Hasta La Creative!

According to The Wall Street Journal, travelers who visit Heathrow Airport’s new terminal will be bombarded with ads.

The new terminal is equipped with 333 billboard slots and 206 flat-screen TV sets, which can change ads to target specific flights. By contrast, Los Angeles International has 34 advertising TV sets in the entire airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International has 40.

The airport, which serves Europe’s biggest financial center and is a transit point for many flights to and from the U.S., draws heavily on international business travelers, a group advertisers will pay a premium to reach. Some 27 million people are expected to pass through the new building, called Terminal Five, in the first year and 30% of them will earn more than $100,000 a year.

While outdoor advertising is a small part of the industry, it is growing faster — at 8% a year — than all other advertising forms except the Internet.

RESEARCH FACTOID: The average business traveler’s heart rate is 91 beats per minute, compared with 70 beats for a relaxed person.