Plane, Trains…and Drones? How to Catch Your Target Audience on the Go

As summer gears up, people are on the go. Over 118 million Americans (45% of the US population) are projected to spend more than $424 billion dollars on hotel and air travel alone in summer 2024. 88% of Americans plan to spend at least one night away this summer. Global airfare is consistently increasing year-over-year (2020 being quite the exception), with this year trending to set a new record of 40.1 million flights in 2024. In parallel, American drivers made history with over 3.2 trillion miles traveled in 2023, surpassing pre-pandemic levels of rubber burned. 

Patient populations and healthcare professionals (HCPs) are very much included in this demographic of Americans on-the-go for both leisure and medical tourism. The $97.3 billion industry that is medical tourism is projected to only keep growing, with more and more patients taking advantage of new healthcare technologies, specialized treatments, and increased affordability. Healthcare professionals are also incorporating the “on the go” lifestyle into their work, with 70% of HCPs finding that working as a traveler is more satisfying than a permanent position. The majority of nurses and allied HCPs turn to a nomadic career lifestyle due to industry burnout, with 68% of professionals willing to venture long distances of +500 miles for assignments. 

With all of this upcoming seasonal traffic (pun intended), how can healthcare marketers position their brands effectively as both patient and healthcare populations are in transit for leisure, work, and medical tourism? Below are three ways to catch your target audience “on the go” as they take flight, hit the roads, and lounge on the beach this summer. 

1. Find higher altitudes and dominate airfare Wi-Fi. 

When people are 30,000 feet above the ground and airplane mode is very much on, what is the first thing they want to do? Three words: get on Wi-Fi. Whether it is to binge their favorite TV show or to set the OOO they likely forgot to put live before takeoff, flyers will truly do anything they can to get on the internet as fast as possible. As a marketer, there is no better time to showcase your brand than at this exact moment. CMI Media Group is currently working with partners to provide access to a variety of domestic airline Wi-Fi programs in this ever-growing space, providing brands with access to this new opportunity. 

The user experience of this ad play gives consumers the option to choose between three different brand videos to watch before jumping online. Once your brand is selected, a non-skippable video ad will lead consumers to a landing page of your choice. The benefits of this 15–30 second ad (beyond an impressive CTR of 37-53%) is the fact that your brand is only charged per session. Meaning the consumer must select your brand, watch the video ad, and land on your brand’s website in order to be counted as a session—a connected experience. 

To target a deeper patient and HCP population through this type of Wi-Fi campaign, brands can select any route or region of the country. This could include targeting certain cities where specific HCP conferences take place, like ASCO in Chicago. Additionally, this popular airfare supplier has Wi-Fi representation in over 30 domestic airports, giving brands the opportunity to be the sole advertiser as consumers log online. This type of campaign can be perfect for airports where patient or HCP populations fly in and out for certain support group or work events.  

But what if the Wi-Fi goes out? Thankfully, this is where print magazines like United’s Hemisphere can save the day. With over 500k printed copies printed each month, the reach is uncanny, finding +14 million monthly passengers and 5,000 global flights each day. Running ads in this type of magazine is also a great rationale to reach HCP audiences considering 60% prefer to receive information about new products from pharmaceutical companies via print. In addition, Business Traveler is another print option that focuses on reaching and promoting brands to higher-end travelers. Distributed in club lounges across Delta, Emirates, and more, Business Traveler has a circulation of 100k magazines and reaches over 1 million people worldwide. This type of marketing play can be a great way to capture C-level decision-makers who create the drug distribution strategy.  

2. Expand OOH presence and optimize awareness with beach traffic. 

As efficient as it is to jump on a plane, sometimes driving is the most feasible option. Budgeting is a huge theme for this upcoming summer season, with 42% of travelers choosing driving over flying as a means to save money. All that to say, how can brands capture the attention of all of the eyes on the road this year? The answer: out-of-home (OOH) marketing. Whether your brand is looking to secure 100% SOV or have the flexibility of a 48-hour launch turnaround, brands can now purchase static, digital, or programmatic OOH campaigns. With one mainstream solution having access to 98% of OOH media inventory (over 1400 vendors), brand campaigns now have a 10x faster execution speed than any other standard OOH initiative this summer. Additionally, new OOH technology yields robust targeting capabilities to find behavior and demographic-based audiences. With +300 behavioral audience segments available, OOH audiences can now be identified through interest-based research such as dining, sports, and travel. Demographic audience filters also offer granular segments such as age, education, gender, income, length of ethnicity, and commute method. Above all, in the recent years of advancement in data measurement, brands are able to track social mentions, halo effect, and landing page conversions to ensure OOH performance transparency. 

Whether you are trying to reach patient or HCP eyes on the road, design your OOH campaign to achieve specific brand metrics. As you plan your summer campaign, researching the top destinations of 2024 or targeting markets where there are spikes in travel nurses and physicians, there are various approaches to test and learn. For example, during the summer months people take major interstates, such as the I-80 or I-95, to escape to their favorite beach town. This could be a great opportunity to maximize your brand’s presence in specific destination areas. In parallel, after the beach weekend comes to a close, patient and HCP communities return to work; creating an opportunity to dominate specific DMA markets for targeted awareness campaigns. Ultimately, whether the measurement strategy focuses on metrics such as incremental brand search lift or increasing CTR on digital ads, new predictive modeling tools will quickly identify the highest-performing units and optimize accordingly. 

3. Pioneer AI innovation with aerial drone technology. 

Now that your “on the go” marketing plan has a brand presence established through both means of driving and airfare transportation, it’s time to consider how to capture your audience’s attention as they settle into their beach chair. No, we are not talking about the plane advertising you watched all day long as a kid. Well, maybe we are, but with a futuristic approach. With a market size of global services projected to reach $63.6 billion by 2025, the future of aerial advertising is fueled by drones. The first FAA-approved drone banner towing company is set to launch next month (May 2024) and will utilize computer vision and AI technologies to give transparency into audience size and campaign reach. The first flight route to launch is Miami Beach, with 5+ miles of audience exposure in a highly trafficked area of 24.2 million visitors per year. This new form of media is also making sustainable waves with a carbon footprint that is less than one-tenth the size of traditional aerial advertising. 

Beyond capturing “white coat off moments” at the beach, how can this movement grab the attention of HCPs and patient communities? With the upcoming drone launch happening in Miami, this is a great opportunity to capture the attention of various HCP conferences and patient support group meetings during the summer months. Since aerial drones fly 100 feet lower and 33% slower than traditional airplanes, these types of campaigns will be able to find your target audience at the right time and speed. Taking advantage of the Miami launch, “first mover” advertisers are projected to capture 1.8 million impressions with a projected $8-$12 CPM in a 4-week campaign flight. Beyond standard audience measurement and ad performance data, this is also a great opportunity to be a part of an innovative historic launch for the new form of aerial advertising. 

Outlook:  

From flying the friendly skies to maximizing drone advertising buys, advertising opportunities to reach HCP and patient audiences are out there. As you explore the options of airplane Wi-Fi and print advertising, creating a marketing plan that identifies key conference HCPs and patients fly in and out for is a great start. Then dive deeper with CMI Media Group’s audience intelligence team to understand the type of media your target audience interacts with and create a marketing mix that mirrors this (print vs. digital). Remember, when trying to catch your audience “on the go” frequent flyers are an unmatched audience, with 80% noticing media and 42% taking action. 

In parallel, when it comes to building OOH campaigns this summer, the first step is to determine if campaign exclusivity or flexibility is paramount for your brand. From there, CMI Media Group’s engagement strategy team will create a plan that fosters static or programmatic tactics to yield desired success outcomes. Lastly, if you are truly a pioneer in the OOH space, push for innovation and be a part of the movement that is aerial drone advertising. Ultimately, whether starting small or going a mile high, CMI Media Group is committed to safely evaluating and implementing these new innovative solutions to directly align with your 2024 goals.