In-flight advertising increasingly gives marketers a unique way to build awareness or deepen connections with travelers.

"We know in flight, you're paying more attention. There's less distractions. You're more engaged to the content on your screen and on your device," said Matt Miller, director of advertising at ViaSat Ads, during EMARKETER's Ad Buyer Strategies Summit. The company commissioned emotional residency testing across seven airports to measure how passengers respond to advertising both on the ground and during flights.

• He said the study found In-flight advertising delivers 30% higher brand recall than ground-based ads, driven by passengers' heightened emotional engagement at 30,000 feet.

Miller said ViaSat Ads partnered with behavioral scientists to conduct the study, which used biometric sensors to track heart rate and breathing patterns. The same testing methodology is currently used by music and movie studios to predict commercial success.

In-flight response

Passengers viewing ads in flight showed 8% higher emotional engagement compared to viewing the same creative on the ground, with all other variables controlled, according to Miller. But the effect is most pronounced at the start of an ad.

During the first 10 seconds of a 30-second creative, passengers were 12% more emotionally engaged in flight versus on the ground, he said. This initial spike sustains throughout the full ad, though it gradually decreases.

"Reach without recall is not terribly useful," said Miller.

He also said the study revealed an unexpected demographic pattern when researchers segmented viewers into age groups.

Younger passengers (25-year-olds) demonstrated higher baseline emotional engagement both on the ground and in flight, but the difference between the two environments was smaller. Older passengers showed lower baseline engagement on the ground, but experienced a much more significant jump in emotional engagement during flights.

Miller attributed this to the pressurized cabin environment, which contains lower levels of CO2 than sea level. "My guess is that older groups are just more impacted by lower levels of CO2, which is kind of why we see that jump at a more significant level," he said.

Context creates targeting opportunities

In-flight advertising enables brands to reach consumers during distinctive life moments that are difficult to target through traditional platforms. A passenger heading to a beach vacation with children represents a different mindset, and different product needs, than someone traveling for a ski trip or honeymoon.

Miller cited a successful campaign example: A child-tracking app ran targeted advertising from the Northeast to Florida during a specific week in October. The timing aligned with mid-October school breaks when families take short Florida vacations.

"That was a brand that really knew their customer very well and found a moment that was really impactful," Miller said.

Additionally, advertisers targeting specific destinations through in-flight campaigns are seeing lift across their other marketing channels in those locations. When brands target passengers flying into specific cities like Dallas or San Francisco, they observe increased web traffic and signups in those destinations, even when the in-flight ad wasn't the last touch point.

"Via in-flight advertising is lifting up their other channels in those locations," Miller said.

What advertisers should know

Miller said the most successful in-flight campaigns come from brands with deep customer understanding. Rather than relying on standard demographic targeting available across multiple platforms, effective in-flight advertising leverages the unique "tent pole moments" in consumers' lives.

"It's hard to target by people that are going on vacation tomorrow in any other platform," he said.

For advertisers evaluating in-flight advertising against other formats like social media, retail media, or connected TV, Miller emphasized thinking beyond reach metrics.

"People should be thinking about recall in general and how that will help their top-of-funnel strategy, and then, by proxy, help the rest of their channels," he said.

Watch the full session.

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