Off to the Races with Geo-targeted, Mobile Advertising

While much has been said about micro-targeted, data based advertising (and rightfully so), there may be a role for other channels of targeting that are less data driven – especially in niche circumstances. Targeting digital advertising by geography can be particularly effective for a self-contained and captive audience when broader data points aren’t necessarily a prime necessity. The results often yield particularly high impression rates and low costs.

For instance – last week during the Kentucky Derby, SRG served ads directly at mobile users in a five mile radius surrounding Churchill Downs in Louisville on behalf of Republican candidate for Governor Hal Heiner. Knowing that the events 165,000 attendees would be on their phones, taking pictures, using social media, and retrieving stats at the event was key to our thinking. The other factor was not busting the campaign’s budget on a niche digital advertising gimmick.

Our assumptions of a low cost, high impression ad run were correct. Within only 2 hours the Heiner campaign served more than 25,000 impressions to attendees for less than $50 See below for the full stats.

What’s impressive isn’t geo-targeting on mobile – this is a fairly common part of a many advertising mixes. What’s interesting in this instance is the cost and impression volume. At around than $3.00 per 1000 impressions this should have been something EVERY candidate in the race was doing. Question: what candidate for statewide office wouldn’t want to feed positive advertising to the 165,000 attendees of the biggest sporting event in his or her state at the total cost of pennies per impression?

If you’re interested in targeting a captive audience at an event through mobile advertising, reach out to our digital team. We’ll put a plan together for your team that puts your content in front of the most eyeballs at that lowest cost.