Hyper-local media certainly sounds brilliant. Targeting people in a narrowly defined geographic area in order to deliver highly relevant and localized creative and offers – all of which results in greater response. Who wouldn’t want to do that? But how exactly do you do it, and when is it worth the investment of time and resources?
Every brand can do this, but they won’t all do it the same way.
We’ve reached a point where the “stars are aligned” with respect to hyper-local media. At the same time that consumers’ use of mobile devices has led them to expect localized messages and offers, new tools and technologies are making hyper-local easier than ever.
The keys to success are understanding what it means to be hyper-local and using the approach that’s best for your situation. Whether you’re a national brand, regional player or a single location business, you can do this – you just won’t all go about it the same way.
3 things make it hyper-local
A common misperception about hyper-local media is that it’s essentially just targeting a narrowly defined geographic area. And while that is one piece of it, there are actually three components that in combination make this a highly impactful media approach.
1: Unique Target Insights. Uncovering unique insights about the people who live in or go to a narrowly defined geographic area is the foundation of hyper-local media. These insights can help define the limits of your geographic target and provide the reconnaissance you need to develop more locally relevant messaging and offers.
2: Customized Creative and Offers. This is all about using the insights you gather to increase relevance. This could include localized pricing or offers; emphasizing certain product benefits over others (because of their local relevance); and crafting creative elements to better match a locality (language, images, people, music)
3: Targeted Placement: If you go through the effort to uncover unique target insights and customize your creative and offers, you certainly want to make sure your media placement is as surgical as possible. Are you targeting a specific zip code, neighborhood, street or an even smaller area? Since any given media tactic has targeting limitations, the importance of avoiding spillover into non-targeted geographies will be a significant driver of your tactical choices.
Let your scope drive your approach
So now that you know the three elements that constitute a hyper-local media approach, how do you execute them? This is where one size does not fit all. How you do this depends the scope of your focus. If you’re only targeting a single geographic area, or maybe just a handful, you can apply a more hands-on method that results in highly customized activities, partnerships and media tactics. If your approach is regional or national you have think about scale, which means relying more heavily on data and technology.
How to implement a neighborhood-driven approach
This approach is all about uncovering the hidden uniqueness of a location or neighborhood – and using those insights to develop highly customized messaging, partnerships and even invented media tactics. If your work results in something that could only be used in one specific place, you know you’ve succeeded.
The up-front work required should progress through three stages; each requiring a greater investment of resources, but delivering greater hyper-local insights.
1: The data pull. This involves combing through all the various data sources that report on your targeted locality. That can include everything from the U.S Census to the Places Rating Almanac. The objective is to get a clear enough picture of the area (population make-up, the socio-economic picture, the arts and cultural scene, etc.) to formulate what questions you should be asking next to uncover deeper insights and opportunities.
2: Conversations from afar. In this phase, utilize your network of friends, family and colleagues to identify and connect with people who live in a target locality. Your social media platforms can be a great way to approach this. Recruit those locals to participate in in-depth interviews designed to uncover deeper insights and opportunities.
3: The in-person visit. Traveling to an out of town area requires a significant investment in time and resources, so use the up-front work from steps one and two to inform and focus your time in-market. Interview locals, visit potential partners, check out the competition, and identify invented media opportunities that could only exist in that specific place. For example, is there an empty storefront you can make use of, is there a structure you can wrap with a brand’s messaging, etc.
Along the way, you’re looking for insights that will drive three things: messaging, offers and tactics.
Messaging. You want to know how the values and interests of your local target could be reflected in your creative. This could include imagery, language/local terms and music.
Offers. Is your target more motivated by deep discounts, trial offers or bundled deals? Would partnering with another local brand increase your relevancy while incenting conversions?
Tactics. Thinking about neighborhood tactics requires some creativity. The most powerful media tactics at this level are the ones you invent yourself, so keep that in mind as you walk the neighborhood. Is there an opportunity for a pop-up store, new signage in a disruptive format, street teams, etc.?
Customization is the hallmark of a neighborhood level approach. If what you ultimately create is so specific to one neighborhood that it could never be replicated in another, you know you’re doing this right…and the results should bear that out.
How to implement a regional/national approach
This approach is all about using data and technology to more efficiently achieve hyper-local customization on a mass scale. One reality that you’ll face is that your tactical choices become more limited.
As you might expect, digital media provides the ideal combination of data integration, narrow geographic targeting, dynamic insertion of creative/offers, efficient optimization on a large scale and real-time reporting. In applying this approach, there are three key success factors.
1: Establish target personas. While a neighborhood level approach involves a lot of detective work, going hyper-local at scale becomes a matter of mining data and building a database for planning. We’re in an era where the data needed to do this is easily accessible – but not without some investment. Sources can include everything from the U.S. Census to Hitwise to a brand’s own 1st party data. And whether you build a proprietary database and planning tool or use a preferred media partner, this is a required step to efficiently be hyper-local on a mass scale.
2: Customize creative & offers. Utilize the target personas you’ve built through data to customize your creative messaging and offers so they are more relevant and personal. One of the primary ways that digital media makes hyper-local possible on a large scale is the ability to dynamically serve personalized creative. That can include both images and messaging/offers – all based on the integration of data.
3: Leverage targeting technologies. Technology partners are moving away from the standard cookie tracking and targeting capabilities common to digital media. With targeting now possible down to the level of an IP address, you can reach businesses and individuals across all devices. That level of targeting not only eliminates wasted exposure, but makes a much greater level of personalization possible.
While the ultimate impact of hyper-local media is improved results, not all brands will get there the same way. The key is matching the scope of your geographic focus to the approach that will bring you the greatest level of customization at an efficient scale.
About the Author: Peter Infante is the Chief Strategy Officer for Butler/Till Media Services; an employee-owned agency specializing in hyper-local media. Connect with Peter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteinfante or on Twitter https://twitter.com/PeteInfante
