Travel Intent Is Marketing Gold, Not Just a Boarding Pass: Adobe's Doug Wyatt

Why It Matters

Targeting travel intent lets brands deliver emotionally resonant, data‑driven experiences, boosting engagement while AI handles scale and human storytelling preserves authenticity.

Key Takeaways

• Travel intent offers marketers emotional connection points before, during, after trips.
• Adobe‑United Super Bowl partnership leveraged anticipation across transit, rides, stadium.
• Adobe tools empower travelers to capture and share personal experience stories.
• Messaging splits between once‑in‑a‑lifetime trips and everyday business travel.
• AI can scale intent signals, but human touch remains essential.

Summary

The video features Adobe’s Doug Wyatt explaining why high‑intent travel moments are marketing gold. He argues that travelers think about trips before, during and after, creating emotional touchpoints that brands can tap.

Wyatt highlights Adobe’s Super Bowl collaboration with United Airlines, Transit, Uber and Lyft, wrapping the experience from airport to stadium. The campaign leveraged peak anticipation and excitement to embed Adobe’s branding throughout the journey.

He stresses Adobe’s creative suite lets travelers capture and share stories, and notes that AI can surface intent signals while the final message must feel human. “AI can help with intent signals, but the human touch really matters,” he says.

For marketers, the takeaway is to target travel intent with personalized, emotion‑driven content, using data and AI for scale but preserving authenticity. Adobe positions itself as the platform that bridges technology and storytelling across the travel spectrum.

Original Description

As marketers continue their hunt for consumers at exactly the right moment, Adobe has found one particularly revealing signal: people who have already shelled out hundreds of dollars to go somewhere.

Travelers, after all, aren’t just booking flights. They’re planning vacations, attending major events, visiting family and documenting every minute of it on their phones. For advertisers, that creates a rare opportunity to reach consumers before, during and after highly emotional experiences.

“People are often thinking about this before, during, and after the event,” Doug Wyatt, senior director of Americas media at Adobe, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan in the leadup to this month’s “Flight to Cannes” with Kinective Media by United Airlines. “Those moments are prime for marketers to create emotional connections with our customers.”

In other words, if someone is flying across the country for the Super Bowl, a Taylor Swift concert or a long-awaited family reunion, they’re probably more receptive to messaging than when they are comparing prices on paper towels at midnight.

Chasing travelers across the emotional spectrum

Wyatt described travel as a uniquely powerful environment because it combines intent, anticipation and emotion. Unlike many digital signals, travel plans often represent a deliberate commitment of both time and money.

Adobe's marketing strategy centers on being present throughout the entire journey.

“We have the unique opportunity of being there with people before their trip, during their trip, and after their trip,” Wyatt said. "It's about really tying into their emotional storytelling.”

The company also sees a natural connection between travel and Adobe's core products. Millions of consumers use Adobe software to edit photos, create videos and share memories from trips and events.

Those memories, Wyatt noted, often outlast the journey itself.

Turning the Super Bowl into one giant Adobe ad

One example was Adobe's extensive activation around the Super Bowl, where the company attempted the marketing equivalent of following consumers from the airport gate to the stadium parking lot.

According to Wyatt, Adobe partnered with United Airlines, transit operators, Uber and Lyft. The campaign also included branding and experiences inside the stadium itself.

“We partnered with every partner along the way to the Super Bowl,” Wyatt said. "Really wrapping the entire experience with Adobe was powerful.”

The strategy reflects a broader trend among marketers who increasingly want to own an entire consumer journey rather than a single ad impression. Why settle for one touchpoint when you can potentially accompany someone from baggage claim to kickoff?

Vacation memories and business trips require different playbooks

Not all travelers think alike, however.

Someone taking a once-in-a-lifetime vacation is often looking to capture memories and tell stories. A business traveler racing through O'Hare simply wants technology that works and maybe a power outlet that isn't already occupied.

“The emotional spectrum matters,” Wyatt said.

For vacation travelers, Adobe focuses on creativity and storytelling. For everyday business travelers, the emphasis shifts toward utility and productivity.

“It's all about usefulness and how can I help people get their jobs done a lot easier,” Wyatt said.

That distinction may sound obvious, but in an industry still prone to treating every audience segment like a generic demographic bucket, it represents a reminder that context still matters.

AI can personalize, but humans still need to provide the emotion

As expected, the conversation eventually arrived at artificial intelligence, because no marketing interview in 2026 is legally permitted to end before someone mentions AI.

Wyatt sees AI as a valuable tool for understanding intent and scaling personalized messaging. He was also careful to draw a line between automation and emotional resonance.

“The message needs to be human,” he said. "People need to feel an emotion.”

He added that AI can help marketers identify signals and customize delivery, but not replace authentic storytelling.

“AI can help with intent signals, but the human touch really matters when it comes to emotional messaging,” Wyatt said.

For media buyers, the takeaway is straightforward: travel data may reveal what consumers plan to do next. Figuring out how to make them care about your brand once they get there remains a distinctly human challenge.