As the days shorten and the holiday spirit fills the air, a diverse wave of winter travelers emerges—each seeking unique experiences. From families yearning to reconnect over the holidays to travelers seeking sunny escapes or the thrill of snowy slopes, the motivations are as varied as the destinations themselves. For marketers, this presents a golden opportunity to connect with a highly engaged audience through digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising.
With the average consumer expected to spend $730 this holiday season and 81% actively searching for deals and promotions, according to Epsilon, strategically capturing their attention through targeted messaging is essential for maximizing impact. Eye-catching DOOH advertisements placed in strategic locations can guide travelers toward their next adventure, enhancing their overall experience while amplifying brand visibility.
Why out-of-home is effective for reaching winter travelers
One of the top advantages of DOOH advertising is its ability to reach consumers while they are on the move. In fact, 76% of recent DOOH ad viewers reported taking action as a result of seeing a DOOH ad, demonstrating the strong impact this medium can have on consumer behavior.
With travel spending for the 2024 holiday season trending upward, brands can effectively capture the attention of travelers in prime locations—whether it’s at airports, along busy highways, in key retail locations or at their final travel destination. According to a survey conducted by NerdWallet and The Harris Poll, nearly half of Americans expect to spend money on flights and hotels during the holiday season, with an average expenditure of $2,330—up from last year’s average of $1,947, as reported by eMarketer.
As a result, DOOH can be a critical touchpoint for brands during the winter travel season. Here’s why and how the channel can help you have a greater impact:
Increased exposure opportunities: DOOH placements can be strategically placed in areas with high concentrations of winter travelers, ensuring that brand messages reach travelers at pivotal moments in their journey.
Captive audiences: Winter travelers can face longer journeys and potential delays, especially due to inclement weather. This can lead to increased dwell time in airports, train stations and on roads, making them especially receptive to out-of-home ads. Additionally, winter travel often involves seeking new experiences or celebrating the holidays. Brands can tap into these seasonal motivations through their ad messaging and creative strategy—even incorporating interactive elements like QR codes to drive lower funnel conversions.
Precise audience targeting: Advancements in programmatic technology enable sharper audience targeting, ensuring brands can connect with the right audience at the right time. This includes demographic targeting based on age, gender and income; behavioral targeting using data on audience interests and purchase history; and geolocation targeting for location-specific ads. This granular level of targeting can be further enhanced by leveraging first-party data, allowing brands to reach their most valuable customers with personalized messages based on past behaviors and preferences.
Real time relevance: As travelers journey through various regions, their experiences are continuously shaped by the real-time conditions they encounter—whether it's the weather, time of day or the nature of the local environment. With DOOH, brands can adapt to dynamic factors and deliver contextually relevant messages that resonate with travelers at the right moment.
Weather-triggered campaigns, for example, allow brands to activate media based on current conditions. In fact, a recent report from OAAA found that 81% of consumers find ads with product offers related to current weather conditions highly relevant and useful. For instance, during a snowstorm, ads for a warm weather getaway might be displayed, while on a sunny day, ads promoting outdoor activities could take over.
Dynamic creative provides even more flexibility, allowing brands to automatically adapt ad elements based on real-time data inputs like location, time of day, weather, local events and more. For example, dynamic creative can display a holiday travel countdown on digital billboards, adjusting messaging as the season progresses.
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Venue types for large-scale reach
Sometimes, it’s necessary to cast a wider net to achieve campaign goals. To reach a broader audience of winter travelers, marketers can strategically deploy a variety of DOOH formats across key venue types. This includes, but is not limited to:
Billboards: With their commanding presence and expansive canvases, billboards offer a powerful way to capture attention and make a lasting impression. Strategically placed along busy highways, near transportation hubs and in high-traffic areas, billboards can reach a vast audience of on-the-go winter travelers, delivering impactful messages and memorable visuals.
Street furniture and transit: Bus shelters, urban panels and other street-level placements offer high visibility in pedestrian-heavy areas, making them ideal for reaching travelers exploring a new city or enjoying winter activities. Transit hubs, such as train stations and bus terminals, provide additional touchpoints where brands can engage tourists, maximizing exposure in high-traffic locations.
Airports: As gateways to adventure, airports offer a captive audience of travelers with dwell time and a receptive mindset. This is especially true during the holiday season, when airports experience a dramatic surge in passenger traffic—mid-size hubs see increases of up to 23%, while larger hubs experience a significant 16% jump. Digital displays—strategically placed near gates, baggage claims, retail stores and lounges—can showcase enticing destinations, last-minute travel deals, exciting promotions and exclusive offers. Interactive kiosks also provide travelers with valuable information and contextually relevant recommendations, further enhancing their journey and capturing attention. Learn more: Why DOOH airport advertising should be in your marketing plan
Hyper-targeting for maximum impact
Certain place-based media venue types offer a unique advantage for marketers by allowing them to target specific audiences with precision. By strategically placing ads in locations frequented by winter travelers, brands can tailor their messaging to resonate with specific demographics and interests, creating a more engaging and relevant experience. With programmatic technology, marketers can further refine targeting using demographic, behavioral and POI data, reaching audiences with greater efficiency and scale. Consider the following venue types to hone in on your target audiences and deliver ads in the moments that matter:
Malls and shopping centers: Malls and shopping centers draw consumers looking for shopping, entertainment and dining. With these venues, brands can target specific demographics by strategically placing ads near contextually relevant stores or highlighting seasonal events near popular gathering areas.
Hotels and resorts: Reaching travelers where they stay allows for highly relevant messaging. For example, luxury hotels can feature ads for high-end winter gear, spa treatments or fine dining experiences—while budget-friendly accommodations can highlight nearby attractions, affordable restaurants and family-friendly activities.
Entertainment venues: From bars and sports stadiums to live music venues and movie theaters, entertainment venues draw in consumers seeking unique experiences. DOOH placements within these diverse settings can enhance the visitor experience and capture attention when travelers are actively engaged and open to new discoveries.
Niche locations: Place-based DOOH also thrives in specialized locations, allowing brands to target winter travelers that meet certain demographics in more focused settings, such as golf courses and ski slopes.
Edison Interactive: Putting niche audience targeting into practice
Reaching a niche audience, like affluent winter travelers, calls for a targeted marketing approach that resonates with their preference for exclusive and high-quality experiences. To effectively engage this demographic, marketers can leverage premium environments, such as golf courses and ski resorts, where these travelers are likely to spend their time.
Edison Interactive, with over 16,000 screens across their golf and ski venues, enables brands to engage with affluent audiences in premium environments. Their inventory includes interactive digital displays inside golf carts, large-format indoor and outdoor screens in high-traffic areas around ski resorts and the world’s first digital screens on chairlifts.
Why focus on golf and ski audiences? Consider these insights:
- High propensity for travel: More than two-thirds of golfers planned to take a golf-related trip in 2024, while 55% of ski trips were overnight
- Significant disposable income: According to the National Ski Areas Association, 35% of skiers have household incomes exceeding $200k, while the National Golf Foundation reports that 36% of golfers have household incomes over $200k and $125k, respectively.
- Year-round engagement: Golf enjoys year-round activity, particularly in southern US states during the winter months
- Continued growth: Golf travelers were projected to exceed 12 million in 2024, and ski resort visitation continues its upward trend.
As Nick Haggard, RVP of Sales at Edison Interactive, states, “Affluent audiences typically pay for ad-free subscriptions, making them challenging to target. Edison Interactive's DOOH network on-site at golf courses and ski resorts reaches this affluent audience via engaging displays that provide valuable content and therefore earn a very engaged viewer. Layering this affluent audience targeting in a brand's omnichannel strategy and transacting via Vistar's programmatic platform creates both a cost-effective and efficient marketing tactic."
Conclusion
As the winter season inspires diverse travel motivations, DOOH advertising is a powerful channel for audience engagement. Whether casting a wide net with captivating billboards or honing in on specific demographics in niche environments like ski resorts and golf courses, DOOH provides the flexibility and impact needed to elevate winter campaigns. By delivering targeted messaging, creating memorable experiences and capturing attention at key moments during the travel journey, DOOH empowers brands to connect with winter travelers in meaningful ways, leaving a lasting impression that extends beyond the season.
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