Brief:

• Delta Air Lines is targeting New Yorkers with a social media campaign featuring videos that are customized for smartphone viewing. The "Small Stories" docuseries features real New Yorkers who live in tight or awkward spaces, such as a boat, while highlighting how the airline has improved the in-flight experience out of New York City, according to an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
• Those features include new planes, more aircraft with seatback screens and the most first-class seats among flights origination from New York City. The videos end with the tagline, "New York Isn't Always Comfortable. Flying Out of It Is," and will run through November on Delta's Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts.
• Delta's comfort-themed campaign also includes an experiential pop-up in New York. Creative agency W+K New York developed the campaign with Delta, which is the most-traveled airline in the featured state, according to an analysis of Bureau of Transportation data by Upgraded Points.

Insight:

Delta's "Small Stories" campaign that shows how New Yorkers create livable spaces out of cramped conditions is well suited for the smaller confines of smartphone screens. The docuseries is shot in a vertical video format that makes viewing easier for mobile users who tend to use one hand to swipe or scroll through social media feeds. Fewer than 30% of mobile users turn their phones sideways to watch an ad, and those that do only watch about 14% of the content, per a study by agency Media Brix.

By featuring young adults in the docuseries, Delta aims to reach a mobile-adept audience that's a key market for the travel industry. About one-third (34%) of U.S. adults ages 18 to 34 said they're willing to spend more than $5,000 on upcoming vacations, the most of any age group, per a survey by travel tech firm Travelport. Tech-savvy U.S. millennials spend an average of $223 a month on travel, or $2,676 a year, a survey by Ally Financial found. To reach those consumer groups, the U.S. travel is industry is expected to spend $13 billion on digital media next year, making it the second-largest category of ad buyers after retailers, eMarketer forecasts.

Delta is among the airlines that have run mobile-based campaigns this year to capture the attention of young adults, who tend to use mobile devices to consume media and to seek authentic experiences they can share on social channels. JetBlue ran a contest that challenged people to delete all their Instagram posts for a chance to win a year of free travel. Southwest Airlines launched a campaign to find 10 social influencers who could create travel content for the carrier while exploring its destinations in the U.S., Mexico, Caribbean and Central America.