Travel Media Offer Omnichannel Reach for Brands: United’s Aaron Gallagher

CANNES – In-flight magazines and catalogs are rarely found on planes these days, but that doesn’t mean marketers are left without ways to engage consumers throughout their travel experiences. With the launch of Kinective Media, carrier United Airlines is setting up a version of a retail media network to help advertisers reach advanced audiences. “We’re able to target travelers with messaging from marketers throughout the entire traveler journey, whether that’s while they’re thinking about traveling, when they’re in the airport and then when they’re on the flight,” Aaron Gallagher, managing director and head of sales at Kinective Media by United Airlines, said in this interview with Lisa Granatstein, editorial director of Beet.TV at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. “When you think about that full omni-channel experience, it really provides commerce opportunities for advertisers,” Gallagher said. “While there’re lower-funnel metrics that can be a part of this, there’s a lot of upper-funnel metrics as well.” Retailers that sell advertising make up one of the fastest-growing areas of the media marketplace. United sees similar opportunities in what’s being called travel media. Like retailers that have deep troves of first-party data about their loyal shoppers, United has individualized information about members of its MileagePlus frequent-flyer program. “When we thought about it, we were like, ‘We’re really sitting on something exciting here,’” Gallagher said. “We have such a great owned and operated experience, whether it’s on United.com, on the United app, through all the presence within our airports and in our lounges and gate information displays.” In-Flight Entertainment Airlines have a captive audience of consumers who often are looking for ways to pass the time between takeoff and landing. With video screens on the backs of its plane seats, United seeks to help marketers to reach consumers with undivided attention. “There is a history of advertising in in-flight entertainment, but when we thought about future and opportunities that existed, we made a decision to commission about 800 new planes,” Gallagher said. “There’s about 200 new planes that are part of the fleet right now and on those 200 planes, there’s a new dynamic in-flight entertainment system.” Marketers have fretted that stricter privacy laws and the gradual disappearance of browser tracking cookies have added to challenges of ad targeting and retargeting. United can sidestep those hurdles with the ability to identify passengers. “You have to show your driver’s license, your passport when you’re traveling,” Gallagher said. “We’re able to get targeted in terms of knowing exactly who is sitting in what seat and being able to target people who are sitting in first-class, being able to target by destination.” Marketers can run what is known as dynamic advertising, which customizes messaging based on the characteristics of the viewer. “Ultimately, the average flight time for United is about three and a half hours, and people are engaging with screens for over two hours,” Gallagher said. “Being able to get targeted to the consumer by the seat level and be able to surprise and delight them and deliver relevant advertising that might be interesting to them, it’s something that’s really compelling.” You’re watching “Traveler Media Takes Off,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series presented by Kinective Media by United Airlines. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.