BBC America gave travel advertisers the biggest bang for the buck last year, according to a report from EDO, which measures the results of ad campaigns.
TV viewers who saw a travel ad during primetime on BBC America were 73% more likely to engage with the brands advertised than the average primetime network, EDO said.
Following BBC America were ESPNU, Fox Business Network, TLC and Lifetime.
The top-performing show was The Food That Built America on the History Channel, delivering more than twice the engagement of the average primetime shows.
Also providing above-average levels of engagement were Married at First Sight U.K. on Lifetime, Below Deck Adventures on Bravo, Fixer Upper: Welcome Home on HGTV and Homestead Rescue on the Discovery Channel.
EDO also ranked advertisers in the travel industry by ad engagement.
The top airline was Southwest. Southwest’s ads were 50% more effective than the average air travel advertiser in the last year, EDO Said.
Among travel services and websites, Vrbo was the top performer. Vrbo ads were 209% more effective than the category average.
American Cruise Lines had the most effective ads among cruise lines, coming in 400% above average.
Great Wolf Resorts let hotels and resorts, according to EDO. Its ads were eight time more effective than the average ad in the category.
In the car rental and sharing category, Turo’s ads were 3 time more effective than average.
EDO uses share of search as a way to evaluate and predict the effectiveness of advertising for the cruise line category, EDO Found a 90% correlation between a brand’s share of search and its share of market.
Travel was one of the categories hurt most by the COVID pandemic. By the fourth quarter of 2022, EDO noted, ad spending by the travel category had surged past pre-pandemic levels, up 44% compared to the previous year.
“This resurgence coincided with consumer travel reaching pandemic highs in the fall of 2022, signaling a strong return of travel activity after years of depressed or slowly recovering demand,” EDO said in its report.
