Gift-giving travelers are an increasingly captive audience for brands this upcoming holiday season. Watch and accessories brand Fossil tapped into this group successfully last year, and more brands will likely follow as travel media networks mature.

• US travel media ad spending is expected to reach $2.39 billion in 2026, up 22.9% YoY, according to EMARKETER's June forecast.

While travel media’s share of commerce media is declining due to a concentration of endemic travel brands, according to EMARKETER analysis, Fossil’s positive results indicate that travelers are open to shopping, especially around the holidays and other high-volume travel periods.

Reaching holiday travelers at major hubs

In Q4 of last year, Fossil executed a travel media campaign in six major airport hubs, including New York (LaGuardia Airport), Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Chicago. The mix included in-flight Wi-Fi on JetBlue and American Airlines, in-stream video at airports, and a “virtual holiday pop-up store.” Fossil also amplified the campaign on Instagram and TikTok.

Digital Culture Group (DCG) managed multiple arms of the campaign, in collaboration with media agency Assembly and ReachTV.

“Travelers are one of the most underestimated audiences in holiday advertising,” said Crystal Foote, founder and head of partnerships at DCG. “They're not just physically captive in a terminal or on a flight; they're also mentally in gifting mode, moving through the season's most emotionally charged moments: reunions, travel stress, and decisions about who matters enough to receive a gift.”

Key travel segments

DCG helped Fossil narrow the target to three high-intent traveler profiles. Those segments included: “fashion-forward” millennials with high gifting propensity, shoppers with household incomes above $75,000 seeking premium gifts, and tech-savvy watch enthusiasts.

“Airport and in-flight inventory is premium and finite, so if you're not reaching the traveler who's actually primed to gift, you're just adding to the noise,” said Foote.

By limiting impressions to high-intent segments, the campaign earned nearly four times the planned impressions, with engagement rates “well above” DCG’s internal benchmarks, Foote said.

Virtual shopping

Fossil designed a virtual hub for mobile users, allowing them to shop Fossil while traveling to their holiday destinations.

“Travelers on JetBlue and American Airlines unlocked free in-flight Wi-Fi by watching a short Fossil video, and once they did, they landed directly in a mobile-optimized shopping experience built for that exact moment: no distractions, nowhere else for their attention to go,” Foote explained.

Retargeting travelers after they saw in-airport ads beat every measure DCG tracked. Mobile retargeting of audiences exposed to ReachTV’s in-airport network drew nearly 3.8 million impressions and more than 8,000 clicks, finishing 5% above the campaign’s clickthrough rate goal, according to DCG. Run-of-network in-stream video in airports and during live NBA games generated 9.1 million impressions, 101% of goal, per the company.

“Every signal points to travel volumes continuing to climb, and holiday shopping windows stretching earlier and later each year,” said Foote. “What we proved with Fossil wasn't a one-season moment. It's a pattern: travelers are gifting on the go, screens are becoming shoppable, and in-flight time in particular is turning into a real commerce moment, not just a media impression.”

DCG plans to test similar campaigns during other high-volume travel periods, according to Foote.

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