Monday, April 18

Local Genius: The Benefits Of Local Advertising

If you lived in Argentina and spoke the local tongue, you would order a Pepsi by requesting a Pecsi. Phonetically, this pronunciation is easier for Argentineans. In 2009, Pepsi acknowledged this little quirk and gave BBDO Argentina the green light to give a friendly nod to the locals and rebrand Pepsi as Pecsi –a significant move to localize an international brand.


National Advertisers have always recognized the importance of advertising on a local level, just not always as successfully as Pepsi. Or, Pecsi for those readers in Argentina. For the majority of national Advertisers the successful implementation of local advertising has been hindered by their misunderstanding about the best tactics and traffic sources to use, and how to effectively measure the results and return on investment (ROI). This confusion exists because they don’t live and work in every community they are targeting. But you do.

As a local business, you have the upper hand. You are not only a marketer to a locale; you are a local yourself. The idiosyncrasies and particulars of your target area are part of your everyday life. Benefiting from this advantage isn’t as easy as just being present, though. You must recognize the shift in consumer control and engage your evangelists—your most loyal customers and fellow citizens. The good news is you don’t have to spend huge marketing dollars to make your brand relevant to the local community, like Pecsi.

Thankfully the current technology environment has driven media consumption on the go – making it easy for local brands to reach and engage their audiences. The emergence and mass acceptance of new devices from laptops to tablets to smart phones has created an intuitive engaged user experience. According to the latest Mobile Audience Insights Report from JiWire, when local content is added to creative, users engage 100-120 percent more than they do with the same ad without the local content. There are more cost effective, measurable ways to stretch your marketing dollars farther than there have ever been before.

If you don’t know where to start, that’s okay – we do.

This post was originally published on Deep Ad Thoughts by The Cyphers Agency.

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