I agree with Mindshare North America CEO Antony Young in this recent article for Ad Age: Major national and international marketers will invest the time and money to take advantage of multi-local marketing.  He reviews recent multi-local strategies from Walmart, L’Oreal, and Nike.

Some of his key points:

“It takes insight into local tastes, local demographics, local issues and local competitors to be relevant and win the consumer.  Organize national, act local is starting to get some traction.

The media are leading the way.  Media properties’ local targeting is increasingly offering more precision. Hyperlocal websites are providing local content and localized national advertising platforms by individual towns.

Most marketers will need a better payout to shift national dollars to local, posing a riddle for the media companies betting so much of their own money on a local strategy.  Data will have to be the compass for media sellers and buyers alike.  Mobile ad network xAd recently published data showing that locally-targeted mobile display ads deliver 5% to 8% click-through rates, compared to 0.6% for typical mobile display ads.

There’s no doubt that local will be an increasing play for national marketers. It’s what brands need to do to engage consumers and grow. However, it is going to be more challenging for marketers to execute and more costly and complex to orchestrate.”

Read Antony’s full piece here.