%20lens%20corrected.jpg)
Summer turns the motorway network into one of the UK's biggest family audience environments. For brands, it represents one of the most under-planned commercial opportunity on the road.
According to i-media's ANPR data, across 98% of the UK’s motorway service area network, average daily vehicle volumes rise from over 575,000 in the pre-holiday baseline to over 600,000 during the school summer holidays. At peak, a single summer week recorded an uplift of 19% visitors across the network.
These are high-intent audiences. They are present, dwelling and already in a spending mindset.
This summer, the family audience brings big opportunities for brands
Family cars account for around 30% of all cars stopping at a motorway service area during summer. This sees an uplift of +14% during school summer holidays. The leisure effect is even sharper on bank holiday Mondays, when cars account for 80% of all traffic, up from around 60% on all other mondays, during term time. Together, these peaks make summer one of the biggest commercial opportunities on the network.
Motorway service areas have evolved into genuine destination experiences, with useful shops, landscaped settings and regional food offers drawing deliberate visits rather than hurried ones. The quality of that audience engagement is rising alongside the numbers.
When they stop, they spend
Through i-media's exclusive EPOS linked data, we can see how audience presence directly translates into real purchasing behaviour: Toys up 59%, iced coffee up 24%, non-fizzy soft drinks up 30%. Ice cream demand on Bank Holiday Monday nearly tripled against the term-time average.
These are not modelled projections. They are purchases, made by real people, stopping at motorway service areas during the summer of 2025. Weekly sales during school summer holidays exceeded £2.5 million, up 14% on term-time averages (Moto). Spend per vehicle on Bank Holiday Monday rose 23% above the term-time norm.
Context is the competitive advantage
For brands, the question is not whether this audience is worth reaching. It clearly is. The question is whether your campaign is planned to reach them at the right moment.
UK Hospitality chief executive Allen Simpson said: 'As we head towards the busy summer season, holiday parks, hotels and B&Bs are reporting increased interest in staycations and the great British holiday, as international travel continues to remain uncertain.'
The opportunity is not simply scale, but timing. Summer is one of the few moments when audience volume, dwell time and spend all move in the same direction. That makes the school holiday period not just a seasonal uplift, but one of the most commercially significant moments on the road.
This is where the motorway environment becomes distinctive. High-dwell service areas combine scale, audience presence and real-time behaviour signals in ways few channels can. Live ANPR data adds a layer of responsiveness, helping brands align messaging to how audiences move through the network.
The case for summer audiences is that they are larger, and that they arrive in moments of higher attention and stronger commercial intent. For brands looking to engage people when decisions are actively being made, few environments offer that combination at scale.
Plan your summer campaign with i-media - Contact us
