CANNES – United Airlines is reimagining what it means to engage travelers, not just as passengers, but as a dynamic media audience. At the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Luc Bondar, chief operating officer and president of United Airlines MileagePlus, shared how United’s commerce media platform, Kinective Media, is setting a new standard for loyalty-driven marketing.
“This is an exciting time,” Bondar told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan. “AI is transforming content creation, personalization, and predictive analytics. It’s shaping every part of our marketing strategy.”
From retail media to ‘traveler media’
Bondar said Kinective Media, launched last year, stands apart from traditional retail media by focusing not on transactions, but on long-term relationships.
“Retail media is built around purchase moments. We’re built around life journeys,” he said. “With over 120 million U.S. customers and 63 million active MileagePlus members, we’ve developed multi-year, often multi-generational relationships.”
Rather than targeting people at checkout, Kinective aims to connect with individuals throughout the entire travel experience — from booking to boarding, and even beyond.
Loyalty as a strategic engine
At the heart of this model is loyalty. United’s MileagePlus program offers a rich trove of first-party data, from travel behaviors and household dynamics to brand preferences through co-branded credit cards.
“We know not just where people are flying,” Bondar said. “We know who they travel with, what they’re interested in, what they buy and how they live. This gives us an unmatched ability to deliver personalized, relevant brand experiences at scale.”
That depth of insight enables United to tailor media campaigns to different travel contexts — business trip, family vacation, solo getaway — optimizing timing, creative and messaging for every segment.
Flywheel of travel, loyalty and media
Bondar described United’s new model as a self-reinforcing flywheel.
“Travel feeds loyalty, loyalty feeds media. Each adds more data, more touchpoints and more ways to enrich the customer journey,” he said. “The more relevant we are, the more likely travelers are to choose United again.”
That relevance has attracted strong advertiser interest.
“We’re ahead of plan,” Bondar noted. “Brands are responding to the scale, the precision and the context we can offer.”
JetBlue joins the movement
The model is catching on beyond United. In a deal announced in May, JetBlue will become the first airline to syndicate Kinective Media, powering its new JetBlue Media offering. Conversations are underway with other global carriers to expand the platform further.
“We launched Kinective because we believed the world needed a traveler media network,” Bondar said. “Now we’re seeing that others believe it too.”
AI-driven, community-centered and context-aware
Looking ahead, Bondar sees three forces reshaping the media landscape: generative AI, community-centric brand building and the evolution of commerce media.
“AI enables us to scale personalization and optimize every ad placement,” he said. “Community is becoming the new loyalty — creating meaningful brand ecosystems. And commerce media is moving beyond retail, with platforms like ours helping brands tap into new contexts.”
In short, United’s Kinective Media isn’t just selling ads. It’s redefining how brands connect with modern travelers.
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