Updated on May 8, 2024
Local marketing is more than just adding a regional twist to your brand's national campaigns. A successful local marketing strategy involves immersing your brand in the local market, understanding the community's unique characteristics, and tailoring your approach to resonate with local customers. From targeted promotions to product localization and community engagement, effective local marketing takes many forms.
Brands that prioritize local marketing are positioned to outperform those that don't. Need some inspiration to kickstart your own local campaigns? Here are 15 examples of brands across various industries that have mastered the art of local marketing.
→ Why is local marketing important for international brands?
1. Taj Mahal Tea celebrates monsoon season with culturally resonant billboard
Taj Mahal Tea, in collaboration with Ogilvy India, launched a remarkable billboard campaign called "Megh Santoor" to celebrate the monsoon season, which is deeply cherished in Indian culture. The billboard, measuring an impressive 210.86 square meters (2269.75 ft), holds the Guinness World Record for the 'Largest Environmentally Interactive Billboard'.
What sets this billboard apart is its unique ability to interact with the weather. When it rains, the billboard plays 'Raag Megn Malhar', a classical Indian musical composition traditionally associated with the monsoon season. This innovative feature creates a multi-sensory experience that deeply resonates with the local audience.
The campaign and billboard is a stellar example of local marketing due to the combination of local music, the timing of the billboard (which was gone October 16th, when monsoon season ended), and Taj Mahal Tea's connection to its origins which informed the placement of the billboard.
2. British Airways is here for business, leisure, or...
The question "Are you here for business or leisure" is one ubiquitous with airport travel. It's also a question that can be hard to answer when your reason for travel doesn't neatly fit into those categories. British Airways cleverly played into this with their campaign.
The campaign features 500 unique print, digital, and outdoor executions, each showing the classic binary choice between business and leisure, but also featuring a third choice. Some are geared to specific locations ("warm gusts of air that don't come from tube trains."), others to weather conditions ("Because this weather sucks."), and others are more general ("Mischief.").
3. Macy's "Santa Mail" program
Macy's has been spreading holiday cheer through its beloved Believe campaign for over a decade. Each year, the retailer invites children to drop off their letters to Santa at their local Macy's store, turning the act of mailing a wishlist into a special occasion.
For every letter received, Macy's donates $1 to Make-A-Wish, the nonprofit organization that grants life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. This heartwarming initiative not only supports a worthy cause but also strengthens Macy's ties to the local communities it serves. By creating a memorable tradition that brings families together and gives back, Macy's "Santa Mail" program exemplifies the power of localized marketing that makes a genuine difference.
4. How Land O'Lakes highlights California's local dairy community
We often talk about being an active part of the local community when we talk about local marketing. Adding true value and authenticity are very important when it comes to connecting with your local audience.
Land O'Lakes, an agricultural cooperative based in Arden Hills, Minnesota, has done just that. Its recent campaign by Human highlights the tight-knit community of its members, talking about their social connections, the farm-to-table way restaurants in the area work, and how they came together after the Tulare basin flooded in May 2023. This campaign is extremely impactful and shows the power of authenticity in local marketing.
5. Lunar New Year collections
The Lunar New Year is an opportunity for brands across different markets to appeal to the part of their audience that celebrates the Lunar New Year. This form of local marketing focuses on a group of people, rather than a specific location. Lunar New Year celebrants are spread across the globe, after all.
As the Year of the Dragon took flight in 2024, a wide array of American brands unveiled captivating Lunar New Year collections to honor the holiday and resonate with Asian American communities.
Gucci's limited-edition collection featured intricate dragon embroidery on their signature handbags and leather goods, while Nike released a series of sneakers with dragon-inspired designs and vibrant red and gold accents, the colors most associated with Lunar New Year festivities.
Beauty brands like Estée Lauder and Lancôme launched exclusive gift sets and packaging adorned with dragon artwork, offering their customers a touch of festive glamour. Even USPS joined in the celebration, issuing a special Year of the Dragon stamp designed by a renowned Chinese American artist.
6. Nike's "Nothing Beats a Londoner"
One of the world's best-known sports brands chose to set up a national marketing campaign in the United Kingdom aimed at one specific target group: young Londoners. The "Nothing Beats a Londoner" commercial shows different London youngsters who practice different sports in their own environment, in Nike clothing. Due to the enormous number of different London locations, and the typical English humour, every Londoner recognizes himself in the campaign.
This major local marketing stunt from Nike has resulted in a whopping 93% more searches for Nike products in London and 54% more throughout the UK. Why was this campaign so successful? In the past, Nike aimed at the masses in their campaigns and the brand only used well-known athletes. By having Nike products promoted by "normal" people and filming in London's "real" streets and sports fields, the campaign appeals to the Nike target group: young people in big cities. All standard London buildings and places that are usually used in campaigns have been omitted.
7. Ikea uses dialect to promote new Malaysian store
For its store in Penang, Malaysia, IKEA developed a local marketing campaign that celebrates the city's culture through the use of wordplay.
The city's dialect, Hokkien, is used for this local opening campaign. Many Hokkien words end with "Kia", so the campaign uses phonetic similarities between some popular Hokkien words and the work IKEA.
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For example: showing side-by-side images of a chicken and a cabinet with the words “We are not Kay Kia. We are IKEA.” Kay Kia is the Hokkien word for chick. Another execution features a tall guy and the Billy bookcase with the lines “We are not Lo Kha Kia (a tall guy). We are IKEA.”
The campaign was launched on digital, print, social platforms and Out-of-Home. This opening campaign is a perfect example of well-executed local marketing; they have immersed themselves in the local culture and designed a quirky, funny, and original campaign based on that. With this campaign, IKEA tributes to the culture of Penang which is a great start in connecting the residents of Penang to the new IKEA store.
8. Neighborhood beers from Singapore's local brewery
In 2022, Singapore's iconic Tiger Beer collaborated with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to launch the "Unexpected Singapore" campaign, showcasing the city-state's hidden gems and lesser-known aspects. The campaign featured a series of short films directed by local Singaporean filmmakers, each focusing on a different facet of Singapore's culture, heritage, and modern-day attractions, such as the vibrant street art scene and the thriving indie music community.
To complement the films, Tiger Beer and STB created interactive walking trails and maps that guided visitors through the featured neighborhoods and attractions, offering special promotions at local businesses along the way. The campaign also included limited-edition Tiger Beer packaging featuring artwork by local artists, further emphasizing the connection between the brand and Singapore's creative community.
By partnering with STB and focusing on authentic local stories and experiences, Tiger Beer strengthened its position as a beloved Singaporean brand while supporting the city-state's tourism industry, demonstrating the power of localized marketing in creating a win-win situation for both the brand and the community it serves.
9. Dutch beer brand Bavaria targets local Carnival celebrations
Local events are the perfect opportunity to initiate a localized marketing campaign. Bavaria, a Dutch beer brand, created a special campaign specifically targeting the Dutch Carnival, a festive event celebrated primarily in the southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg.
Bavaria came up with a clever idea that resonated with many carnival enthusiasts in these regions: official days off during the carnival season. The brand launched a campaign called #carnavalvrij (which translates to "a holiday during carnival") and urged all carnival celebrants to sign an online petition. To make the message locally relevant, Bavaria encouraged towns and villages throughout the two provinces to join their campaign. The initiative was widely promoted on social media channels and supported by a national TV commercial.
The campaign was a resounding success, making national headlines for days and sparking conversations throughout North Brabant and Limburg. It even culminated in a large march to The Hague, the administrative capital of the Netherlands. By focusing on a cherished local tradition and aligning their message with the desires of the community, Bavaria captured the hearts of many people in these regions, effectively strengthening its brand position among the local audience. The campaign's content garnered over 4 million views, reaching nearly a quarter of the Dutch population, and generated hundreds of thousands of likes, comments, and shares on social media platforms.
10. Localized McDonald's Menus
If we have to mention a textbook example of local marketing where the product range is adapted to different markets, it's the McDonald's menu. Anyone who thinks McDonald's only sells Big Macs, Chicken Nuggets, Cheeseburgers, and McFlurry's is wrong. McDonald's has been adapting its range to the countries in which it operates for years. To name a few examples: in Spain, they have the "Patatas Deluxe", in India the "Dosa Masala Burger", in the Netherlands the "McKroket" and in South Africa, they have replaced the standard BBQ sauce for the McBraai sauce.
Do you have a multi-location restaurant? Check out these 7 local marketing ideas.
11. A new local store formula for H&M Amsterdam
H&M has recently introduced a new store formula that responds to the "new shopping" and the local wishes of the consumer. H&M Amsterdam is the first store to implement the new formula. For the new formula, H&M did extensive research into the wishes of the local H&M shopper in Amsterdam. They have expressed that they would like to have an H&M where clothes can be recycled, repaired, rented out, and sold. In addition, Amsterdammers would like to see more local brands in the store. H&M Amsterdam has complied with this.
Based on this new store formula, H&M has rolled out a local marketing campaign in Amsterdam. The campaign has been extensively rolled out at a local level, including digital out-of-home and Paid Social, targeting Amsterdam residents. In addition, H&M Amsterdam is the first H&M store to have its own Instagram account.
The intention is to roll out this new store formula in other European cities as well. In doing so, the wishes of the local consumer are again examined.
12. Royal Caribbean Mother's Day Campaign
International cruise line brand Royal Caribbean already has different Social Media accounts for the different countries they operate in, which is already a good strategy when localizing your marketing.
However, Royal Caribbean searched for a European social media strategy that took the markets' particularities into account while following the same strategy for each country. For their mother's day campaign, they came up with typical "mother's phrases" linked to experiences within the ship that users could enjoy. Many brands would roll out the same content in different languages, but Royal Caribbean adapted the content to the particular market: the phrases were culturally adapted to the most commonly used "mother's phrases" for each country, equalizing the overall concept particularity of each market. A simple execution of a smart social media strategy by delving into the local market to localize and personalize the content.
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Source: Goodrebels.com
13. Share a Coke in China
In 2017, Coca-Cola launched a localized version of its globally successful "Share a Coke" campaign in China. The original campaign, which featured popular names and phrases printed on Coca-Cola bottles and cans, was adapted to suit the unique cultural context of the Chinese market.
Instead of using individual names, Coca-Cola China printed popular Chinese nicknames and phrases on its packaging, such as "Classmate," "Close Friend," and "Sweetheart." These terms resonated with the Chinese audience, as they reflected the importance of social relationships and hierarchy in Chinese culture.
Source: ogilvy.com
To further localize the campaign, Coca-Cola partnered with Chinese social media platforms WeChat and QQ, allowing users to customize virtual Coca-Cola bottles with their own nicknames and share them with friends and family. This digital integration tapped into the immense popularity of social media in China and encouraged user-generated content and engagement.
The localized "Share a Coke" campaign was a huge success in China, with sales volume increasing by 19% compared to the previous summer. The campaign's popularity on social media also helped to strengthen Coca-Cola's brand presence and consumer engagement in the Chinese market.
14. Snickers: the best global local campaign ever?
The Snickers "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign, running for an impressive 6.5 years across 58 markets, is arguably the best example of a global brand campaign that was brilliantly adapted and executed in local markets to ensure cultural relevance.
From the iconic Betty White Super Bowl ad in the United States, which generated a staggering 91 days of media coverage worth $28.6 million, to the innovative "Hungerithm" promotion in Australia that monitored the mood of the internet and offered discounts on Snickers when the internet was "hungry," each market put its own spin on the global idea, making it resonate with local consumers.
In Puerto Rico, the campaign featured popular DJs playing out-of-character music until an announcer revealed that the DJ was hungry and needed a Snickers, reaching 3.2 million people. The United Kingdom leveraged timely tweets, such as one related to Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson's infamous bust-up with a BBC producer, generating 5,000 retweets and 390,000 media impressions. The Snickers "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign demonstrates the power of a universal insight that can be adapted to local cultures, resulting in a truly global success story.
15. Metro Trains Melbourne's Viral Hit: The "Dumb Ways to Die" Campaign
Another creative local marketing campaign that gained significant attention was the "Dumb Ways to Die" campaign by Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia. The campaign aimed to promote rail safety and reduce accidents on Metro Trains' network. They created a catchy song and an animated video featuring colorful characters dying in various absurd ways, with the message that the dumbest way to die is by being careless around trains.
The campaign went viral, receiving millions of views on YouTube and spawning a successful mobile game. By using humor and a localized approach targeting Melbourne residents, Metro Trains effectively delivered a serious message about train safety while engaging their audience. The campaign's success demonstrates how a well-executed local marketing strategy can not only resonate with the target audience but also have a global impact.