‘Geotargeted’ advertising will deliver local names to your favorite Web sites

You log onto the Internet. Why? It’s 9:06 a.m. and you’ve gotten into the office. You check your e-mail.

According to the most recent statistics, the next thing you’re going to do is find some news — most likely the weather.

But what aren’t you’re doing when you read the news online? Checking to see what’s playing at the $2 movie this week? Browsing for wireless phone deals? Skimming for coupons?

But more than 50 percent of people who pick up newspaper admit they also are actively looking for ads. Local ads. Why should the Internet be any different? Until now, the one-to-one medium that transcends borders quicker than your alarm clock sneaks up on Monday morning has been absolutely useless for local businesses. But according to Jupiter Communications online local advertising, or geotargeted advertising, will grow to a $2.7 billion market by 2003.

Realizing that every little mom-and-pop shop, the supermarket up the block, and every frantic bar owner in the country add up to billions in annual advertising revenue, online geotargeting advertisers are jumping into the market in a big way.

This trend is also good news for almost every category of marketer from the national brand advertiser to online only “e-tailers”. These companies, whether they spend $50 million on consumer branding or $500,000 for business-to-business marketing, still need to justify their advertising dollars. While they may spend vastly more than Trident Bookstore down the street from our offices, they still have limited resources.

Traditionally these advertisers have tested marketing campaigns by rolling them out in different cities. They drop money on outdoor media, sponsorships, cable television, local newspapers and regional editions of national publications. Depending on their budgets, they may opt for as few as one of these media, which is still expensive.

Enter (drum roll) localized online advertising. It’s less expensive, more targeted, and can be changed quicker than any other media. It quickly and inexpensively tests campaigns online in different markets, either standalone or in conjunction with other media. It can help determine what creative works, or even if the online advertising is worthwhile at all.

So why hasn’t localized advertising come to fruition already? Primarily because aggregators of online names have tried to get too much information. Does this sound familiar: “Fill in this 10-page survey, and we’ll send you some advertising.” The new school of thought is to get the basics: age, gender, and zip code.

Now it’s 9:11 and you’re checking the weather (unless you’re from Seattle or LA). All of a sudden an ad pops up that says, “Log onto TowerNursery.com and we’ll deliver your mulch and daisies tomorrow morning.” What? Tower Nursery is two miles from here. How did they know? You’ve been touched by geotargeting. There are a number of solutions, but they all fall into four basic categories.

The first of these include localized content. This may include the local newspapers, or online only localized content providers. There are two problems with such providers. The former of these often is read by people who have left an area but still want to keep up with local news. The latter often have far too few subscribers to make them worthwhile.

The next category is traditional banner advertising. Most banner advertising is sold through one of the online ad networks anymore. These networks recently have started offering geotargeting in addition to demographic selections. The two major players, Flycast.com and Doubleclick.com, can connect both consumer and business-to-business marketers with prime prospects for relatively low monthly minimums. Doubleclick even offers a special geotargeting program that boasts 750 sites.

The third is providers of geographic specific data, such as directories and map services. While the ad networks listed above cover the leading online directories and search engines, you may want to look into Mapquest.com.

Mapquest delivers maps and driving directions to more than 5 1/2 million visitors a month. They also have an advertising section specifically dedicated to small businesses. If your budget is tighter than two squirrels in a wool sock, you can design your own banner ad right from their site and get a campaign running for less than $3,000.

The last major category worth mentioning is that of Internet access providers. Two good options are the free Internet service providers, Juno.com and Netzero.com. They have large enough subscriber bases to make them worthwhile, and both offer a significant amount of value-added demographic data for further targeting.

One geotargeting advertiser that has created a category of its own is Alladvantage.com. Alladvantage users view a small screen at the bottom of their monitor that runs ads while they surf the net. Users are then paid for the amount of time they spend surfing-viewing ads. With 6 billion ad impressions a day they offer enough inventory to get your message across, with rates as low as $12 per 1,000 impressions.

9:15. Is there a local ad staring you in the face … yet?

Brian Smith is with Boulder-based Marketing Genius LLC, a full-service advertising agency specializing in growing technology companies. Marketing Genius serves as an outsourced “marketing department” for clients, handling every aspect of their marketing from direct mail, to online marketing, print and broadcast advertising, and public relations.

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