Travel changes how people shop. A family vacation, a business conference or a hockey tournament puts people away from home with new needs, new purchase occasions and a greater openness to discovering brands. In this episode of The Middlemen, recorded at Advertising Week in New York, Tom Limongello looks at what makes travel media different from traditional retail media, and why the stay itself is only the starting point for advertisers.

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Monique Perlmutter, VP of Partnerships and Sales at Marriott Media Network, joins Tom to explain how Marriott reaches consumers across their whole trip. The network draws on Marriott Bonvoy loyalty data, travel intent and on-property media, giving brands a view of who travelers are and the context they are in, not just what they booked. The episode opens on a question that runs through the conversation: can commerce media networks collaborate?

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Much of the discussion centers on research Marriott Media produced with Boston Consulting Group and Kinective Media by United Airlines, titled The Psychology of Travel. The work looks at how people spend when they travel and finds that the advertising opportunity extends well beyond booking flights and hotels. Travelers tend to be more receptive to brands and more open to unplanned purchases. Perlmutter also explains why Marriott chose to partner with United on studying the traveler journey, and how youth sports travel creates new purchase occasions for families.

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That leads to the case for collaboration between networks. Perlmutter discusses why DICK'S Media and Marriott Media could complement one another, and how Marriott is approaching data partnerships and programmatic expansion.

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On property, the canvas is broad. Hotel room screens open a CTV opportunity, and the conversation covers in-room personalized guest experiences, local advertising and local discovery for travelers in an unfamiliar city. Perlmutter also talks about Marriott's expansion into China and the role of social media, along with new advertiser categories for the network, including CPG, beauty, automotive and experiential marketing.

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Measurement looks different for a network that does not own the transaction. Many of the purchases Marriott Media influences happen somewhere else, so Tom and Perlmutter discuss how clean rooms and commerce media attribution can measure commerce media impact beyond the retailer's checkout.

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The episode closes on what comes next for Marriott Media. The through line is that travelers are in a moment of new needs and openness to brands, and Marriott Media is building loyalty data, on-property screens and partnerships with other networks around that moment. The full Psychology of Travel report is available at media.marriott.com.