Location-Based Marketing: 3 Real-World Marketing Campaigns

Personalization is key to marketing because people tend to tune out anything not personally relevant to them. One way to offer a personalized experience is by marketing to consumers based on their location.

According to content marketing statistics, visual content helped brands keep a forward pace in 2020’s volatile economy. But now, with fewer pandemic restrictions and more moving around, you can benefit more and more from consumer geo-standing.

And what better way to learn about geo-based marketing than from some successful examples? But before we get to the three stories prepared for this article, let’s make a quick detour for the definition and benefits of geo-based engagement with customers and leads.

What Is Location-Based Marketing?

Location-based marketing, or geo-marketing, targets consumers based on the location data from their devices. This gives people more precise and relevant information about businesses in their proximity.

This strategy adopts device IPs, GPS signals, and techniques like geofencing marketing to understand users’ needs in real time.

Geotargeting automation tools

Some platforms are already advancing to help you implement such a strategy with marketing automation software. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even LinkedIn allow brands to set the country, region, or city of targeted ads. Going a step further, Google also lets you set a radius around a specific place or per mobile data.

Other Options for Geotargeting

Aside from specific tools, geotargeting also works as a concept with other tools. For example, if you use pop-up ads, you can be more precise about where they appear location-wise.

Another example is email marketing. Even if you use a client to manage all emails in one place and market on a small scale, ensuring that you tailor your messaging to different locations is essential. Better yet, geotargeting opens a door for regional news and jokes in your marketing emails and newsletters.

Advantages of Location-Based Marketing for Your Business

Targeting more specific regions and cities in your advertising and marketing efforts has several benefits. Some of them we’ve already touched on, but let’s overview five that are key to location-based marketing:

• Unique experiences make your brand more likely to attract leads and convert them into loyal customers.
• You can allocate funds based on an area where you are marketing. 
• The data from location-based campaigns comes out cleaner.  
• Targeting a neighborhood helps strengthen your brand authority in it.
• Geotargeting allows for hiding your ads from competitors in other areas and provides you with a head start.

And it’s not just brands that can find location-based marketing beneficial for their campaigns. Customers also see the positives and start joining in because they want a more positive shopping experience.

3 Real-World Examples of Location-Based Marketing Campaigns

With more information about geo-marketing, let’s jump straight into the examples.

Domino’s Pizza – Best Served Hot

Domino’s Pizza is one of the most recognizable chains of pizza production and delivery with numerous locations worldwide. They are also a prime example of a business that needs to be more targeted in their local advertising efforts.

After all, pizza is best served hot.

How did the company acquire location data? Domino’s leveraged text and email discount offers to ask people for their addresses when subscribing. This allowed for hyperlocal advertising based on several categories – states, store locations, time zones, and even ZIP codes.

What result did Domino’s achieve? The food chain was able to customize offers based on locations and events in the area. For example, they sent special offers on the nights of major sports games on campuses. Domino’s would text people in an area of a thunderstorm, reminding them to get inside — and to eat pizza, of course.

Hyperlocal marketing allowed Domino’s to reach $4.1 billion in revenue.

Hyundai – What a Steal!

Hyundai is known for high-quality yet affordable cars. However, the price has often led people to think of Hyundai products as poorly manufactured, which affected their sales.

The company solved the problem by launching a campaign meant to steal customers from rivals, called “Dealer Stealer.”

How did the company acquire location data? Geofencing. Instead of gauging the location of their target audience, Hyundai used the geo-data of their rival dealerships. They kept track of those who went in and out of 115 Mazda and 282 Toyota dealerships, as well as their own 152 stores, collecting their anonymous phone IDs. Then, they displayed Hyundai adverts to those planning to buy a Toyota or a Mazda vehicle.

What results did Hyundai achieve? Judging by their click-through rate, it seems Hyundai managed to persuade at least 400 thousand people to reconsider their vehicles and recognize them as an alternative. The company then re-targeted those who went into their stores in case they needed extra incentives.

Coca-Cola – I’m Loving This Vending Machine

With so many beverages affiliated with the world’s leading drink bottling company, it’s no wonder Coca-Cola would need to optimize its supply operations.

How did the company acquire location data? Vending machines. Did you know that a third of these self-service machines were connected to the internet? Coca-Cola used facial recognition and payment analysis to collect customer data — more precisely, information on which drinks sold the best and which machines get the most foot traffic.

What results did Coca-Cola achieve? The insights helped optimize and redistribute the resources, such as reallocating the less-popular vending machines.

Conclusion

The examples discussed in this article are proof that location-based geo-marketing works. It can help you garner valuable insights about your target audience and provide them with a more personalized experience. It can also help steer clients away from competitors and toward your product, as well as helping use your resources better.