The outdoor hospitality industry has transformed its guest experience over the past several years, upgrading amenities, adding glamping units, and investing in reservation technology. But when it comes to marketing, most RV park and campground operators are still working with the same limited toolkit: search engine listings, social media posts, and online travel agencies. Television advertising, long considered the domain of hotel chains and destination resorts, has remained out of reach.
David Martin, Co-Founder and COO of Adwave, an AI-powered self-serve connected television advertising platform, sees that beginning to change. “RV parks and campgrounds are some of the most visible businesses out there,” Martin says. “They have beautiful properties, incredible settings. But they’ve never had a way to get that in front of people on a screen where it actually makes an impact.”
Adwave enables small businesses to create broadcast-quality 30-second television commercials from a website URL and air them across more than 100 premium streaming channels, including NBC, Hulu, ESPN, and Discovery, with campaigns starting at $50.
Why TV Hasn’t Reached Outdoor Hospitality – Until Now
The economics of traditional television advertising never worked for independent parks: production required crews, professional editing, and weeks of turnaround. Purchasing airtime meant media buyers, bulk commitments, and broad geographic targeting that wasted spend on viewers who would never visit.
“The old model was built for national brands with six-figure budgets,” Martin explains. “If you’re an RV park outside of Moab or in the Florida Panhandle, you don’t need to blanket an entire state. You need to reach the right people within driving distance or in the feeder markets where your guests actually come from.”
Connected television has changed that equation. Ad inventory on streaming platforms can be purchased in small increments, targeted to specific geographies and audience segments, and launched within hours. Adwave’s platform generates a commercial by analyzing the content and imagery on a park’s existing website, pulling photos of sites, amenities, and landscapes, then assembling them into a professionally produced spot with music, voiceover, and on-screen text.
The platform recently introduced an image-to-video capability that transforms static property photographs into dynamic panning shots. For a category where the visual appeal of the setting is the primary selling point, this turns existing website assets into something significantly more engaging on a television screen.
Precision Targeting for a Seasonal Business
The intersection of geography and seasonality makes the RV park sector an unusually strong fit for connected television’s targeting capabilities. Campaigns can be targeted by ZIP code or radius, and operators can reach audience segments based on interests, such as outdoor recreation enthusiasts, families with children, and recent RV purchasers.
“Seasonality is huge in this industry,” Martin says. “An operator should be able to ramp up before peak season, target the feeder markets where their guests drive in from, and then adjust or pause when the season winds down. No contracts, no long-term commitments. They set a budget, pick their audience, and launch.”
A Trust Signal in a Crowded Market
The sector has become increasingly competitive, with approximately 88 million U.S. households now identifying as campers and the market generating over $10 billion in annual revenue. That growth has attracted new development and a proliferation of properties competing for the same guest base.
“When someone sees your park advertised on Hulu or the Discovery Channel, it registers differently than a Facebook ad they scroll past in half a second,” Martin says. “It builds the kind of brand recognition that makes your park the one they remember when they’re planning their next trip. And we always tell operators that TV amplifies everything else they’re doing, when someone sees your ad and then encounters your listing on a booking site, that recognition is already there.”
Disclosure: Individuals or companies mentioned may have a commercial relationship with KeyCrew.
