Advertising at Dallas Love Field: who sees it, which formats exist and who it fits

Worth it when your customers fly and when you want their attention in a calmer moment

Advertising at Dallas Love Field is worth considering when the people you want to reach include air travelers, whether residents flying out and coming home, business visitors arriving for meetings or leisure travelers visiting the area. According to the airport, digital and static advertising there is available through Lamar Advertising, and it reaches more than 15 million passengers a year. Travelers in a terminal have time on their hands and see a display more than once, so an airport ad can carry a little more than a highway board. It is a weaker fit for a business whose customers all live in one neighborhood and rarely fly.

Most of my work at Lamar's Dallas–Fort Worth Billboard Office is on highway boards, but owners often ask about the airport once they learn we offer it. Lamar has a separate Dallas (DAL) Airport Advertising Office on Herb Kelleher Way, and I can bring that team in when the airport fits a client's plan. Here is how I explain the opportunity.

Who walks through Love Field

An airport audience is a mix, and the mix is what makes it valuable. Lamar's airport page describes its audience as business and leisure travelers, and at Love Field that includes three groups worth thinking about separately.

Each group needs something different, and each is in the terminal for a different reason, so a good airport campaign starts by deciding which one you are talking to. A message for a returning resident looks nothing like a message for a first-time visitor.

• Residents of the area flying out and coming home, who will need local services, healthcare, homes and professional advice
• Business travelers arriving for meetings, who may be choosing hotels, restaurants, offices, vendors or partners
• Leisure visitors and people visiting family, who are deciding where to eat, stay and spend time
• Executives and decision-makers on regular trips, who see the same displays again and again

Why a terminal is different from a highway

On a highway, a driver gives your board a glance at speed. In a terminal, people walk, stand in line, wait at the gate and wait at baggage claim. They are not driving, so they can look for longer, and many of them pass the same display more than once on the way in and again on the way out.

Mindset matters too. Travelers are often thinking about plans, decisions and the trip ahead, which makes the airport a good place for messages that ask for a little consideration, such as a professional service, a new development or a business-to-business offer. The rules of good outdoor design still apply, but the airport allows more than seven words and, on screens, motion.

Direction of travel is worth a thought as well. Departing passengers are leaving and may be thinking about the trip ahead. Arriving passengers, especially at baggage claim, are about to step back into the area, whether that means heading home, to a hotel or to a meeting. A residential service or a local healthcare provider may speak best to people coming home, while a hotel or restaurant may want visitors the moment they land.

The formats available

Lamar describes three broad kinds of airport advertising, and the airport itself confirms that both digital and static options are available at Love Field. Which one fits depends on your message and your budget.

As a rule of thumb, digital suits advertisers who want motion or plan to change their message, static suits a steady brand presence in one spot, and custom work suits a business that wants to own a space or make a statement. Placement inside the terminal matters as much as the format: a display travelers pass on the way to their gate, one they face while waiting and one they see at baggage claim each reach people in a different frame of mind. Lamar's airport team knows which placements suit which goals.

• Digital displays: Lamar says its airport screens can carry full-motion video and animation, and that high-volume placement saturates high-traffic locations across the airport
• Static displays: Lamar describes varying high-impact formats in key airport locations, seen by a new audience every day
• Custom opportunities: Lamar offers custom displays, including custom exhibits and branded environment sponsorships, for advertisers who want to stand apart

Businesses that tend to fit

The airport works best for businesses whose customers include travelers or the people travelers represent. In my experience, these are the kinds of advertisers who should take a serious look at it.

If your business is on this list and you are already advertising on the highways, the airport can extend the same campaign to a different moment in your customers' week.

• Hotels, restaurants, attractions and entertainment venues that want visitors' attention
• Healthcare systems, specialty practices and hospitals serving the region
• Law firms, financial advisers, banks and accounting firms speaking to business travelers and residents
• Homebuilders, real estate brokerages and developments reaching people relocating or visiting
• Business-to-business companies that want decision-makers to know their name
• Employers recruiting professionals who travel

When the airport is not the right first step

If your customers live within a few miles of your shop and rarely fly, the airport reaches mostly people who will never visit you, and a highway board on their commute will serve you better. The same goes for a business whose message needs to reach people at the moment they are driving nearby, such as a restaurant at an exit or a store just off the highway.

I also suggest waiting if you do not yet know who your airport audience would be. A display that tries to speak to everyone in the terminal tends to speak to no one. Start with your customers, decide which traveler group they belong to, and only then look at formats and locations. If you cannot name the group in one sentence, a highway campaign aimed at a specific part of the metro is probably the better place to begin, and the airport can come later.

Designing for people with a few minutes

Airport creative can say a little more than a highway board, but it still competes with announcements, signs, phones and the business of travel. Lead with one clear idea, keep the brand obvious and use the extra time for one supporting point rather than a paragraph. On digital screens, motion attracts the eye, but the ad should still make sense if someone catches only a few seconds of it.

A traveler waiting at a gate can act on an ad in a way a driver cannot. A short web address or a scannable code can work in a terminal, because people are standing still with their phones in hand. For a comparison of how screens and printed faces behave on the road, my guide on digital versus static billboards covers the differences, and many of them apply in the terminal as well. Lamar's Dallas office offers free design services, so the creative does not have to be an extra cost.

Pairing the airport with highway boards

Travelers do not appear at the gate out of nowhere; residents drive to the airport and visitors drive away from it. Lamar's inventory in the Metroplex sits almost entirely along high-traffic interstates and highways, so an airport campaign can be paired with boards on the routes your customers use. The traveler sees you in the terminal, then again on the drive home or to the hotel, and the two reinforce each other.

If you want to build that kind of combination, my guide on choosing a billboard location in DFW explains how I match boards to where customers actually drive. The same principle applies: start with who your customers are and where they go, then choose the placements.

How an airport campaign is bought

The steps are much like a highway campaign. We talk through your goal and audience, look at the available airport placements and formats, agree on dates, build the creative and review proofs, and then the ad goes live. At Love Field, that work runs through Lamar's Dallas (DAL) Airport Advertising Office, and I can connect you with that team and help coordinate if you are also running highway boards. My guide on how a billboard campaign comes together from the first call walks through each step in detail.

Every placement is priced on its own, based on location in the terminal, format and length of the run, so the useful next step is a conversation about your goal rather than a generic number. If you have a date in mind, such as a launch or a conference your customers attend, mention it early, because the placements you want may already be committed around busy periods.

Talking through Love Field with me

If you think travelers are part of your market, reach out and tell me who you want to reach and what you want them to do. I will help you judge honestly whether the airport fits, bring in Lamar's airport team for the placements and pricing, and show you how it could work alongside highway boards if that makes sense.

If the airport is not the right move for your business right now, I will say so plainly and suggest what is. Either way, you will leave with a clear picture of your options across highways, digital boards and the terminal.

Questions people ask me