It seems like everywhere you turn in the interactive marketing space these days, the conversation inevitably turns towards local advertising. It’s somewhat ironic to yours, since for years, well over a decade and long before the dotcom bubble of the early 2000s, the promise of the Internet (for advertisers and users in general) has been about connect people from all over the world in an instant. About breaking geographical barriers. About giving companies the ability to think more globally than ever before. This was the initial promise and why internet advertising has grown. Why things that go viral really do go viral. At that time, a retailer or business no longer had to think about its own place. Geography no longer had to be a barrier other than with the shipping process. The world wide web meant exactly what it said.
So the irony is that today, the promise of the internet, and internet advertising, is all about targeting and going local. In reality, it is about creating small but very relevant geographical limits. Billed as the fastest growing company in history, Groupon is all about local deals and deals; and there are also a handful of similar competitors running businesses in that sector on an enormous scale. You can’t read any of the trade without seeing something related to local advertising, the local deals marketplace. What is behind all this? Create convenience stores, and lots of them, for businesses and sellers alike.
The other big trend we’re seeing? Mobile advertising and the use of applications. A study I read recently shows that people spend more time inside mobile apps than they do on the open web. Also, by 2015, 70% of all mobile ads will be local. Again, this is ironic to me, as everything we had grown accustomed to thinking about the power of the worldwide web and technology from an advertising perspective is now being replaced with super silly, hyperlocal thinking not just on a computer. dinosaur but through tiny mobile devices. We went from breaking geographic barriers to creating them on purpose through applications and segmentation.
This is neither bad nor good for sellers. It just shows the evolution of an entire medium and the evolution in terms of trends and consumer usage. It also makes sense. If you’re using a mobile device in the 60654 ZIP code, it stands to reason that you’d be more interested in sales, promotions, or solicitations in that same ZIP code, assuming that’s where you’ve spent most of your time. In other words, it’s really not a huge stretch to think that local advertising can not only stand the test of time, but can continue to increase in prominence and importance to advertisers.
So, the evolution I’m talking about is creating maximum relevance for individuals. The ability and appeal to target consumers geographically, contextually, behaviorally, or otherwise has always been (or should always have been) top of mind for marketers. And advances in behavioral and contextual marketing techniques have served to make the world wide web more manageable for marketers. But arguably only now, location targeting has been put on steroids through local offers and mobile apps and technology.
For marketers, it pays to take a close look at these trends. I don’t think the local ad cache will go away. That statement is not an assessment of the world by Groupon or all the other companies entering the space (like Google) or whether they will dominate this part of the interactive world. I have no idea if they will ultimately succeed or fail. I have no idea if a future iteration of those businesses will be any better. However, I do believe that we are in the early stages of figuring out what is possible for marketers on a local level, and certainly most companies would like nothing more than to target an electorate that is highly relevant geographically. . .
And more or less instantly.
Local advertising is already big business, and most experts predict that this trend will continue for years to come. No one knows for sure who will be the protagonist of the success of this movement; but most agree that the movement is real and can work for marketers. However, there will be much more to come in this area; we will be watching