Latest / The CMO Podcast with Fexingo: Marketing Leadership, Budgets, and Executive Strategy / Why CMOs Are Betting on In-Flight Brand Experiences
Transcript
- Lucas: So Delta Air Lines reported last quarter that their in-flight advertising revenue grew 22 percent year-over-year. And that number is not just a blip — United and American are scaling their own ad platforms too, basically turning the cabin into a media channel. Luna: I've definitely noticed more brands on seat-back screens. But is this actually a real media channel, or is it just a side hustle for airlines? Lucas: That's exactly the question CMOs are asking. Look, airplane cabins are one of the last truly captive environments. No ad blockers at 30,000 feet. Average domestic flight block time is about two hours and fourteen minutes. International long-haul can be six-plus hours. That's a lot of unfilled attention. Luna: But people are watching movies, working, sleeping. How do you actually capture attention without being annoying? Lucas: Airlines are getting smarter about it. Delta's SkyMiles program now has over 100 million members, so they know who you are, where you're going, even what you might be in the market for. A seat-back ad for a luggage brand when you're flying to vacation — that's contextual relevance without being creepy. Luna: Let's get specific. Give me one brand that's doing this well. Lucas: Kohler — the kitchen and bath fixtures company. They ran a campaign on Delta where the seat-back screen showed a short vignette of a modern bathroom renovation during the pre-landing safety video. Not a hard sell, just lifestyle imagery. Then the tray table had a peel-off sticker with a QR code linking to a virtual room designer. Luna: That is specific. Did they measure lift? Lucas: Delta runs brand lift studies for advertisers. In Kohler's case, unaided recall among business travelers who saw the campaign was 18 percent above the category norm. And site traffic from the QR code was 12 percent higher during the flight window than the same hours the previous week. Luna: But 18 percent lift — is that just novelty? People aren't used to seeing a bathtub ad on a tray table. Lucas: Novelty definitely helps. But the real argument CMOs are making is about attention quality. A seat-back screen gets three to five minutes of continuous eye contact during a safety video or a short film. Compare that to a social media ad that gets maybe 2.5 seconds before a thumb scrolls past. Luna: I remember reading a study from Lumen that said in-flight ads have an average view time of 11 seconds. That's enormous. Lucas: Exactly. On digital display, average view time is around 1.7 seconds. So you're getting roughly six times the attention. And because there's no multitasking — no second screen during the safety video — the cognitive load is lower. The message actually lands. Luna: But there's a cost. What's the CPM on an in-flight campaign compared to, say, a connected TV ad? Lucas: It's higher. Delta's in-flight media network, which they call Delta Flight Products, charges around 40 to 60 dollars CPM for a full-flight takeover of the seat-back screens. Connected TV averages around 25 to 35. So you're paying a premium for attention quality. Luna: And that premium works if your product has a high average order value or a long consideration cycle. A $60 CPM makes sense for a luxury car or a kitchen remodel, not so much for a pack of gum. Lucas: Right. And that's why you're seeing luxury, automotive, and premium consumer packaged goods as the biggest categories. But there's another angle: frequency. Most travelers fly the same airline repeatedly. Delta's loyalty program lets them retarget the same passenger on a return flight with a follow-up message. Luna: So it's almost like sequential messaging within a trip. Day one you see the brand intro, day five on the way back you see a special offer. Lucas: Exactly. United has a product called United Media that does exactly that. They can serve an ad on the outbound flight, then on the return flight show a different creative. It's basically a two-flight funnel. Luna: I'm curious about the creative itself. Is it just repurposed TV spots, or are brands making custom content for the cabin? Lucas: More and more are going custom. Because the environment is different. People are seated, they're not in a rush. A 30-second spot that works on broadcast feels too fast in a cabin. Some brands are experimenting with two-minute documentary-style films. BMW did a short film about their design process that ran as pre-roll before the feature film. Luna: That's a completely different creative strategy. How do you measure that against a 15-second YouTube preroll? Lucas: You can't use the same metrics. Airlines offer brand lift, recall, and sometimes purchase intent via post-flight surveys. But there's also a playback metric: how many passengers watched the full creative. For BMW, completion rates were above 80 percent, which is unheard of on digital. Luna: So the argument CMOs are making is: pay more for attention, get more brand building. Is that sustainable as more advertisers pile in? Lucas: That's the risk. As supply stays fixed — there are only so many seat-back screens — CPMs could rise. But the airlines are expanding inventory. Delta is adding digital signage in boarding areas and lounges. American is testing in-seat tablet rentals on some routes. The channel is scaling. Luna: What about the passenger backlash risk? If it becomes too ad-heavy, people might resent it. Lucas: Airlines are careful about that. Most ads are limited to pre-roll before the safety video or during the final descent. They're not interrupting movies. And there's an opt-out option: you can mute or skip. But the data shows very low skip rates — around 3 percent. People seem to accept it as part of the in-flight experience. Luna: Interesting. So the captive audience is real, but only if you respect the captivity. Lucas: Exactly. Now, one thing I've been watching is whether this channel works for products you can't buy on the plane. Kohler isn't an impulse purchase at 35,000 feet. But the brand lift numbers suggest that planting a seed during a flight can pay off when the traveler returns home and starts researching home improvement. Luna: That's a longer attribution window. How do they connect the flight exposure to a purchase that happens weeks later? Lucas: Delta partners with third-party measurement firms that use panel data. They survey a group of passengers who saw the ad and a control group on the same flight who didn't. Then they track online search behavior and site visits over the next 30 days. For Kohler, the exposed group showed a 14 percent higher rate of searching 'bathroom renovation ideas' within a week. Luna: That's pretty concrete. So for CMOs who are tired of the attention fragmentation on social media, the airplane cabin is like a time machine back to the era of linear TV, but with better targeting. Lucas: Yeah, that's a good way to put it. And if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own work, consider supporting the show. Luna: It genuinely makes a difference. A couple of dollars a month is what keeps these episodes ad-free. Lucas: If you're inclined, buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's all lowercase. And thank you for being part of this community. Luna: All right. So back to the cabin. What's the next frontier for in-flight ads — virtual reality? Augmented reality on tray tables? Lucas: I think the next big thing is personalization based on loyalty data. If Delta knows you're a frequent flyer to ski destinations, they can serve you a ski gear ad on the flight to Denver. That's the kind of relevance that makes the channel defensible against ad fatigue. Luna: And that's where the CMO opportunity really sits: turning the cabin from a general broadcast medium into a one-to-one brand conversation. Lucas: Exactly. And as linear TV continues to fragment, the airplane might become one of the last places where a brand can guarantee a focused audience for minutes at a time. That's a bet worth watching.