The commerce media space is growing fast, and as it gets more crowded, it’s becoming harder to keep up with the retail media giants. But by teaming up, smaller players can more easily scale their networks to achieve the reach to stay competitive.
That’s why United Airlines’ Kinective Media is now syndicating its commerce media technology platform—starting with JetBlue as its first partner.
- This partnership allows JetBlue to leverage proven technology without building its own media infrastructure from scratch, which is time- and cost-intensive.
“We will be deploying our Kinective technology stack into JetBlue’s environment,” said Richard Nunn, CEO of United Airlines’ MileagePlus program and head of Kinective Media. “And there’s a future pathway where we can deploy the remaining part of our technology across their digital channels over time.”
- Kinective Media will handle JetBlue's in-flight media sales, deploy off-site technology capabilities, and potentially expand across all of JetBlue's digital channels over time.
- Meanwhile, United will move some of its holiday and travel services to JetBlue's travel platform, Paisley, creating additional monetization opportunities.
A wider reach: The partnership works because the airlines serve distinct customer bases that complement rather than compete.
- The combined audience of roughly 210 million travelers creates a more compelling proposition for advertisers.
- “We’re going to be adding about another roughly 40 million travelers to the domestic ecosystem. They’re Boston-centric, JFK-centric, down to Florida and the Caribbean. Definitely incremental to the scale that United has,” said Nunn.
Travel media networks offer unique advantages over shopping-focused platforms, particularly for non-endemic advertising.
- Unlike retail environments where context is limited to shopping, travel media captures consumers across multiple high-engagement touchpoints.
- “We have multiple screens across the travel journey, and the cherry on the cake is obviously the in-flight screen,” said Nunn, noting the average in-flight dwell time is three and a half hours.
When consumers are in a travel mindset, it opens up valuable opportunities for brands across a wide range of verticals—including financial services and automotive—to engage with them in meaningful and timely ways, said Nunn.
“[That’s why] we are very intentional to ensure we’re [working with] multiple verticals,” said Nunn.
Connecting the dots: Like other commerce media networks, Kinective Media is working to improve its measurement capabilities.
- Kinective works with three different measurement partners and leverages data clean rooms to help advertisers better understand campaign performance.
But a lack of industry standardization makes it harder for advertisers to measure performance across networks, said Nunn.
- “It’s challenging because you’ve got travel players, the finance sector, retail media networks … and we all have slightly different attribute takes,” he said.
- Still, there is a desire from the industry to find some kind of common ground.
- “Last year in Cannes, we got a few of the commerce and retail media leaders together and tried to figure out what we could do with the IAB to try and align better,” said Nunn.
What's next: The deal positions Kinective Media to expand its technology beyond JetBlue.
"Watch this space for other airlines that we may well announce in the coming months around the world," said Nunn.
- The network is also exploring ways to deliver a more personalized, seamless customer experience.
- “We want to serve up more personalized content based on the data we have and the data our partners have, making it relevant to the particular destination that they’re flying to,” said Nunn. “Or if a plane is slightly late, but you booked your rideshare, can we auto-update that rideshare reservation and adjust it by 30 minutes? It takes the stress out of what you’re doing.”
This was originally featured in the Retail Media Weekly newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.