Airport advertising, AI brawl
Text by | Deng Yongyi
Edited by | Su Jianxun
If you want to observe the domestic AI market, you can pay more attention to the airport advertisements in first-tier cities.
In June, Chen Pei was on a business trip as usual. At Beijing Capital Airport, he found that Alibaba Cloud's advertisements were everywhere. Whether on the departure or arrival floors, billboards with the slogan "Use Alibaba Cloud for AI" were scattered throughout the terminal.
Chen Pei's company is similar to Alibaba Cloud in that they both have server businesses, and he has also placed airport advertisements. From his perspective, the signal couldn't be clearer: "Any To B manufacturer who sees this will know that Alibaba Cloud is about to start a battle and will wonder whether to increase their advertising investment."
Multiple industry insiders revealed to us that Alibaba Cloud's advertising investment in this round reached the level of over 100 million yuan. "It can be said to be one of the most generous advertising campaigns in this wave of AI large models."
△Source: Photographed in July from "Intelligent Emergence"
Shortly after Alibaba Cloud "occupied" the airport, Chen Pei noticed that Baidu Cloud had secured one of the most expensive spots on the arrival floor of Beijing Capital Airport's Terminal 3.
"Baidu Cloud has never bought this spot before," an industry insider recalled to us. The billboard costs at least tens of millions of yuan per year. Before the large model craze, the previous buyer of this spot was the luxury brand Dior.
△Baidu Cloud advertisement in the arrival hall of Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital Airport. Source: Internet
Nowadays, whether they are cloud providers, AI companies, operators, or new energy vehicle manufacturers, they are all turning to AI and hoping to appear on the billboards in first-tier cities.
In July, we took a stroll around Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital Airport. The check-in hall was filled with AI advertisements from China Mobile, China Unicom, Alibaba Cloud, Baidu Cloud, JD Cloud, Lenovo, Fourth Paradigm, and Nine Chapters Cloud. The manufacturers are either selling all-in-one machines, large models, intelligent agents, or AI solutions such as intelligent driving.
△Recent AI advertisements at Beijing and Shenzhen airports. Source: Photographed in July from "Intelligent Emergence" and compiled from Internet images
The wave of AI large models is helping airports attract more advertising customers.
Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport is one of the airports with the most concentrated AI advertisements in the past two years. According to statistics from "Metropolis Express", in the past two years, IT and Internet advertisements represented by AI large models and cloud computing have accounted for 20% of the advertising revenue, second only to the food and beverage industry.
△In the advertising expenditure at national airports in the past five years, the software category has been increasing rapidly. Source: Zhongtian Yingxin (CODC) database
The best advertising spots need to be snatched
Placing AI advertisements at airports is naturally because of the concentrated business crowd here, which is an advertising form unparalleled by any outdoor advertising.
The top ten national airports, including Beijing Capital, Shanghai Pudong, and Chengdu Shuangliu, handle 80% of the national air passenger flow. Among them, business travelers account for up to 70%, and they also include enterprise and government decision-makers who pay for large models and AI products.
The popularity of DeepSeek at the beginning of this year triggered a wave of all-in-one machines. Some manufacturers directly placed large advertisements at Shenzhen Airport to sell DeepSeek all-in-one machines and even included QR codes with the slogan "Scan the code to get an immediate discount of 2,000 yuan", specifically targeting business owners.
△DeepSeek all-in-one machine advertisement at Shenzhen Bao'an Airport. Source: Internet
However, it's not easy to secure the desired advertising spot at the airport.
The most valuable advertising spots are those that everyone must pass by and see. For example, billboards near the security checkpoint entrance, security checkpoints, exits of the arrival hall, air bridges, and advertisements above the luggage carousels.
There is a consensus among advertisers that compared to the departure hall, the arrival area is a better location - passengers are often in a hurry when departing, while they are more relaxed when arriving.
These core spots are basically in long-term cooperation with large enterprises on an annual basis. Large companies such as Mengniu, Huawei, Alibaba, and Tencent basically occupy fixed advertising spots at the airport. If there are specific periods, they will increase some short-term seasonal advertising to create a louder voice.
"Good spots are booked as soon as they're available, and it's hard to find a substitute in terms of passenger flow or brand significance," multiple brand owners told "Intelligent Emergence". If you want to start advertising at the airport, you need to be prepared for long-term and stable investment.
△Source: Internet
△Zhipu's airport and subway advertisements in 2024. Source: Internet
In addition to airports, Zhipu also placed a series of advertisements near the Zhongguancun business district in Beijing - this is also the location of the offices of other "Six Little Dragons" such as Kimi and Baichuan Intelligence. Employees of these two companies can see large advertisements of Zhipu Qingyan when they enter the subway, which was even mocked by many netizens as "fighting face to face".
However, this advertising campaign only lasted for a few months. An industry insider observed that this period coincided with the intensive financing period of Zhipu - manufacturers often use airport advertisements in such windows to intimidate competitors and quickly build market influence.
Manufacturers also place advertisements and "create buzz" at airports in different cities to compete for talent and more customers.
DingTalk placed an advertisement at Beijing Capital Airport. The title also rode on the AI trend, reading "In the AI era... Welcome to start a business in Hangzhou".
△DingTalk's advertisement at Daxing Airport. Source: Jike @Shuai Feiniu
Volcengine, a subsidiary of ByteDance, also placed advertisements side by side with Alibaba Cloud at Alibaba's home base in Hangzhou.
△Advertisements placed by Volcengine and Alibaba Cloud at Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport. Source: Internet
Large manufacturers are more cautious, while small manufacturers find alternative ways
Despite the bustling airport advertising scene, the advertising campaigns of large model and cloud computing manufacturers are more of a market statement, and the actual incremental business they bring is limited.
"Has the opportunity for new large models and AI applications really emerged?" In 2024, Qiu Qiu, an airport advertising agent, visited a number of technology exhibitions and met with several AI application manufacturers, and she had big doubts in her mind.
Since 2022, her company has regarded AI as an important strategic opportunity. During the weekly group meetings, both new and old salespeople strive to combine their projects with AI to stimulate new demand.
Although it seems bustling, most large model advertisements are a reallocation of the advertisers' original business budgets - for example, cloud computing, mobile phone, and new energy vehicle manufacturers.
"We haven't seen any signs of advertising budgets from other new AI application manufacturers at the airport," Qiu Qiu told "Intelligent Emergence".
After the popularity of DeepSeek, the large model field has entered a new cycle of heavy investment. In May this year, Alibaba announced that it would invest 380 billion yuan in AI and cloud computing in the next three years.
However, most of this money goes into hardware infrastructure and talent investment, leaving little budget for advertising. AI companies are generally still in a tight situation when it comes to this marketing battle - once the budget is approved, it has to be used for online customer acquisition first, and the budget for outdoor advertising can only be maintained at a stable level.
In 2025, Qiu Qiu began to explore the needs of AI application manufacturers. After a round of research, she found that even the leading AI application manufacturers that have made money still have doubts about airport advertising.
After communicating with her clients, she found that although some AI application manufacturers have made money, their scale is not large enough to support long-term advertising investment. Airport advertising is still quite expensive - she expects that it will take another two years for AI applications to prove their commercial value before there will be a wave of advertising at the airport.
However, the views of many small and medium-sized AI manufacturers on offline advertising are changing. An advertising agent said that nowadays, many small and medium-sized AI companies are turning their attention to offline advertising and trying to place advertisements at other transportation hubs.
Manus, which became very popular at the beginning of this year, has recently started placing offline advertisements at overseas ports and subways to recruit talent and promote its products.
△Source: Founder of Manus, Jike @Xiaohong
△In July, Manus started placing offline advertisements in Singapore. Source: Internet
Now that the trend of AI applications going global is on the rise, offline advertising is intuitive enough and still has an irreplaceable brand significance for unfamiliar countries and cultures.
Online, most traffic channels are controlled by giants like ByteDance and Tencent, and the cost for AI manufacturers to acquire online traffic is increasing year by year. Meanwhile, the original advertising sponsors at airports, such as luxury brands and traditional fuel vehicles, are reducing their advertising budgets significantly.
"Even offline outdoor advertising doesn't seem that expensive anymore," the above-mentioned person joked. These small and medium-sized players will compete to be among the "top few" in offline advertising, hoping to catch a wave of new brand dividends.
Advertising is a barometer of the prosperity of all industries. AI and large models have reignited confidence in almost all industries and increased advertising investment. What we're seeing now may just be a short - term snapshot. How to prove that it truly has real commercial value, as the advertising slogans claim, is a long - term proposition that all companies have to face.
(Chen Pei and Qiu Qiu are pen names)
Cover source | Compiled from the author's photos and public Internet materials
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