Situational outdoor media drives sales

Taking a leaf from the marketing pages of some of the most successful brands in South Africa (KFC, McDonalds, Spar, Super Quick, just to name a few), shows that they are heavily invested in pointing out how close you are to their outlets and how to get there. This is no marketing wizardry considering how much brain power is put into choosing the locations for their outlets in the first place.

If your business values its location so much, then it must be accounted for when dissecting the brand offering. Place - an invaluable component of the marketing P's.

Pointing customers in the right direction

Thinking of yourself as a consumer, you will undoubtedly recall many a time when you have needed to know where your bank's nearest ATM was in your travels, or where you could grab some lunch on the run without having to experiment at a no-name take away. Situational media has certainly pointed me in the right direction more often than I can remember.

So why is it that so many companies will spend a large fortune on getting me to like their brand, but will go on to let me engage with my second or third choice brand because I do not know where they are?

Situational media is seen by too many strategists and planners as being a headache because of the 'bitty' nature of planning and buying it. All this, of course, happens at the brand's expense and this is the conversation brand managers should be having with their agencies, if they want to increase conversions for brand appreciation to brand engagement.