Introduction
Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) serves one of the most competitive aviation markets in the Southeast. Located between Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, GSP competes daily with two of the nation's busiest airports. Rather than competing on size, GSP differentiates itself by offering a more convenient, less stressful travel experience, pairing premium amenities, top-rated dining, shorter lines, easier parking, and nonstop access to the destinations travelers want most.
As GSP expanded its route network with new nonstop service, the airport needed to promote multiple airline partners, eight new nonstop routes, and its own brand simultaneously, all while competing against larger neighboring hubs. The team sought a digital marketing partner that could reach high-intent travelers with tailored messaging, support multiple campaigns without audience overlap, and provide measurable insights to optimize future marketing efforts.
Objectives
Traditional advertising channels made it difficult to reach the right travelers with the right message at the right time. With limited billboard, radio, and TV inventory available, running multiple airline and GSP campaigns often meant competing for the same audience. The GSP team needed a more targeted approach that could influence travelers while they were actively planning trips, support multiple route launches without competing against its own campaigns, and provide measurable insights to optimize future marketing efforts.
"Being able to target people based on buying behaviors, geographies, and demographics means we can run a lot of different messaging all at once without competing against ourselves," said Thomas Tyra, VP, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer of Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.
"Prior to partnering with Sojern, we were doing all of our digital advertising in-house, and that was a very large task. Sojern gave us better audience targeting than we could achieve on our own, and the partnership has been a real time-saver."
Solution
In a multi-year partnership with Sojern, GSP ran integrated campaigns that drove awareness for the airport, reached travelers most likely to book, and promoted new nonstop service routes from Greenville. Using Sojern's travel intent data, GSP targeted travelers actively researching flights from its market, previous flight bookers, and audiences considering departures from competing airports in Charlotte and Atlanta. Campaigns ran across Programmatic Display and Meta, delivering personalized messaging based on travelers' search behavior and booking intent rather than broad demographic targeting.
This approach allowed GSP to:
- Support multiple airline campaigns simultaneously with tailored creative and audience segments
- Engage travelers considering competing larger airport hubs before they booked elsewhere
- Optimize every campaign, ensuring each was smarter than the last, including mid-flight optimizations
- Streamline campaign execution by eliminating the need for the GSP team to manage daily media buying across multiple platforms
- Measure campaign performance through detailed reporting that enabled the team to evaluate engagement, refine audiences, and continuously optimize future campaigns
Campaign Goals & Performance Highlights:
GSP Airport Ads
Programmatic Display: Brand campaign to capture regional flyers
- Total CTR: 1.14% CTR
- Campaign Highlight: Targeting active flight searchers from GSP achieved a remarkable 1.95% CTR
Meta: High-intent travelers searching for flights to specific destinations
- Total CTR: 2.99% CTR
- Campaign Highlight: Competitive conquesting activation was highly responsive, with target audiences clicking through at an extraordinary 3.23% CTR
Breeze Airways Route Support
Programmatic Display: Supported market expansion by driving bookings to Breeze destinations.
- Total CTR: 0.35% CTR
- Campaign highlight: Targeted prospective travelers from Breeze Airway's eight destination cities, achieving an exceptional 1.15% CTR
Meta: Supported new Breeze Airways flight routes and regional connectivity
- Total CTR: A magnificent 2.96% CTR
- Campaign highlight: Targeting users actively searching paths to the airport's key growth markets achieved the single highest route response with a 3.48% CTR
Reporting was a critical part of GSP's marketing strategy. With visibility into impressions, engagement, audience performance, campaign delivery, flight and hotel searches, and attributed flight bookings, the team could make data-driven decisions, optimize creative and targeting, and continuously improve campaign performance. "Using your dashboards and data is crucial for us. We can see what's working, make course corrections during a campaign, and use those insights to make the next campaign even better. We don't always get that feedback with other advertisements," Tyra said.
With a more targeted, measurable approach to digital marketing, GSP competed more effectively against larger neighboring airports.
About the Partnership
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"Prior to partnering with Sojern, we were doing all of our digital advertising in-house, and that was a very large task. Sojern gave us better audience targeting than we could achieve on our own, and the partnership has been a real time-saver."