As Cannes Lions approaches, where every brand suddenly discovers it has a “bold new storytelling vision,” Mary Rachelle Stumpf, director of sales at Kinective Media by United Airlines, is offering a slightly inconvenient truth for the industry. The scroll is overrated, and your banner ad isn’t making memories.
“What excites me most about ‘traveler media’ is that we are at the center of the attention economy,” Stumpf, pointing to United Airlines’ global reach of more than 181 million travelers annually.
In other words, while most media plans are fighting for a fraction of a second between doomscrolls, Stumpf is talking about hours of relatively strong attention. Hours. The kind of time most advertisers have only dreamed of, usually while staring at a declining click-through rate.
From impressions to actual human moments
Stumpf says travel creates a rare psychological window where consumers are not just present, but open. Relaxed, curious, maybe even willing to watch something longer than six seconds without skipping.
“When you think about the psychology of a traveler, the opportunity to feed passions and create lasting memories exists in a way that just doesn’t exist through traditional media,” she said in this interview with Beet.TV editorial director Lisa Granatstein.
Compare that with a chaotic stadium or a crowded feed, where attention is fragmented and fleeting. Or as the industry politely calls it, “highly dynamic engagement environments,” which is a generous way of saying no one is paying attention.
Traveler media, by contrast, offers what Stumpf describes as “seven to 10 hours with customers to tell stories that resonate far beyond a billboard or an impression.”
Seven to ten hours. Somewhere, a programmatic trader just fainted.
Winning the order before landing
The pitch here is not just about attention, but timing. Stumpf makes the case that travel is a sequential journey, which means brands can align messaging with specific moments and mindsets.
“The travel journey is sequential,” she said, explaining how messaging can be tailored based on where someone is going and why.
That means a beach-bound traveler might see content about a culinary event in the Bahamas, while a business traveler heading to Chicago might engage with enterprise tech content mid-flight. Not exactly the same as blasting the same ad to everyone and hoping for the best.
The goal is to influence decisions before they happen. As Stumpf put it, travel media allows brands to “win the order in flight at 30,000 feet so that brands and customers don’t have to fight for it on the ground.”
Translation: convince them before they walk into the stadium where your competitors are flagging sponsorship logos and billboards.
Premium environments, not pixel clutter
Another selling point is the environment itself. Airports, lounges and in-flight experiences are positioned as uncluttered, premium spaces where brands can show up without competing against a thousand other messages.
According to Stumpf, this translates into measurable results.
“We’ve seen several fantastic examples of driving brand lift upwards of 30% higher than traditional media through travel environments,” she said.
That’s the kind of stat that makes a media buyer sit up straight, or at least stop pretending to understand their last attribution report.
Scale, precision and the elusive trifecta
Of course, no Cannes-bound conversation is complete without addressing scale versus precision. Stumpf’s answer is that traveler media offers both, thanks to data tied to destinations and intent.
The approach, she said, creates a “trifecta of value” by improving customer experience, driving business outcomes and building strategic partnerships.
It is a neat package. Solve a traveler’s need, help a brand sell something and make the airline ecosystem more valuable in the process. Everyone wins, at least in theory.
Cannes takeaway
Stumpf’s final argument is simple and conveniently aligned with every Cannes deck you are about to see. The brands that win will be the ones that combine time, attention and purchasing power with big ideas.
“The brands I feel that will win in 2026 through traveler media are the ones that harness that magic recipe of time, attention, and purchasing power,” she said.
Which sounds obvious, until you remember most campaigns are still optimized for clicks that no one remembers five seconds later.
So as the industry heads to Cannes to celebrate creativity, innovation and rosé-fueled optimism, Stumpf’s message lands with a bit of advice. Stop chasing impressions like they are rare collectibles. Start showing up where people actually have the time to care.
Preferably at 30,000 feet, where your ad might finally get the attention it has been begging for.
You’re watching “The “Flight to Cannes”: How Passion and Purpose Fuels Travel and Media Impact, a Beet.TV Leadership Series, presented by Kinective Media by United Airlines. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
