What’s different about community advertising in this digital age?
Authenticity and engagement, according to research. Community advertising can be a great way to cut through the digital noise, foster strong bonds with your audience, and become entrenched in the community.
It’s that sense of belonging that we all crave that keeps Canadian communities together. It’s in communities that cheer on sports teams, dine at our favourite neighbourhood pubs, and connect with shopkeepers. Throughout the pandemic, families everywhere made huge efforts to shop locally to keep their community businesses alive.
Smart companies are tapping into that community spirit and responding by giving back to the community through community advertising. You attract, engage, and retain customers locally, but also give back through knowledge, event sponsorship, donations, and advertising. Corporate Social Responsibility is at the forefront of many marketing strategies and follows the basic principle of “doing the right thing” while building a positive brand around their company.
Community advertising can be very powerful and rewarding for both the advertiser and target audiences. Nowhere is this truer than when it comes to local sports recreation centres, where a substantial portion of your advertising dollars are reinvested into the venues; for example, to help with operating expenses or support local games. This is positive social value, and a win-win for both the advertiser and the community.
Here are 5 ways community advertising can support your brand.
5 ways community advertising can help your brand
- Build authenticity and trust: In today’s digital world, customers are becoming more jaded and respond better to a more personal and emotional connection with the brands they value. Community advertising creates an authentic, direct channel for the community, cutting through the noise, strengthening your brand, and increasing the sense of loyalty and authenticity of your brand.Becoming embedded in a community can cultivate greater loyalty, which can lead to more user-generated content. With more trust and better communications, your company can showcase its authenticity—key criteria for millennial buyers.
- Increase your brand awareness: Community sports recreation centres and arenas are where it’s at when it comes to connecting with families on-the-go, regardless of the type of company or sector you’re operating in. Captive spectators in sports venues—think families bringing their children to practices and attending games, for example—can be exposed to your branding message for long periods of time, several times per week, translating to more brand recognition and awareness, in their own community.
- Reach new demographics: Local sports facilities attract the widest demographic of families with discretionary income. From children’s sports clubs and adult recreational teams to college-level teams, your local sports facility has a world of opportunity and exposure available to your business.You’re reaching your target audience where they spend their valuable recreation and leisure time. Local recreation centres and arenas deliver an exceptional opportunity to showcase your message to a broad demographic in community facilities that are loved and frequented by millions annually.
- Cut through the noise: In today’s digital world, customers can be drowned in digital ads. Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising complements and amplifies digital and traditional media, not least because OOH is seen as a more credible medium that boosts brand trust, according to industry experts. Local community advertising is a great complement to social media campaigns, leveraging their huge communities, where engagement can be fun, fast, and familiar.
- Capitalize on positive experiences: Community advertising offers you a chance to capitalize on existing positive experiences around community events like sports games, and people have been very excited about the return of sports events since the pandemic lockdowns. Aligning your brand to this energy build connections and offers brand recognition longevity with positive experiences.
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Are you ready to try out some local community advertising? Your customers probably are.
At Rec Media, we’re entrenched in the communities we serve, and we’d be happy to open the conversation with you about how to get started.