One of the more interesting things I've noticed over the years is that very few airport marketers set out to become parking marketers. Most of us find our way there almost by accident. One day you're working on a new air service announcement or a terminal campaign, and the next you're responsible for helping grow one of the airport's largest non-aeronautical revenue streams.

That can feel intimidating, especially if you've never worked around parking before.

The good news is that I don't think your job is to become an expert in parking operations or revenue management. There are incredibly talented people who have spent decades thinking about those challenges, and I've learned a tremendous amount from many of them. Your job is something different. Your job is to understand the business well enough to become a better marketing partner.

In my experience, that's where curiosity becomes one of the most valuable skills you can have.

I've always believed that the best marketing happens when the silos start to disappear. Marketing has one perspective, operations has another, finance has another, and parking almost always has its own. The more time you spend inside those different conversations, the more you realize everyone is solving the same problem from a different angle.

Some of the best ideas I've been part of didn't come from a marketing meeting. They came from listening to parking managers talk about congestion during holiday travel, customer service teams explain the questions they hear every day, or operations teams describe why one garage fills before another. Those conversations change the way you think about the traveler because you stop looking at parking as a campaign and start seeing it as an experience.

That's also how you earn credibility. Not by pretending to have all the answers, but by asking thoughtful questions, like:

  • Why does this product exist?
  • Why is this lot priced differently?
  • What behaviors are we trying to encourage?
  • If this campaign is successful, what does success actually look like for the parking team?

I've found that people are remarkably willing to share what they know when they know you're genuinely interested in understanding their business rather than simply promoting it.

That curiosity has another benefit. It helps marketing move beyond tactics.

It's easy to jump straight into creative concepts or media plans because that's our comfort zone. It's much harder—but far more valuable—to first understand what the business is trying to accomplish. Is the goal to shift demand into underutilized parking products? Encourage advance reservations? Reduce pressure on a full garage during peak travel? Those are business objectives first. The marketing strategy comes second.

I also think airport marketers have an opportunity to bring something unique to the table.

Parking teams understand parking extraordinarily well. Marketing teams understand travelers. The real opportunity isn't for one group to become the other. It's to bring those perspectives together. When that happens, marketing stops feeling like a service department that's asked to "make a flyer," and starts becoming a strategic partner that's helping shape how travelers experience the airport.

Looking back, I think that's been one of the biggest lessons parking has taught me.

The more curious I've become about the operational side of the business, the better marketer I've become. Not because I suddenly understood every aspect of parking, but because I gained a much deeper appreciation for the people who do.

And in my experience, that's usually where the best ideas begin.