DOOH Advertising

Holiday travel and DOOH planning: Meeting the challenge

As major brands gear up for the holiday travel season, we reached out to Patrick Harrison, CMO at Visit Tampa Bay and Lauren Sak, senior marketing director at Intersection, for insights into the best ways to leverage the holiday trends as the DOOH industry continues its long road back from the lockdowns.

Image Provided.

December 20, 2022 by Daniel Brown — Editor, Networld Media Group

As major brands gear up for the holiday travel season, we reached out to Patrick Harrison, CMO at Visit Tampa Bay and Lauren Sak, senior marketing director at Intersection, for insights into the best ways to leverage the holiday trends as the DOOH industry continues its long road back from the lockdowns.

Image provided.

Q.With a mind to consumers and digital marketing, can you share the current overview of travel in the post-lockdown world? What do you foresee in the coming year, and what is your best advice for marketers and businesses in this context?

Sak. It's interesting to note that we saw a nearly consistent presence in this category throughout 2020 and 2021, when many categories went dark. At that time, the vast majority of spend came from local CVBs— for example, a CVB in Michigan advertising to consumers in Chicago, who could drive to their destination within a few hours.

What we've seen this year is again, many American CVBs are advertising across the country. Not necessarily the same ones we saw in 2020/2021, which is interesting to note. We've also seen the re-entrance of international airlines and international destinations. Additionally, we're seeing significant activity from major US hotel and airline brands as they compete in what has been an extremely hot marketplace.

It's hard to say what the coming year will look like. However, there are many reports that show confidence in travel spending despite any economic downturn. Our best advice would be for travel brands to get out there and try OOH (digital as well as traditional) — your competitors are already there!

Image provided.

Q. Recent reports suggest consumers are traveling more, post-lockdowns. What are some of the best ways to leverage this in DOOH? Are people overlooking key opportunities here?

Harrison. Trends show that people are planning travel differently than they did before COVID. The demand for travel is now strong all year long. Competition is growing with all the U.S. fully open. DOOH allows for landscapes with multiple ad units clustered together to create a domination. This allows Visit Tampa Bay's creative to be big and bright, with a variety of layouts to inspire and engage with target audiences.

Image provided.

Q.There is a debate about the power and ROI of leveraging influencers to promote travel. Can you share some thoughts? What are the best promotional tools in the evolving digital marketing landscape, especially as the metaverse blurs the lines between media and verticals?

Sak. We know OOH generates significant social amplification, which could potentially translate to bringing influencer partnerships off the phone, and onto other platforms — like Out of Home. Research shows that nearly half of social media users (48%) engage with the out of home ads that they see in their social feeds by visiting the advertised company's website.

Image provided.

Q. Where is the biggest growth happening in travel, both method (trains, planes, cars, etc.) and destination (domestic, international, regional, timing). What is the trend forecast - is it just a holiday boom, or will we see continued growth?

Harrison. We see sustained growth across all methods of travel. Tampa Bay is lucky to have a number one ranked airport and a popular drive markets nearby. To build awareness for Tampa Bay in Orlando, we map the visitor's journey and target them with DOOH ads within the airport and along their drive as they exit the airport. The creative messaging lets visitors know that Tampa Bay is just a short drive away.

Image provided.

About Daniel Brown

---

Daniel Brown is the editor of Digital Signage Today, a contributing editor for Automation & Self-Service, and an accomplished writer and multimedia content producer with extensive experience covering technology and business. His work has appeared in a range of business and technology publications, including interviews with eminent business leaders, inventors and technologists. He has written extensively on AI and the integration of technology and business strategy with empathy and the human touch. Brown is the author of two novels and a podcaster. His previous experience includes IT work at an Ivy League research institution, education and business consulting, and retail sales and management.