Global Perils of a Local Launch
We were recently approached about helping a company with a “local launch,” which was to include social and mainstream media outreach elements. The client hopes to keep the launch contained to a certain grographic boundary.
They have the best of intentions: by keeping the launch local at first, they could do some more vigorous and interesting proof-of-concept stuff; they could engage more deeply and directly with a select audience of consumers; etc. The “start local” strategy has a lot to recommend it, in the case of this company.
But can you perform a local launch anymore? Everything is just so … GLOBAL these days. Any tweet, any blog post, is up for the world to see, indexed by search engines, with breathtaking immediacy.
Of course we can try to “keep it local.” Tweetups require physical presence, for example. And we might only target local media outlets. And maybe only offer the product for sale to folks in the client’s home state?
But tweetup attendees might blurt out news about this cool product to their worldwide followers, before we’re ready for prime-time. And the local news outlets all have websites now: any article in the hometown paper becomes global Google fodder. And offering a product for sale based solely on a zipcode parameter might feel unduly arbitrary to those left out in the cold.
What does “local” even mean, anymore?
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They want something meaningfully locally relevant, not technically locally readable.
I think when people say they ‘want to keep it local’, what they mean is ‘the highest value users of this site should be within a particular geographical area’. This is an easier nut to crack.
For example, if someone were to launch a music site for the Akron, Ohio area, someone like me (who is interested in indie music coming out of Akron) might still be interested in that site, if there were deals from local businesses or scavenger hunts or augmented reality touchpoints, someone from Akron would have a much greater chance of being sticky and sharing with their friends.
My (poorly stated) point here is that local launches cannot be a binary system online, but they can sit on a gradient.
Interesting question. I think if you want to reach influencers…it can no longer be local. Because their streams and contacts have global reach (especially if the content itself is extremely viral).
I think you have to very specifically brand it with the city when talking about it in order to maintain that local feel.
Good point. Another situation a client of mine was faced with recently was a launch using PR and social media “just to existing customers” and then they had the desire to conduct a more formal launch months later. Again, there’s no way to control the legs a story has once you let it go…