10 Examples of Local Advertising That Built Brand Love

Local advertising presents numerous advantages for businesses looking to establish a strong presence within their immediate community. Local advertising campaigns focus on targeting specific geographic areas, enabling businesses to connect with their local customers on a more personal and intimate level. This targeted approach brings about a range of benefits that can significantly contribute to a business’s success and growth.

In this article we will explore 10 examples of local advertising campaigns that built brand love, favorability, and trust. 

1. Opendoor Sponsors Youth Sports in Local Communities

Opendoor is a real estate company changing the way that people buy and sell homes. The company  partnered with TeamSnap for Brands to run targeted youth sports sponsorships across Dallas, Austin, and Houston. With branded jerseys, warm-up shirts and game signage, Opendoor was able to integrate their brand into the fabric of their communities.

The brand reached over 7,500 households and saw a massive increase of 302% in first choice unaided brand recall. Opendoor also increased its community support score by 50%, and families were 25% more likely to choose Opendoor after the season.

2. REI Plans Local Events to Support the Environment

REI is committed to being the heart of outdoor life and culture in every community. REI hosts a variety of in-person events across the local markets they serve, from organizing outside clean-ups to training sessions in the great outdoors. These initiatives target the younger generations, in specific areas, and meet the values the company stands for.  

REI even has a leadership role designed specifically to support the effort to  make connections and reach local communities.

“As the co-op continues to grow and evolve, I’ll focus my work on understanding what problem we are trying to solve for our customers, region by region. My goal is to integrate activity and place with a local brand story to help customers see REI as a community convener, resource and the best place to purchase apparel, rent or buy gear and go on a killer experience outside,” said Jennifer Lindenauer, upon her hiring as the Co-op’s New Director of Local Brand Engagement & Impact.

3. Monopoly Creates Customized Products for Specific Locations

Monopoly isn’t playing any games with their local advertising strategy. Monopoly has tapped into their local communities by creating a personalized and specific board for various locations. The game didn’t change its principles, but only made the board more representative of the Monopoly fans and where they play the game. 

4. McDonalds Tailors Their Menu for Local Palettes

Have you ever traveled to another country and noticed that the menu at McDonalds is different? That’s intentional. In fact, McDonalds isn’t just known for being the world’s largest international fast food operation, but also regionally tailors the food and beverages to reach local customers. This creates loyalty amongst customers and engages within each local market. 

5. Black Bear Diner Hosts Local Fundraisers in Its Stores

Black Bear Diner has 145 diners in 14 states. This is far from your average franchise diner, especially because of its local community involvement.

“We’re focused on local store marketing because we want to have a community feel as opposed to having a national advertising campaign,” said Jolisa Johnson, the VP of Marketing and Communications at Black Bear Diner. 

 “We have a program that we call Dine and Donate, where folks can request to dine and donate. We usually do those on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. It’s strategic because those are slower nights. We can facilitate the groups better. We ask the folks that want to do a fundraiser. They participate in letting their communities and folks know that we’re holding one.” 

6. Morrisons Supermarket Features Local Distributors in Its Stores

A local marketing campaign that franchise Morrisons supermarket uses is hosting local food-makers events. They call it the “Local Foodmakers Campaign” that helps out local communities by providing items from local distributors. Naturally, the taste of the local market is a hit and creates a local advertising ripple effect in a massive supermarket. 

7. Lululemon Partners with Local Yoga Teachers

Lululemon’s iconic leggings are well-known in the U.S.— and that’s probably because you’ve seen a yoga instructor or influencer walking down the street wearing them. That was a local advertising tactic,and it’s been incredibly effective. 

Lululemon has stood out in the fitness apparel space because it collaborates with local yoga teachers to promote and represent the brand. “It’s so much more than apparel, it’s about people,” former CEO Laurent Potdevin said. “It’s an investment in people, giving them their best life, personal development and creating incredible products that allow them to live their life.” 

8. Nike Features Local London Culture in a National campaign

Nike always has a new commercial or campaign in the works, but one incredibly effective local advertising campaign was their “Nothing Beats a Londoner” commercial. This marketing campaign resulted in 93% more searches for Nike products in London and 54% more throughout the UK. 

This campaign was a local hit because it was filmed in less known areas of London, Peckham for example, which spoke to youth in the less populated areas in the city. The campaign was also shared by London-born celebrities, which had a massive impact on the young people of London. The focus of the commercial was what it is like to be young in London and showed real kids, being kids. The purpose was to create a London-centric Nike campaign, and what it resulted in was local Nike products were up 93% in searches following the ad’s launch. 

9. Panera Bread Partners with Local Charities

Panera Breadoffers leftover end-of-day bread products to local food charities through their End-Of-Day Dough Nation program. The company doesn’t build up waste, but rather taps into their local community by sending the leftover food to a good cause with a real local impact. 

10. Vans Plans Local Pop-ups at Skateparks

Vans hosted House of Vans pop-ups at skateparks in major cities. What this House of Vans event did was bring together local communities that were interested in skating, listening to music, and vibing out. 

Local advertising can effectively engage customers and build long-lasting brand love. 

If you are interested in learning more about local marketing, download The Marketer’s Guide to Measuring Local Community Marketing.