National brands are increasingly adopting and embracing hyperlocal practices to generate sales and build brand loyalty.
People are the common denominator that rewards brands by making purchases of specific products. When people feel understood and connected to, they seem to be rewarding national brands with loyalty, trust, sales and market share gains as brands take the time to distill their messaging to the local community.
Breaking Through Oversaturated Media
Due to the myriad of mediums that national branding campaigns run on, and the sunk cost of TV commercial production, wanting to get the maximum bang for the production buck, brands often times feel obliged to re-utilize these spots in order to lower the effective % of production dollars vs. media dollars. As is often the case in dealing with situations involving sunk cost, it leads to a further opportunity cost loss.
Additionally, most agencies aren’t equipped to distill messaging down to the city and certainly not down to the neighborhood level, because they lack the knowledge and know-how. However, this is where it seems the biggest gains are being had.
While these issues are not limited to just national advertisements, the mindset of national advertisers exacerbates the problem. How so? In a world that is bombarded with advertising, only the brands that can grab attention see success. A common downfall of national advertising campaigns is their broad messaging.
We are drawn only to advertisements that truly resonate with us. The rise of retargeting campaigns is a direct result of this reality. Businesses like Amazon have stopped trying to be clever and have focused on context. When you see advertisements for something you have been searching for already, it stands out in the crowd of generic messaging.
Retargeting technologies are highly effective for re-engaging warm leads, but how do you take this same mindset and use it to attract cold leads? The answer is local advertising. More specifically, hyperlocal advertising.
What Is Hyperlocal Advertising?
Hyperlocal advertising is the process of targeting prospective customers in a highly specific, geographically restricted area. While hyperlocal advertising campaigns are now targeting as narrowly as specific blocks or streets, we will define hyperlocal advertising in terms of individual communities and/or subsections within cities. Hyperlocal advertising takes local advertising and makes it significantly more granular. The reason it has seen heavy adoption is simple because it works.
Focus
A hyperlocal advertising campaign allows you to create advertisements that are focused on resonating with a small group of people. In the competitive world of advertising, this means you have a significantly higher chance of generating attention.
Relationships
Repeat business has always been and will always be the foundation of any successful business. People buy over and over from brands they form real relationships with. Brands can struggle to maintain the level of loyalty they once had as they begin to scale nationally. This is due in large part to their change in advertising strategy. Gone are the contextual messages that resonated with people. Replaced by generic messaging in hopes to resonate with all, but ends up impacting none.
Relationships
Repeat business has always been and will always be the foundation of any successful business. People buy over and over from brands they form real relationships with. Brands can struggle to maintain the level of loyalty they once had as they begin to scale nationally. This is due in large part to their change in advertising strategy. Gone are the contextual messages that resonated with people. Replaced by generic messaging in hopes to resonate with all, but ends up impacting none.
While it may be clear that a local advertising strategy can benefit businesses of all sizes, it still doesn’t address the elephant in the room. Regardless of how contextual your campaign is, people are still blocking advertisements on their computers. The cell phones in their pockets provide an immediate escape from commercials on TV. How do you combat this attack on traditional advertising? To answer this question we need to go back to the beginning.
In the early 1790s, lithography, a method of printing using oil and water was invented. Soon after, posters started to pop up in locations where pedestrian traffic was high. It took many years before this form of advertising was given a proper name: Out-of-home advertising. Today nearly $29 billion is spent on out-of-home advertising every year. Companies like Apple, Amazon and, HBO rely heavily on out-of-home advertising, despite the newer technologies that have emerged.
Why Does Out-Of-Home Advertising Work?
According to Magna, global out-of-home advertising spending grew 4.6% in 2018, the only traditional advertising medium to show growth last year. This may come as a surprise, considering out-of-home advertising isn’t new or flashy. These big and bold forms of advertising simply work. When combined with a local, or even hyperlocal mindset, these advertisements can drive growth and ROI that dwarf other mediums.
Research from the Outdoor Media Association found that consumers are 2.5 times more alert when they are out and about than when they are at home consuming content on their own screens. Out-of-home advertising enhances the everyday experience instead of disrupting it. A refreshing change that is noticed by consumers.
When done properly a locally focused, an out-of-home advertising campaign will feel like you’re speaking directly to consumers, understanding what they want and need in a highly personal way. When this happens, you’re fostering higher brand affinity and bringing people closer to doing business with you.
Brian Morrison, CEO at out-of-home advertising provider Terraboost Media said,
“Hyperlocal advertising is media that not only “gets it” when it comes to the general vibe and dynamics that make each neighborhood unique, but is targeted and on-point in terms of generating engagements right in the neighborhood. By selecting media that doesn’t leak into the general market – you can rest assured that every penny of your marketing budget will be optimized for the people who matter the most with enough frequency to drive the message home. It takes the average consumer 10-12 views until the advertising message resonates – and the average supermarket shopper frequents our stores 80 or more times per year!”
How Does Terraboost Help National Brands Think Local?
Terraboost is able to “Boost” the hyperlocal dynamics of a national campaign as well by customizing messages for each neighborhood; making references that will resonate with locals. With over 180 employees, Terraboost has its pulse on the country’s most vibrant neighborhoods in which we operate and can tweak your agency’s broad, general campaign to resonate on a hyperlocal basis specific to the zip or neighborhood that your message is hosted in. This is a labor-intensive job, but something we excel at – so you as a marketing agency can focus on the broader strategy and staying ahead of your competition.
How This National Brand Used Terraboost To Grow
