Previously I wrote on the problems with tying branding efforts to local sports. What it comes down to is over-reliance on one area of local interest.
So to go beyond that, think about other ways your local audience spends their time and what local means to them.
Here are some areas outside sports where your marketing efforts can broaden your audience.
Parks and Rec
Getting involved with local community services can entangle with politics. Certain programs or initiatives may be pet projects and have local or larger ramifications.
Parks tend to nullify this. There may be debate about how much to spend on parks (or how to name them) but their very existence is rarely a hot potato, and they have usually been in existence for some time.
So why not identify with them? Sports teams have their own marketing machines, and plenty of eyes on them. City parks do not have national sponsors, and they feel more a part of the neighborhood. The micro-neighborhood.
So get to know the parks in the area and use them in your local affiliation. A recent example here in Baltimore is a new skatepark, and local businesses have stepped up with sponsorship (as seen in the cover art for this article).
If you have a brick & mortar presence, there may be a dog run, bike path, or hiking trail closer to you than you realize. Open Google Maps, type in your address, and take a look.
Advantages of identifying with parks:
- Hyper local
- Parks appeal to families
- Outgoing people use parks
- Sponsorship opportunities are affordable and foster direct goodwill (rather than the indirect goodwill from working with sports franchises)
Charities and Community Organizations
Being familiar with local charities and local community groups is again a way to create good will directly. It may be more political than parks, though, so understand what if any connotations there may be for working with an organization.
Where I grew up in Philadelphia, the Mummers were a source of local community organization through their annual New Year's Day parade and did their share of fundraising.
But there are many who associate the Mummers with a less tolerant, less inclusive Philadelphia. Do your homework before endorsing any group. This goes double for the ease with which a blind re-tweet can happen.
Artists
I mean artists and art broadly. Wherever you are, and whatever the discipline, there are people creating and sharing and trying to make a living from their art.
This includes bands, DJs, painters, sculptors, comedians, and acting troupes. There is established culture (museums and concert halls) and counter culture (fringe festivals), pop culture and the avant-garde.
With that diversity, it should be easy to sit down, think about your own brand, your own target market, and what kind of artists you should be working with and referencing in social media.
This works for anyone. My grandfather is a retired plumber. If you are thinking about hot water heaters and leaky pipes, that would seem to be as far from fine art as possible.
But if I had to produce a social media campaign for him today, I would happily incorporate local pottery artisans and talk up the beauty of custom hand-painted and locally-fired tiles and what it could do to make a bathroom or kitchen remodeling job personal and unique.
You can make a connection to local artists. And with the exception of all but a few that have broken through to mass popularity, they are all looking for partners and opportunities to spread the word about their own work.
Schools
Schools once again are hyper-local, and people identify with them strongly (one reason why the sports teams associated with colleges are able to succeed commercially). This is true at all levels, so think about what part of the educational spectrum would tie-in best with your product or service.
Then find the schools that match your geographical presence and reach out.
- Private schools and larger institutions are likely to have a capital fund or other fundraising arm that you can contact about how to work together
- Public institutions are more likely to have an outside interest group, such as a PTA, that does events or other activities
- High school and college alumni associations are excellent points of contact
Food
I'm in Baltimore. Quick - what food comes to mind?
I'll bet blue crabs or crab cakes was the first thing that came to mind. And indeed locals will associate and identify with that.
But if you do a little more research, like driving around town a little bit, you're going to find fried fish and chicken, and pit beef, to be much more common part of local taverns and take out places, and every bit as local.
Talk about crabs and you are working with the obvious here. Talk about chicken box, Western fries, and a half and half, and you show you have done your homework.
In summation, that is what local identification is all about. Going a little deeper, and beyond the obvious.
That means going beyond the obvious, and that means including topics other than local sports. I hope this post has given you some ideas how to do it.
