As I sat in a sea of brake lights on the snow-covered highway last night, listening to the news on CBS Radio, I heard a traffic report, brought to me by local Subaru dealerships. It was a weather-triggered announcement. And for me, it was just a reminder that I had bought the right car as I was listening from the driver’s seat of a Forester. But for countless non-Subaru owners in the tri-state area, particularly those without an AWD vehicle, it was a reminder that Subaru is the ideal car for New Englanders.

So what does any of this have to do with travel?

If you’re marketing a travel brand — whether it be a hotel, destination, or even a tourist attraction — the best time to reach your audience is when they are in the right mindset. If you’re a warm-weather destination, that might be during a snow storm. Even ski destinations can use snow to get skiers excited about how much powder they have — a tactic we’ve used for several mountains. But snow doesn’t have to be the only trigger.

Rush hour itself is a stressful time for commuters. So traffic report sponsorships that run during the morning and evening commutes are the perfect time to get your travel message in. Unlike in an ad, you’ll have few words to do it, but you can still tap into that desire to get out of a stressful situation and get on a plane, a spa table, a hammock by the sea.

This is an often overlooked medium and approach, but it is a smart one (and an inexpensive one as well) with a captive, unhappy audience. All you have to do is make them long for the brand that will make them happy – yours.