Airport: the premium shopping area of the 21st century

Paris, 25 November, 2013 - JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, has unveiled the results of the “Global Shopper Connection” research that aims to understand how Global Shoppers associate travelling and purchase experiences during their trips abroad.

Number one worldwide in airport advertising, JCDecaux operates in all major international hubs: Beijing, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Dubai, New York, Singapore and Shanghai and reaches an annual audience of more than 1.5 billion passengers around the globe, i.e. 27% of the traffic.

This “Global Shopper Connection” survey follows the 2011 “Airport Stories World” research that showed how passengers experience brand communication at airports.

During the first half of 2013, 1,475 online interviews amongst international travellers from 8 countries were carried out, with an even split of male and female air passengers, all high earners and regular purchasers of high-end cosmetics and fragrances.

This research highlights the emergence of a new category of travelers, the “Global Shoppers”, who consider shopping an integral part of their travel experience:

• 96% of people interviewed enjoy shopping when visiting a foreign city, 83% consider that shopping is an important part of their trips and 68% choose their travel destination according to the shopping opportunities and available brands at the location.
• The research also illustrates the Global Shopper’s flexibility when it comes to purchasing: as shopping experts they attend different retail outlets throughout their travel experience. Duty Free shopping is their preferred point-of-sale (75% buy in Duty Free shops, with 78% shopping on their return trip). However high street stores are also important, with 70% of Global shoppers buying in department stores, 62% in luxury brands’ stores and 55% in perfumeries.

These figures prove the relevance for brands to reach this target at every touchpoint of their journey, especially as the research highlights that Global Shoppers pay close attention to advertising when travelling abroad (87% claimed that advertising helps them to better understand the local culture), hence the special attention they pay to brand advertising when landing at the airport and when visiting a city (92% pay particular attention to advertising in airports and 95% to advertising in the city),

• Jean-Charles Decaux, Co-Chief Executive Officer of JCDecaux, said: “As the number one worldwide in airport advertising, JCDecaux is well-positioned to provide thought leadership and insight into the effectiveness of advertising in the airport unique environment and its associated elite audience of affluent, educated passengers.
• In light of the findings of this survey, we’ve set-up the Connection Planning, which help brands follow Global Shoppers all along their journey. JCDecaux’s particularity, indeed, lies in the fact that we can propose a premium offer connecting various entities such as airports, city transport services and cities throughout the world to announcers and agencies.”

• Methodology
• • 1 475 interviews conducted by Toluna, an independent research company
• • 8 countries (USA / Brazil / United Kingdom / UAE / Russia / China / Hong-Kong)
• • International Travellers: people who travelled by plane outside their own countries at least once over the last 12 months
• • Highest Earners: highest wages earned, proportionally to the income levels of their countries
• • Regular consumption of high-end cosmetics and fragrances: people who bought at least one product from the “high-end cosmetics and fragrances” category during the last 3 months
• • Equal distribution of men and women: 50% men and 50% women, except for the UAE (100% women)