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. For small businesses, the contribution suggests 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.

Summer Travel Data

Guest contributor Laura Brandes, Senior Director of Agency Partnerships at Vistar Media, 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 are presented without cited sources or methodology in the contribution. Brandes describes summer travel this year as reaching what she calls historic high-water marks, with audiences reachable but their days less predictable as people move constantly between physical and digital environments making in-the-moment decisions based on surrounding context. She argues this disruption of routine challenges media planning that remains organized around channels first rather than audience location and context.

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. 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. Brandes 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. She identifies three capabilities: audience data, point-of-interest targeting, and contextual signals, though the contribution does not elaborate on the operational mechanics of how these capabilities function.

Cultural Events

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.

Channel-First Planning Limitations

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. Brandes contends 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. She argues the implications extend beyond summer, characterizing the planning opportunity as all year-round as consumers continue moving between cities, events, travel destinations, retail environments, and other shared spaces.