Hyperlocalisation – theoretically taking personalised marketing one step further – is more than a trend: it’s the culmination of technological advances combined with innovative marketing tactics, and it has created new opportunities for brands to communicate value to customers. Couple this with the power of data, and you open up a whole host of possibilities for reaching specific sets of customers.
Here are just a few reasons the marriage of hyperlocalisation and data is a match made in marketing heaven.
Hyperlocal and data-driven campaigns generate unique buzz
When you examine large swaths of data on a macro level, it tends to paint a fairly benign picture that showcases trends at the expense of individuality. However, when you dig deeply into your data points, you can pluck out stories to inspire your next creative push.
For a stellar example of this principle, let’s look at a campaign pioneered by Spotify near the end of 2016. The music-streaming giant knew it had a wealth of data on hand that told unique stories about its users’ listening preferences. So it used it to create hyperlocalised ads for specific markets. The theme was based on the overall weirdness of 2016, and the company highlighted this idea by spotlighting a few of the quirkier listening choices that users in that particular market had made throughout the year.
For example, one in the U.S. market read, “Dear person who made a playlist called: ‘One Night Stand With Jeb Bush Like He’s a Bond Girl in a European Casino,’ we have so many questions.” Another U.K. billboard keyed off Britain’s controversial decision to exit the EU, reading: “Dear 3,749 people who streamed ‘It’s the End of the World As We Know It’ the day of the Brexit Vote, hang in there.”
They connect individual experiences to universal emotions and reactions
Building on the Spotify example, you can see how the specificity that follows when you market through a combination of data-driven stories and hyperlocalisation hits an emotional chord in your intended audience.
Who out there can say they haven’t plugged in their headphones and spent a few hours streaming a selection of songs they’d rather not share with friends? The reason this type of marketing is so powerful is because it draws on data from a very specific user session, but it taps into feelings that are universal and that reverberate through individuals when they view the ad.
Targeted ads allow you to engage with customers on a personal level
You’ve probably heard a number of times that personalization is the future of marketing, but do you ever stop to consider why that is? If you think about marketing as any other interaction between humans who are searching for shared value, it becomes clear. Conversations don’t have to be personal to be effective, but the more personal they are, the deeper the point of engagement between the parties.
When you reach this level, you’re no longer communicating as a brand to a customer, but rather as a person to another person. At the intersection of hyperlocalisation and data lies a secret weapon for consistently creating personalized content that can be tailored to engage a person by location, delivery method, time, personal preferences, and more.
Data can be integrated in many different ways to suit your company’s needs
It’s possible that the most enticing aspect of hyperlocalised, data-driven marketing campaigns is how inherently versatile they are.
As illustrated by Spotify, these kinds of ads can have a big impact when they’re flashing on a digital billboard in the middle of a large city, but they can be just as effective when placed inside a mobile app and displayed when the customer is located near your store. They can also help you target local prospects more effectively via search engine marketing, enabling you to get your message in front of the people who are highly motivated to purchase and who are in the right area to facilitate said purchase.
Last, but certainly not least, hyperlocalised data can absolutely transform your social media marketing strategy. By using demographic info collected by, for example, Facebook and integrating it with location-based data, geotagging, and check-ins, you can engage with your customers in the places that will have the biggest impact for your brand.
Ultimately, marketing messages that combine hyperlocalisation techniques with powerful data create a unique opportunity for brands to stand out. By tapping into universal experiences thanks to specific events, by finding new ways to incorporate personalisation into your engagement efforts, and by employing data and hyperlocalisation techniques in a variety of ways and across numerous channels, you can be better positioned to connect with the audiences you’re trying to reach in the places you want to reach them.
