Localized Marketing Campaigns

How Grab's Tailored Marketing Conquered Southeast Asia Grab, launched in Malaysia in 2012, offers a safer, more reliable ride-hailing alternative to traditional taxis. The Challenge 😬 Grab faces stiff competition from global giants like Uber and local players. Each market, from Indonesia to Thailand, has its own established local transport systems and customer preferences. For instance, in Thailand, traditional tuk-tuks are a popular mode of transportation, while in Indonesia, motorbike taxis are more common. Strategy Development ✅ They launch region-specific campaigns focusing on local languages, cultural nuances, and consumer behaviors. For instance, in Singapore, Grab campaigns emphasize efficiency and technology, while in Indonesia, they highlight affordability and community connections. ✅ Grab leverages social media platforms heavily, using them to run targeted ads and promotional campaigns. They collaborate with local influencers and celebrities to increase brand visibility and appeal. For example, in the Philippines, Grab partners with popular local celebrities for endorsements, significantly boosting their brand presence among the younger demographic. ✅ A key aspect of their marketing is offering promotions and discounts, especially during local festivals and holidays. This not only attracts new users but also encourages repeat usage. For example, during the Lunar New Year, Grab offers special promotions like discounts on rides to festive markets or bonus GrabRewards points. ✅ They also use data analytics to understand customer behavior and preferences, allowing them to offer personalized promotions and services. ✅ They run community-focused programs and CSR initiatives, like training drivers, which improves service quality and builds a positive brand image. For instance, in Vietnam, Grab initiates a program to educate their drivers on tourist-friendly services, enhancing customer experience and promoting local tourism. Turning Point A pivotal moment is Grab's acquisition of Uber’s Southeast Asia operations in 2018. This move eliminates a major competitor and significantly expands Grab's user base and market reach. By this time, Grab has already diversified into food delivery and digital payments, increasingly positioning itself as an everyday super app. Outcome 💰Grab now expects 2023 revenue in the range of $2.31 billion to $2.33 billion, compared with its earlier forecast of between $2.2 billion and $2.3 billion. (Preview of my upcoming National University of Singapore Marketing Strategy class)

A couple months ago, one of our large grocery and store delivery clients had a problem: Their main creative for prospecting was showing signs of response wear-out and stagnation. We did a full audit of their creative and messaging. Their control creative used the copy: “Order from your favorite stores”. The examples of those stores printed on the piece? Big regional / national retailers. We suggested testing a simple hypothesis: Could personalizing the creative with local stores lift response rates significantly? Here’s how we worked with the client to plan and execute the test: 1/ Confirmed that the client’s CRM could output the most popular stores for an area if a location is known - it could (client already using the capability to personalize emails) 2/ Created a custom template for the client’s direct mail creative with space on the piece for store logos to be pulled in 3/ Coded the piece in HTML, so that the most popular store logos could be dynamically pulled in to each piece; logic was within 25 minute delivery radius of prospect’s location 4/ Linked it all up to the client’s CRM and QC’d to ensure no errors 5/ Loaded the creative and list into our DM platform, Poplar, so that it could be dynamically printed on a 1-to-1 basis The test was now ready to go: each prospect in the test group would be receiving a creative that said “order from the most popular stores in your area” paired with the logos for local stores personalized by location. The control would continue to be the static creative. We hit send on the campaign! The results: ~30% lift for the test group with local personalization, and a new winning creative for the client. Prospects clearly preferred and responded better to a piece that called out the most popular local stores around them. The best part: The creative is differentiated and personalized based on the client’s own, proprietary data, and it easily scales to any location :) If you’re curious how personalization at scale could work for your acquisition strategy, send me a message. Happy to chat through what you’re thinking!

Every month, another luxury brand lands in the Gulf with a polished rollout, but too many still miss what actually matters to shoppers here. I get asked about this often. Just this week, Hanine reached out to hear my view on where luxury brands get local activations wrong in our region. Here is what I have seen after years on the ground: Overlooking subtle signals: At Harvey Nichols Dubai, VIP clients are greeted by name, and often introduced to personal shoppers who remember their preferences. Some global brands still rely on generic greetings and staff who are unaware of local customs. This small difference can make or break loyalty. Mistaking premium for personal: The Galleries Lafayette Qatar store invested heavily in international décor and visual merchandising, but initial sales struggled until the team began hosting private shopping appointments for Qatari families, especially during Ramadan and Eid. Luxury here is about privacy, family comfort, and anticipation of local holidays, not just a fancy storefront. Activation patterns: Dior’s pop-up in Dubai Mall succeeded by collaborating with local artists and hosting exclusive events that brought together regional creatives and clients. A standout example was the Dior corner in Galeries Lafayette Doha, where clients could customize their perfume bottles with Arabic calligraphy, adding initials or private messages. This thoughtful, personal touch resonated deeply with local customers and made the experience feel both exclusive and culturally relevant. In contrast, several brands have run global campaign pop-ups with international celebrities that did not resonate because they felt disconnected from the local culture and missed the opportunity to feature regional voices. Brands that succeed are the ones that listen, adapt, and make every guest feel at home. Shoppers here want to feel recognized, not just impressed. What details do you notice in luxury stores that make you feel truly valued or leave you cold? Have you seen a campaign or activation that got it right? #luxuryretail #GCCretail #customerexperience #brandstrategy #Dubai #retailinnovation #localinsight #shopperbehavior #retailleadership

When I started thinking about market expansion for the next episode of #MarketerinTech: 𝐔𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐝, one name came to mind instantly—Winifred Wong. Having worked with her before, I knew her POV would be gold. She’s is working firsthand on what it really takes to turn global ambition into local traction—and she didn’t disappoint. Winifred’s approach to local market success starts long before a campaign launches. It begins with deep listening—to local sales, to customers, to the macroeconomic and cultural pulse of the region. It’s not just about translating messaging, but truly tailoring it to reflect real customer needs. She and her broader team constantly refines based on feedback, local terminology, and channel preferences—yes, including region-specific SEO reviews. But that’s not all. They bring in local voices too—amplifying success stories from nearby customers to build resonance and trust. One of her strongest plays? Building a local partner ecosystem. These aren’t just resellers—they’re trusted allies who co-solution, co-sell, and bring regional relevance to every engagement. That’s how you scale and stay close to your customer. ------ #𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝑻𝒆𝒄𝒉: 𝑼𝒏𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑺𝒏𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒌 ------ ✅ Top 3 Takeaways 1. 𝑫𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 — Culture, customer needs, and macro context shape your GTM more than you think. 2. 𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒈𝒆 — Tailor your messaging and your channels. Translation ≠ localization. 3. 𝑩𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 — Partner ecosystems amplify reach, relevance, and relationships. 💡 My 2 Cents Market expansion isn’t a launch, it’s a relationship. The teams who win are the ones who embed—not broadcast. And nothing says commitment like showing up in the right channels, in the right language, with the right local partners. #B2BMarketing #MarketExpansion #GotoMarket #PartnerMarketing #GTMStrategy #CMO #leadership #MarketingPOV

📍𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐢! Last night, as I was passing by the ever-bustling Mount Road, I spotted something that caught my attention—not just visually, but strategically. 🧠 Right next to the famous “Mount Road Bilal” Biryani restaurant—a place that's become an unofficial midnight landmark for food lovers—stood a perfectly placed Gaviscon billboard. The tagline? 👉 “Night Time Biryani = Acid Reflux Undakalam” 👉 “GAVISCON - World’s No.1 for Heartburn & Indigestion Relief” And it hit me... This is not just advertising. This is hyper-relevant, contextual marketing in action. 💡 𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞: ✅ Right Audience: People coming here at midnight for spicy biryani are exactly the kind of customers who may face heartburn or acidity post-meal. ✅ Right Time: The ad isn’t just seen during the day—it glows bright at night, targeting the late-night crowd directly. ✅ Right Message: The content speaks their language — “Night Time Biryani = Acid Reflux Undakalam” — it’s not a generic pitch; it’s a relatable pain point. ✅ Right Place: The hoarding is placed within direct visibility of the crowded restaurant queue. No expensive targeting needed — just high footfall + smart positioning.  This is a classic example of: 🔹 Moment Marketing 🔹 OOH (Out-of-Home) Hyperlocal Targeting 🔹 Cultural Relevance in Communication 🔹 Geo-Based Consumer Behavior Mapping 𝐀𝐬 𝐚 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 & 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭, 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧: 📌 Marketing doesn’t always have to be digital. Offline done right can outperform even high-budget online ads. 📌 Know your consumer's behavior—where they go, what they eat, what time they move—and meet them there. 📌 Use emotions + problems to connect: Hunger, satisfaction, regret (acidity), and relief — it’s a full customer journey wrapped into one visual. 📌 Language matters: Using Tamil-English mix (like “Undakalam”) made the ad feel local, funny, and relatable. 🙌🏻Hats off to the Gaviscon Gaviscon marketing team for: ➡️Understanding the power of local culture ➡️Tapping into consumer habits ➡️Placing themselves not just on a billboard—but inside the consumer's mind. What do you think of this strategy? Have you seen other smart, localised marketing like this in your city? Let’s discuss 👇 #marketingstrategy #oohadvertising #gaviscon #brandawareness #contentmarketing #chennaimarketing #localseo #consumerbehavior #biryanilovers #digitalmarketing #contentwriter #momentmarketing #mountroad #tamilmarketing

Imagine launching a major marketing campaign or product launch without understanding the local nuances of your target market. Sounds risky, right? That’s exactly what happened with Kellogg Company when they first entered the Indian market in 1994. Despite their global success, Kellogg's stumbled in India because they didn't consider the cultural and dietary preferences of Indian consumers. Initially, Kellogg's positioned their cornflakes as a healthy, convenient alternative to traditional Indian breakfasts. However, they overlooked key insights: Breakfast Habits: Indians typically consume hot, savory breakfasts, whereas Kellogg's promoted cold cereal with cold milk, which didn't resonate with the local palate. Taste Preferences: The unsweetened flakes didn’t suit Indian tastes, which leaned towards sweeter or spicier flavors. Price Sensitivity: Their products were priced significantly higher than local alternatives, making them less attractive to price-sensitive consumers. After a lackluster response, Kellogg's revamped their strategy: Local Flavors: They introduced products like Frosties and Chocos, which were sweeter and more appealing to children. They also launched mango & banana flavours to again suit local tastes. Cultural Adaptation: Marketing campaigns began to feature local celebrities and emphasize family and fun rather than just health. Pricing Adjustments: They introduced smaller, more affordable packaging options to appeal to a broader audience. These changes, rooted in thorough market research, eventually led to Kellogg's capturing a significant share of the Indian market. #Marketing #MarketResearch #BusinessStrategy #GlobalMarketing

In 2015, with a 12-person team, we scaled marketing operations to 15 countries, 23 in total, in 12 months. It was my second job. Here's the full breakdown of how we did it: For context, this was performance marketing for a classified business at Rocket Internet. Like AutoScout24 for cars, but in emerging markets like Indonesia, Pakistan & Nigeria. We managed 10-15 different marketing channels across these countries with our tiny team in Berlin. 1. Team Structure Everyone had both a marketing skill and a language they could command. - Our French marketer handled all French-speaking African countries - Our UX designer was Indonesian and spoke Bahasa  - We had Pakistani colleagues for Urdu Between our team and the content team, we covered every language we needed. This solved localization and capability. ___ 2. Marketing Strategy We divided our efforts into 2 types of campaigns: demand capture and demand creation. - Channels like paid search captured existing demand - people already looking for cars online. - Channels like paid social created demand. In emerging markets, people weren't used to finding cars online yet. We needed to push the idea that you could now do that. Demand Capture: For SEM, we built semantic tables for every possible search term people would use to find a car. (Make, year, color, etc.) We coded every permutation of keywords including syntax rules for each language. When our local sales teams provided listings, we'd place them in a structured product feed and press a button. Hundreds of thousands of keywords and ads would be created automatically, in each language. _ Demand Creation: We automated social ads using catalog feeds: - Imported listing images directly into Meta ads - Automatically replaced images based on click-through rates - Pushed out fresh listings constantly Based on performance data, we could decide which creatives resonated with which audiences and replace underperforming ones. ___ 3. Results - 12x traffic volume growth worldwide - Scaled from 7 to 23 countries in one year - Google and Facebook wrote case studies on us - 20% reduction in cost per lead across markets - Won Rocket Internet's internal competition for fastest growing company Looking back, these were pretty good numbers for a young team. But the best recognition of our work is the success the people in the photo below went on to have: Caterina → Senior Program Manager at Trusted Shops Vincenzo → Data Product Manager at Treatwell  Luky → Senior Strategic Designer at BCG  Rafał → Performance Marketing Team Lead at Limango  Christina → Strategy & Operations Lead at Google  Canberk → Co-Founder at Ninja  Mohamed → Global Director of Growth Marketing & Martech at Urban Sports Club  Ana → Head of Operations Data and AI at SumUp I was young and still had a lot to learn about leadership. I admit I made many mistakes. But one thing I got right was working with this incredible team.

America just got reintroduced to Guinness as a local brand. A bold shift away from its traditional Irish roots, led by the mighty Uncommon Creative Studio NYC. Alden, Steenkamp & Batra’s work on consumer culture positioning is a business school staple. I've never seen a clearer live example of this theory in practice. Their research shows how brands can position themselves in three ways. GLOBAL: Part of global culture LOCAL: A brand for “people like me, from here” FOREIGN: An exotic, aspirational foreign brand With this framework, marketers can shape brand perception, signal trust or status, and win local share for global brands. I've always thought beer and cider is the perfect category showing this strategy at play. 1. Heineken - Global Culture Obvious example. Global sports, international celebrities, same message everywhere. 2. Craft Brands - Local Culture The craft boom was a strategy where large FMCGs bought or built local brands to win trust and authenticity in smaller, profitable markets. Ironically, BrewDog went the opposite way from local to global, ditching the Scottish charm rather fast. 3. Fosters - Foreign Culture Endless options here. Especially as Italian beer is booming! Asahi is also a big winner with this.But Fosters is my favourite: it never even existed in Australia! They borrowed Aussie humour and heat to build a brand around refreshment with mates. Genius, no wonder their campaigns won IPA awards. This is why the new Guinness work is so interesting. It takes a specific American insight (50 states, divided) and relaunches the brand as something that brings them together. Real Americans. Real Guinness. A pure local positioning shift for a brand long doing anything but. This may feel off if you're not American (or even if you are). But this stuff takes time. Just look at Guinness in Africa. Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is now a symbol of local pride across the continent. It can clearly work. This framework is also a bit of a curse. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. You’ll start reading every brand move through it. Look at discount grocers across the EU. Lidl and Aldi act local and proud in every market to boost trust and quality. The ad itself? A brilliant demonstration that marketers leaving music choices to the end of production are missing the biggest opportunity. Let me know if you're a fan of this new move in the comments. I share #advertising and #marketing insights daily. Follow for more.

Check out Kraft Heinz’s latest campaign for the Canadian market. With US-Canada tensions simmering, several American brands are leaning into their Canadian presence, highlighting legacy, local operations and national pride. From 360 campaigns to product packaging, “Proudly Canadian” messaging is dominating consumer touchpoints. The timing makes sense, especially since all large-format grocery chains carry copycat white-label products that are priced lower, look similar, and are placed right next to established brands. In a shaky economic climate with rising nationalist sentiment, it’s smart marketing to signal Canadian roots. We have seen this playbook elsewhere. In India, global brands like Amazon have doubled down on local relevance through culturally rooted campaigns with vernacular language, Indian celebs and a heavy dose of middle-income India culture. Add to that acquisitions like Amazon MX Player and super hit productions like Panchayat and Mirzapur. When product adaptation is possible, brands glocalize. McDonald's McVeggie and Burger King’s Veg Whopper are both creations for the Indian market. But when the product is standardised, like ketchup or peanut butter, can a change in brand communication alone deflect the “foreign brand” fatigue? Wondering if marketing communication is an effective lever or if something else needs to be at play here. Have ideas or examples? Drop them below. Campaign discovered via Strategy Online & Media in Canada.

Think local. Grow BIG.   Hyper-localized marketing isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a key growth driver, especially in cannabis retail.   At Embarc, we currently operate 16 stores across California.   However, that doesn't mean we default to running generic, statewide campaigns.   Why?   Because each community we serve is unique. And a one-size-fits-all message doesn’t always cut it.   Let's look at 4/20 as an example:   Some of our shops go big on their events. They put in time and effort to incorporate beloved hometown vendors.   What could this mean for our marketing team? It could mean taking on multiple custom campaigns across a handful of channels.   We don't default to what's scalable. We choose to take on the extra work because we know it's worth it, and it's a chance to live our brand values.   By going hyper-local, we notice something special: the community can feel it. So can our team.   They see that we’re not just another chain dispensary dropping in with cookie-cutter ads and deals, deals, deals.   We are who we say we are...   Your friendly neighborhood 🥦 shop.   This is how hyper-local marketing can foster genuine connections.   In my experience, it's another step toward building a strong foundation for growth.   I’d love to hear from other marketers. What's an approach that “doesn’t scale” but yielded great results for your brand or business?