Advertising

Travel brands are upping ad spend

They plan to dish out 27% more on media spend in the second half of this year than initially expected, per an IAB survey.
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If you’re one of the many travelers who’ve dealt with flight cancellations, lost luggage, and one too many glasses of overpriced airport wine while waiting out a delay, you can (partly) blame advertisers.

Why? They’ve been upping their ad spend this year, using all kinds of tactics to convince people to take a few more days of PTO and book a trip.

  • According to MediaRadar data cited by Digiday, ad spend in the travel sector increased to $2.1 billion in the first half of this year, an 83% jump compared to the same period last year.
  • Travel brands spent nearly $560 million during the first half of 2022 on TV advertising, according to iSpot, up 151% from the year prior, Insider reported.
  • In the second half of this year, US travel brands plan to dish out 27% more on media spend than initially expected, per an IAB survey.

But what about the recession…? Some marketers are taking a potential downturn and inflation into account. As Ad Age recently pointed out, brands ranging from RV-rental company Outdoorsy to Discover Puerto Rico are being strategic with their campaigns. The latter, for instance, is “targeting US markets where airfare to Puerto Rico is lowest and avoiding regions with costlier flight increases.”

Others are taking a more, uh, aspirational route.

+1: This week, Cosmopolitan—the magazine, not the Vegas casino—debuted CosmoTrips, a trip-booking platform that handles “all of the curating and headaching for you and your entire crew.”—MS

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