Location, location, location… or as we call it now tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3. On Monday 12th October, in an effort to avoid a national lockdown a new local three-tiered system was introduced to define which areas in the UK are higher risk than others, and where more lockdown measures need to be taken. With the current lifestyle of someone in a tier 3 such as Liverpool differing quite a bit from someone in tier 1 such as Cornwall, how can brands relate to all their customers across the country in a relevant way?
Targeting people based on their location is one of the most useful and well-used tools advertisers have at their disposal. This could mean many things, from buying an OOH site within 100 metres of your stores to encourage footfall, excluding people from your paid search campaign who live somewhere where your product is not available, or spending more on your radio ads in an area you know your penetration is lower. For some travel brands such as South Western Railway, geo-location is incredibly important to reduce wastage, and find only people who could feasibly use South Western train routes. Papa John’s ran a successful campaign in London last year where customers were targeted only if they were within a specific radius of a London store to stay within the Papa John’s delivery zones. This therefore eliminated wastage of people who were not close enough to a store to order a pizza.
With the new tiered system across the UK, this could be an opportunity for brands to dial up or dial down their media in the areas where their brand is more relevant. For example, with tier 3 areas such as Liverpool and Lancashire, there could be more opportunity for takeaway brands or subscription VOD brands to dial up their media spend, or for alcohol brands to shift messaging away from pubs to buying drinks at the supermarket to drink at home.
With the weather turning colder and Christmas approaching quickly, it will be more important than ever to understand what consumers’ lives look like right now, and how this could differ drastically from place to place. Furthermore, according to our October QT, one in three Brits are intending to see fewer people this year at Christmas and see them in smaller groups. Brands must remember to adapt to each consumer’s environment this festive season, whatever the government allows that to be.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54533924
The QT, the7stars proprietary consumer tracking study – October 2020
