Marketers target fliers roaming airports

NEW YORK -- The companies that control the wall spaces and displays in the country's 500 commercial airports have been upgrading their offerings from static posters and billboards to digital displays marketers are using to spew news, talk to people or blast music and images.

This week they'll compete for the attention of the 27 million people the Air Transport Association estimates will travel by air Nov. 16-27.

"The digital medium is in its infancy in out-of-home advertising," says Bernard Parisot, CEO of ad company JCDecaux North America. "We are working with advertisers to find the best ways to use this medium to make the most out of it."

Airport advertising is on the rise, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA).

"Airports have a captive audience," says Steve Freitas, vice president of marketing for OAAA. "The content can be a little deeper and richer because consumers have more time to stop, which makes storytelling more compelling."

That audience also is captive far longer that in the past: Parisot estimates people average two hours in commercial airports before flights depart, double the time before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"When you are departing and have to go through security, you spend a lot more time than you used to," he says. "Airports are much more attractive to advertisers because they have more time to communicate with their target audience.

Taking flight with digital ads:

•Xbox. More than a million people a month move through an underground, 600-foot corridor in Terminal 9 at New York's John F. Kennedy International. Microsoft has lined the tunnel with 7,000 square feet of advertising created by ad buyer Universal McCann in San Francisco. The space includes 40 Samsung 70-inch, high-definition screens and 100 speakers and has featured campaigns for Vista and Office PC software, but Friday a campaign for Xbox 360 went up for the holidays. "If you can make it a fun experience, the audience is like, 'Holy cow,' and we are, like, 'We gotcha.' " says Robert Martin, Universal McCann group communications director.