When Audiences Move, Media Planning Must Move With Them

Summer travel patterns are prompting a reevaluation of how marketers approach media planning, according to a guest contribution by Laura Brandes, Senior Director of Agency Partnerships at Vistar Media. Brandes notes that consumer movement through airports, hotels, transit hubs, and other public spaces reached notable levels this summer, creating both challenges and opportunities for brands trying to reach audiences whose daily routines have been disrupted. The piece suggests that traditional channel-first planning — asking which channels deliver efficient reach or hit specific KPIs — may be insufficient when audiences move fluidly between physical and digital touchpoints. Instead, Brandes proposes starting with dynamic location data to understand where audiences spend time, what context surrounds them, and how brands can be present in those moments, positioning out-of-home advertising as a core component of that strategy.

What Does Summer Travel Data Reveal About Audience Movement?

According to guest contributor Laura Brandes, Senior Director of Agency Partnerships at Vistar Media, summer travel this year showed consumer movement reaching what she describes as historic high-water marks. Brandes cites figures indicating the Transportation Security Administration routinely screened upwards of 2.8 million passengers daily at airport security checkpoints, while nearly 45% of Americans reportedly embarked on trips requiring flights or hotel stays, and another 60% traveled over 300 miles by car. These statistics, presented without cited sources or methodology in the contribution, are framed as evidence that audiences are reachable but their days are less predictable, as people move constantly between physical and digital environments making in-the-moment decisions based on surrounding context. Brandes argues this disruption of routine challenges media planning that remains organized around channels first rather than audience location and context.

How Does Data-Driven Targeting Change OOH Effectiveness?

Brandes points to Vistar Media's own analysis of what she describes as hundreds of programmatic digital out-of-home campaigns across consumer packaged goods, finance, automotive, retail, travel, and entertainment categories. According to this self-reported vendor research, campaigns using data-driven targeting delivered stronger lift than those without data targeting, including 40% stronger lift in awareness, 42% stronger lift in consideration, and 11% stronger lift in intent. The contribution presents these findings as pointing to a larger opportunity for out-of-home advertising: the more precisely marketers understand their audiences and the environments they move through, the more relevant the medium can become. Brandes suggests audience data helps identify who to reach, point-of-interest targeting brings campaigns closer to moments of potential action, and contextual signals help brands respond to what is happening around consumers — all capabilities described in the contribution.

Can Cultural Events Extend Brand Reach Beyond the Venue?

The contribution examines cultural events that defined the summer, citing global excitement around the World Cup and what Brandes describes as a massive theatrical box-office revival driven by films including "The Odyssey" and "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" bringing high-density crowds back to multiplexes in record numbers. Brandes argues the impact of such moments extends beyond the venue itself — soccer fans gather at sports bars and restaurants, move through transit hubs and plazas, and spend time in surrounding neighborhoods, while moviegoers often pass through shopping malls and retail corridors before and after screenings. She suggests that by pairing programmatic digital out-of-home with audience- and location-based targeting, marketers can reach consumers across this broader journey, identify where audiences are likely to be, and deliver messages reflecting the moment they are in, allowing out-of-home to become part of real-world moments driving consumer culture rather than simply advertising around them.

Why Should Audience Movement Become a Planning Starting Point?

Brandes contends the implications extend beyond summer. As consumers continue moving between cities, events, travel destinations, retail environments, and other shared spaces, she argues marketers have an opportunity to make those physical environments a more deliberate part of the media plan. This means audience movement and location should become part of the planning equation from the start, according to the contribution. Understanding where consumers are, what they are doing, and what is happening around them creates opportunities to make media more relevant, and out-of-home gives brands a way to act on that understanding in the real world. Brandes frames this summer as having put that behavior in sharper focus, but characterizes the planning opportunity as all year-round.

What Are the Limitations of Channel-First Media Planning?

The contribution identifies a fundamental tension in current media planning approaches. Traditional planning asks which channels deliver the most efficient reach, which hit specific KPIs, and where the next dollar should go. Brandes acknowledges these questions matter but argues they do not tell the whole story when thinking about the context surrounding an impression. Audiences do not move through the world in static or predictable patterns, especially during seasonal shifts. The piece suggests a more complete starting point pairs macro channel planning with dynamic location data, asking where the audience is spending time right now, what context surrounds them, and how the brand can be present in that exact moment. This shift in perspective, Brandes argues, opens up a massive opportunity for out-of-home, especially when backed by data.

How Does Programmatic DOOH Enable Real-Time Relevance?

According to Brandes, the shift toward planning around audience movement and context is not merely conceptual — data is making it possible for brands to put that approach into practice. She describes programmatic digital out-of-home as enabling identification not only of who brands want to reach, but where and when they are most likely to encounter them. The contribution suggests this capability allows marketers to move beyond passive impressions toward being part of the moment, reaching consumers across the broader journey around cultural events and daily movement patterns. Brandes describes these capabilities as audience data, point-of-interest targeting, and contextual signals, though the contribution does not elaborate on the operational mechanics of how these capabilities function.

Why It Matters

For small-business owners, the core takeaway presented in the contribution is that customers' physical movements — where they go, when they go there, and what they're doing in those moments — may matter more for advertising relevance than the specific channel a message appears on. A coffee shop near a transit hub, a retailer in a mall corridor, or a service provider in a neighborhood seeing seasonal foot traffic can benefit from thinking about advertising in terms of location and timing rather than just platform. Understanding the rhythms of local audience movement, whether driven by summer travel, events, or daily commutes, allows even modest budgets to be deployed where potential customers actually are, when they're most receptive.

This perspective shift doesn't require enterprise-scale data infrastructure. Small businesses can start by observing their own foot traffic patterns, noting nearby events or attractions that draw crowds, and considering how their messaging might align with what customers are experiencing in those moments. The principle applies whether buying programmatic digital out-of-home inventory or simply adjusting window signage, social posts, or local partnerships to match the context of the neighborhood on a given day. When audiences move, meeting them where they are — physically and contextually — tends to outperform broadcasting from a fixed channel strategy.