Kinective Media by United Airlines is heading back to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with momentum and a message: commerce media, driven by first-party data and high-intent travelers, is poised to redefine how brands engage audiences across the digital landscape.
James Rothwell, managing director of brand marketing at Kinective Media, says the return to Cannes marks a pivotal moment for the company, which debuted its traveler-focused media network at last year’s festival.
“We’re really excited about coming back and talking about commerce media — the way that is different from retail media,” Rothwell said in this interview with Lisa Granatstein, editorial director of Beet.TV.
Kinective Media positions itself as the first media network built around the traveler journey, offering advertisers the ability to reach high-value consumers during moments of undivided attention. Those moments are found in airport lounges, in-flight entertainment systems and beyond.
The market response has been “phenomenal,” Rothwell said.
New era for commerce media
A major focus for Kinective Media at Cannes this year will be differentiating commerce media from traditional retail media, highlighting how travel environments can offer deeper brand engagement. With robust first-party data and contextual moments throughout the customer journey, Rothwell emphasized the unique opportunity to tell both performance- and brand-driven stories.
“The journey itself is a wonderful canvas…for brands to be able to connect with travelers,” he said.
Opportunities for brand integration span from pre-flight offers to in-transit brand experiences – and importantly, into the post-journey phase. Rothwell said this post-travel window is where measurement and impact really come to life, especially through audience extension and retargeting.
From luxury to loyalty
While Kinective Media attracts travel-related brands, its reach extends well beyond. Luxury companies, B2B marketers and entertainment and retail brands are also finding success tapping into the traveler mindset.
Rothwell pointed to a case study with the Cayman Islands Tourism Board, which saw a 13 times return on investment thanks to strategic media placements before, during and after travel.
“We’re able to in the post journey phase be able to see just how many people were able to go ahead and book a trip to the Cayman Islands,” he said.
He also cited the growing value of targeting premium passengers, especially those in business class.
“A lot of brands have been wanting to reach those travelers — especially front-of-cabin and those sitting in business class who are more likely to be influential or business decision makers,” Rothwell said. “We’ve seen a lot of effective results from that.”
Additionally, Kinective Media’s loyalty program integrations offer a blend of media and member engagement. Brands can now extend beyond one-off campaigns to create sustained value through reward partnerships, driving daily interactions.
Measuring attention in a captive environment
As the advertising industry continues to chase better attribution and closed-loop measurement, Rothwell said Kinective Media holds a unique edge: attention time.
“Just in terms of how many hours people are spending with our media — think about an average flight being three and a half hours. They’re spending roughly the same amount of time in front of our screens,” he said.
Kinective Media is working with measurement partners to measure attention and demonstrate the effectiveness of its platform, Rothwell said.
Its investments in advanced measurement tools include clean room collaborations to help advertisers track performance across platforms and connect media exposure to business outcomes.
The next step will be optimization and closed-loop attribution that will be able to really prove what we think is an incredibly valuable and impactful medium,” Rothwell said.
You’re watching “The Flight to Cannes: Commerce Media Takes Off”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series, presented by Kinective Media by United Airlines. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
