advertising in those categories on all of our assets.
You’re also seeing people combining leisure and business travel. Lots of people are doing trips for work and leaving extra time or working remote in a vacation area.
Are there any parts of the travel sector that have a higher demand for out of home?
It’s been strong across the board. Tourism councils, visitor bureaus and convention boards that historically bought out of home and have really ramped up their spending. We’re seeing demand from some of the travel agencies and or travel boards in Florida and the Caribbean. We’ve seen a tremendous amount of strength in hotels and airlines. A lot of hotel groups are spending a lot with us to promote business and their loyalty programs. International travel is back and you are seeing a lot of demand from the international airlines that are launching in our cities. We’ll see an airline that’s opening up in a city like San Francisco or Seattle, and ramp up their ad dollars to tell people they’re now flying into those destinations.
Are there particular out of home assets that travel sector clients are really interested in?
With street furniture you can hyper target digital advertising in high demand areas for travel. We’ve got a lot of assets in places like New York and Philadelphia to do that. We see a lot of demand for Link kiosks and bus shelters. I am encouraged by a return of demand for station dominations where you might take the World Trade Center station in NYC, or 30th St. in Philadelphia. Travel brands take over those stations to get a higher frequency of travelers now that the commuters are back. You reach commuters with repeated messages and eventually they think to themselves, “Maybe I should go on that trip to the Bahamas.” What’s nice about station dominations is you can put big and creative executions in place.
Are subways coming back as well as airports and street furniture?
What we’re seeing is people are back to work again – maybe three days a week – but they’re back to work. They’re back on the trains and even you know if ridership is lower that’s because people are on the train six times a week not ten times a week so you know the reach is still similar. I think what people now are recognizing is the interior rail in stations is now something worth getting back into. We definitely see an uptick in those types of products, particularly station dominations.
What’s interesting about station dominations as a product is you’re usually getting a lot of people who are coming in and out of work or for events but we’re also getting many of these are really adjacent to major venues like a stadium. One of the biggest drivers of recent transit ridership was these Taylor Swift concerts where a large number of fans took the train.
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