Against the backdrop of strong APAC region travel intent, Navigator has just established its first presence in the region with an office in Singapore. Recently completing its Series A fundraise, the travel media expert is currently partnering with global adtech pioneers Kargo in a significant initiative to move the industry further towards efficient agentic media buying, with initial testing results validating this approach ahead of its APAC market launch.
The partnership, integrating into Kargo’s Project KERA closed beta, allows travel advertisers to bypass traditional media metrics and optimise campaigns directly for commercial outcomes, such as flight and hotel bookings.
Project KERA has already proven the model works in practice. Across four campaign flights in December 2025 and January 2026, the system executed fully autonomous programmatic spend across UK and US markets, with campaigns planned, trafficked, and optimised without manual intervention. Preliminary results show mobile engagement rates at three to four times the industry benchmark, with the system autonomously reading that signal, refining bids, and re-executing without a human in the loop. That iteration capability — signal in, adjustment out, re-execution — is now being expanded to the APAC market.
As Asia Pacific-wide travel spend is projected to reach $522.7 billion by 2028, the region represents one of the world’s most complex and high-intent travel markets. Navigator’s “agent-ready” infrastructure addresses this by connecting its two billion live travel intent signals, sourced from exclusive direct access to travel business first-party data across hospitality and operator businesses, directly to Kargo’s autonomous execution engine.
Traditional travel campaigns often require weeks of manual creative versioning and channel coordination. Through this partnership, the beta cuts development and preparation time significantly through:
Autonomous Execution: Kargo’s agents interpret campaign goals to generate and deploy high-impact video and display assets across CTV, mobile, and social.
Intent-Based Optimisation: Navigator acts as an independent intelligence layer, feeding real-time booking data back into the system to refine media spend.
Privacy-First Reach: The system uses cohort-based signals to reach travellers planning trips across premium long-haul and business corridors without relying on third-party cookies.
“Agentic AI is the biggest shift in media buying since programmatic, but speed alone isn’t the prize. Certainty is,” said Steve Rowbotham, Founder and CEO, Navigator. “By pairing Kargo’s autonomous execution with Navigator’s unique and expansive travel intelligence, we’ve created a model where media is optimised around business growth. For the APAC market, where traveller intent is at an all-time high, this allows brands to reach the right traveller at the exact moment of decision.”
Robert Leach, General Manager, Kargo APAC, added: “Modern media buying is often too fragmented to be effective. Project KERA unifies planning, creative, and media into one adaptive system. Navigator is the ideal partner for this evolution, recognising that the future of travel marketing isn’t static — it’s intelligently orchestrated.”
