When planning communications, many B2B brands often ask whether they should choose office buildings or airports for their advertising placements. In reality, these two environments serve different roles in the business decision-making journey. This article analyzes those differences and explains how to select the right cluster of media touchpoints based on campaign objectives.

Why a B2B Purchase Decision Requires Multiple Touchpoints

Business purchase decisions typically involve long decision cycles and multiple participants: direct users, budget approvers, procurement departments, and sometimes even auditors.

Each person in this decision-making chain encounters information in a different context throughout the day, making it difficult for a single media channel to cover the entire decision-making process.

Business purchase decisions typically involve long decision cycles and multiple participants.

The Role of Airport Advertising in the Decision-Making Journey

According to an analysis by Focus Media China, airports reach decision-makers while they are in transit, where repeat exposure frequency is relatively low and the time available to absorb information is limited.

For this reason, airport advertising content needs to be distilled into a single purposeful message that is easy to remember within a short period of time, rather than presenting multiple layers of information.

Advertising content at an airport.

The Role of Elevator Media Advertising in Office Buildings

By contrast, office buildings are environments where people spend more time each day and return multiple times throughout the week.

This context is better suited to communicating more comprehensively about product value, practical applications, and competitive differentiation.

The analysis cites examples such as Alibaba Cloud, DingTalk, and Tencent Meeting, which have used office-building environments to deliver a clear positioning statement to the right groups of decision-makers.

Why Selecting the Right Building Cluster Matters More Than Selecting More Placements

A campaign covering a large number of locations does not necessarily mean it is reaching the right people.

For enterprise products and services, identifying building clusters concentrated around the right industries, company sizes, or geographic areas where the target audience is located often delivers greater value than spreading the budget across many different types of locations.

How Focus Media Vietnam Organizes Its Network by Building Clusters

Focus Media Vietnam operates its screen network across office-building clusters and premium residential developments in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, enabling brands to select groups of buildings aligned with their target audience profiles rather than purchasing media solely based on the number of screens.

Advertising location selection dashboard (Illustration).

• FAQ

  Is Elevator Media Advertising suitable for B2B industries?

  Yes. It is suitable for industries with long decision-making cycles and multiple participants, particularly when the target audience works in specific office buildings.

  Should a brand choose office buildings or airports for a new launch campaign?

  It depends on the objective. If the goal is to build broad initial awareness with a concise message, airports can serve as a suitable complementary environment. If the objective is to communicate product value in greater detail to the right decision-making audience, office buildings are generally more effective.

  Can Focus Media Vietnam help select building clusters by industry?

  Yes. Brands can work with the Focus Media Vietnam team to select building clusters that align with their target audience profiles.

  Reference

  • Analysis: “Breaking the Misconception of ‘Burning Money’ to Build a Brand: How Enterprise Services Build Decision-Making Consensus” — He Jin/Focus Media China, published July 1, 2026.