As the travel industry look towards recovery from COVID-19, ensuring travellers receive relevant and appropriate ads to spark inspiration and regain trust for people to travel again is going to be key.

With this in mind, Amadeus is joining forces with Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising company, to help companies in, and promoting to, the travel sector, create targeted advertising campaigns, all while tracking performance and optimising their investment.

In the first phase of its adoption of Xandr’s enterprise technology, Amadeus will use Xandr’s selling platform Xandr Monetize. The combination of Amadeus’ insight into travellers’ interests and the flexibility of Xandr’s platform will ensure ads are placed at the right time and to the right audience.

This means, travellers will receive more dynamic and trip-contextualised ads within their travel documents and itineraries. Thanks to this agreement, customers using Amadeus’ advertising solutions – airlines, rail companies, cruises, car rental companies, and airports – will benefit from shorter integration timelines for new channels, broader advertiser reach and an improved campaign management interface.

Additionally, Xandr will have the ability to read and interpret travel context, which means companies using its technology can target travel profiles better. Companies already working with Xandr will now be able to directly publicise content within travel agency tools and traveller itineraries via Amadeus’ network.

By equipping companies with innovative advertising tech, they will be able to launch more relevant and contextualised ads to travel sellers and the end traveller, which will ultimately bring greater cut-through of the ad and return on investment.

For example, over the last few months, Amadeus offered its advertising slots to distributed airlines so they could share important updates to the travel agency community and travellers about any disruptions in services impacted by COVID-19.

Commenting on the partnership, Sol Freixa, global director for travel advertising sales & marketing, Travel Channels, Amadeus, said, “We are in unprecedented times that require companies to amplify their offers to travellers and help rebuild the travel sector. The partnership with Xandr combines the best of two worlds: advertising tech and travel tech. Our customers can take their advertising to the next level and increase their messages beyond the Amadeus network, while Xandr’s customers benefit from more information and tools to advertise within the travel sector. This enables Amadeus to provide a unique advertising offering that will ultimately improve the traveller experience.”

Remi Boudard, director, market development, Spain, Xandr, said, “Amadeus’ existing advertising platform, extensive knowledge of travel, and customer base, combined with Xandr’s high-performing platform and brand reach outside of the travel industry is a game changer for all companies looking to speak to travellers. Having the leading travel tech company as a partner gives us a unique selling point in the ad world and helps us empower our clients to reach a new and powerful sector. We look forward to giving our customers the ability to positively influence the traveller experience.”