British Airways owner IAG launches commerce media proposition
IAG says the media platform will allow marketers to tap into consumers when they are more likely to spend.
· Marketing WeekBy Katie Matthews 12 Nov 2026 7:30 pm
International Airlines Group (IAG) has launched a commerce media proposition, IAG Media, giving brands access to its “typically cash-rich” customer base.
The new network will allow marketers to reach up to 122m travellers across IAG’s portfolio of airlines, which includes British Airways and Iberia.
At the start of the year, Marketing Week anticipated a rise in non-retail commerce media as companies looked to capture a share of growing ad budgets. At the time, marketers were demanding greater creativity and stronger measurement from media networks to prove both short-term ROI and long-term brand impact.
IAG Media is answering this call by unifying its advertising offering and launching an in-house creative studio to help marketers build “bespoke campaigns”. The studio will combine emerging technology, including AI-generated content, with “a human touch” to reduce production costs and speed up the process.
With ambitions to build IAG Media into “the leading travel network,” Nacho Tovar, CEO of IAG Media and group innovation director, tells Marketing Week the proposition enables brand discovery across the customer journey, from booking and customer communications to airport lounges and in-flight entertainment.
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Tovar says integrating Starlink onto flights has opened up the possibilities of what you can do in travel advertising because customers can spend while they’re in the air.
IAG brought in Josh Peckham as chief commercial officer six months ago to oversee the rollout of IAG Media. He says the aim is to “be incredibly granular” about ad measurement and placement to help “make marketing dollars go further”.
IAG Media plans to partner with select companies, particularly in the travel, luxury goods, fintech, and automotive sectors, to build campaigns that “feel very native to a passenger.”
According to the company, ad-tech measurement software will give advertisers clear performance metrics for their spend. It is also open to feedback in the early stages to build a proposition that works for advertising brands and customers.
IAG Media will officially go to market in the UK, Ireland, and Spain in January, but discussions with prospective advertisers have already begun, the brand says.
“We know advertising within the travel industry isn’t new, but what we’re doing is taking that to the next stage through connectivity, ensuring we’re maximising advertisers’ budgets and putting them in front of the right passengers at the right time,” says Peckham.