From the first beginnings to Terminal 3: The reach grows

Frankfurt Airport was setting records even while Media Frankfurt was being founded. In 1971, ten million people passed through the airport for the first time. In 2019, another record year, we counted no less than 70.6 million passengers. As early as the 1970s the Germans led the field when it came to international travel and, as mobility increased in general, so the public at our airport became more and more cosmopolitan, new and remoter destinations were opened up, and Frankfurt developed into the most important German airport for business travellers and decision makers.

 

At the same time came the growth of individual advertising displays, on which advertising was run ever more extensively, ever more digitally, and ever smarter. Terminal 2 was added in 1994, Hall C in Terminal 1 in 2008. Four years later, pier APlus was inaugurated at Terminal 1. Start-up at Terminal 3 is still expected for 2026 and up to 25 million passengers a year are anticipated here. At this new location, apart from promotion points, there will be only digital displays of iconic character – for the triumph of digital media is much more noticeable at the airport than elsewhere in the OOH sphere.

The airport environment is strongly technology-driven. For the passengers, that is not just an interesting location for digital advertising. Thanks to the detailed knowledge of the routes taken by passengers, the associated flight data and passenger typologies, it offers our media department the absolutely perfect stage for innovative programmatic approaches. In addition we can take information about where the travellers are coming from, where they are flying to, and how long – and where – on average they stop, and combine it with intelligent market research – for an ever more targeted advertising approach for our clients.

Frankfurt Airport is by far the busiest airport in Germany for passengers, and likewise the most international. 60 percent of all intercontinental flights are scheduled here: 2019 saw 11 million travellers from Asia, the Gulf States and Russia en route via Frankfurt. But that means, too, that the world of Frankfurt Airport is now much further ramified than two, or soon three, terminals. Strong marketing partnerships with the airports in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Vienna and – most recently – Zurich stretch coverage for our advertising clients ever further. And the excellent collaboration with London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle from the JCDecaux network is opening new horizons, e.g. in designing an international currency for airport advertising. For the future this means: the attractive power of Europe’s third-biggest travel hub will become constantly greater and ever more far-reaching over the next decades.