As Travel Resumes, DoubleVerify Spotlights the State of Media Quality for Global Travel and Hospitality Brands

Travel advertisers are seeing increased rates of fraud and brand suitability incidents and lower rates of viewability compared with other industries, year-over-year

NEW YORK, May 19, 2021DoubleVerify (“DV”), a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, has released an industry report uncovering the state of media quality in the travel and hospitality sector, and measures advertisers can take to ensure their digital investments are maximized.

As vacation and entertainment activities resume, the travel and hospitality industry is beginning to ramp up ad spend. To help global travel and hospitality brands boost the effectiveness of digital advertising campaigns, DV analyzed trends specific to the sector across fraud, viewability and brand safety and suitability. Key findings for the time period between January 2020-January 2021 include:

  • Fraud continues to be a concern for digital advertisers — and the travel and hospitality industry is a target. DV found a 20% higher post-bid fraud rate for travel and hospitality advertisers compared with all other major industries.
  • Travel and hospitality advertisers often have stringent brand safety and suitability settings, especially if they are catering to younger audiences and families. Compared with the average rate seen across other verticals, travel advertisers saw an 82% higher brand suitability violation rate.
  • While viewability rates are inching up overall, the viewability rates for travel ads lag behind the other major verticals. Display viewable rates were 6% lower for travel advertisers as compared with other industries, and video viewable rates were 7% lower, on average.

“As we look ahead to a brighter future where travel and hospitality are once again commonplace, it’s important to take proper measures to maximize media effectiveness,” said Julie Eddleman, EVP and Chief Commercial Officer, DoubleVerify. “Just as all travelers will expect higher standards to ensure their well-being, digital advertisers will demand clarity and confidence in their digital investments. Setting a clear, informed strategy to address the issues of fraud, viewability, brand safety and suitability, and consumer privacy, will help ensure advertisers — and their audiences — have a smooth journey ahead.”

Video is a particularly important medium for travel and hospitality advertisers. One study showed 65% of consumers rely on video when booking a trip. To improve performance, travel and hospitality advertisers need to be sure they’re targeting quality inventory that is brand suitable, viewable and free of fraud.

DV offers a robust set of protections for advertisers across all channels. In Q4 of 2020, DoubleVerify launched DV Video Filtering, an industry-first solution that helps advertisers reduce quality infractions and associated wasted investment across all video environments and devices — including CTV, where blocking is not supported.

To learn more about how travel and hospitality advertisers can improve their performance as they ramp up their marketing efforts, read the full report here.

About DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify is a leading software platform for digital media measurement and analytics. Our mission is to make the digital advertising ecosystem stronger, safer and more secure, thereby preserving the fair value exchange between buyers and sellers of digital media. Hundreds of Fortune 500 advertisers employ our unbiased data and analytics to drive campaign quality and effectiveness, and to maximize return on their digital advertising investments – globally.