Car brands such as Toyota and Honda are giving the decades-old notion of local marketing a mobile-age spin with location-based strategies that deliver more engaging, personalized and contextual experiences than static banner ads.

Toyota?s purchasing of Los Angeles-aimed ads on Snapchat and Honda?s annual IndyCar sweepstakes and interactive experience are two examples of how major auto industry players are leveraging mobile?s unique ability to extract user location to engage customers. The campaigns points to mobile?s power to drive ad units or apps that may prove more memorable for the consumer than run-of-the-mill banner ads.

?It?s essential that brands, including car makers, make use of some of the unique features of mobile devices, for example the ability to extract user location, in order to engage users with mobile advertising,? said Nitesh Patel, the London-based director for wireless media strategies with the global wireless practice of Strategy Analytics. 

?Clearly by using the user?s location these ad units or apps will be recalled by mobile users more than basic banner adverts on a small screen.?

Toyota?s purchase of Los Angeles-targeted Snapchat ads for its Camry and Corolla sedans will see videos run within Snapchat's localized Live Story feature, Automotive News reported. Toyota also joined forces with Google to automatically customize banner ads in 15,000 U.S. cities with city-specific information programmed into the ads.

 

For example, a localized banner ad that could run in Chicago starting Aug. 1, could show a Chicago background and a photo of a Corolla and call on the viewer to grab his or her coworkers and go to a sporting event at one of Chicago?s 22 stadiums, the Automotive News reported. 

Toyota?s embrace of mobile to jump-start sales of the Camry comes as sales of SUVs and other less energy-efficient vehicles surge at a time of lower gas prices. 

First the user types in an address. Google Maps then charts a course through nearby streets. After zooming through the first lap, a pit crew comes out to change the tires.

At the end of the race, players are prompted to enter the Fastest Seat in Sports sweepstakes. The winner could win a trip to an IndyCar race, including a pre-competition lap with an IndyCar driver, a trip to the Indianapolis 500 next year, or one of 12 races this year.

Besides creating a personalized experience through users? own neighborhoods, the campaign is a way for Honda to collect marketing data.

The strategy suits mobile because consumers are increasingly consuming content and information on their mobile devices, and becoming increasingly reliant on them. 

Secondly, mobile apps can provide information about user location ? assuming GPS, Wi-Fi, or cell-tower ID is provided ? or the places consumers frequent. 

?In terms of pitfalls, the quality of location information provided can vary depending on how that location is provided ? where users have not opted in to sharing their location data, access to real-time user location will be impossible to acquire,? Mr. Patel said. ?Also, some mobile users will feel this level of targeting is a little spooky, even though others will think it?s cool.?

Car brands continue to use mobile to move more deeply into local communities.

In May, the success of a dealership in Honda?s Acura division in boosting brand engagement and mobile traffic by activating local community groups via a mobile sponsorship platform suggested how automakers could leverage hyper-targeted engagement to increase loyalty without excessively burdening local dealers.

By using the Pear sponsorship platform, Chicago?s Arlington Acura dealership saw a sharp increase in brand consideration, engagement and unique visitors online without burdening its relatively small marketing budget. The program was a win all around since brands were seen as active contributors to local communities, dealerships got exposure and local teams got sponsors, raising implications for larger-scale marketing plans. 

For brands focused on active lifestyles, and with mobile devices exploding in popularity, mobile makes it possible to reach the community anytime, anywhere.

?The location based advertising market remains nascent,? Mr. Patel said. ?A lack of standards in how publishers provide this location information, combined with the need to acquire opt-in means that accurate and fresh real-time location data is hard for advertisers to acquire, unless the advertiser is delivering its advertising via its own app,? he said. 

?For example,  relying on first party data.?