NEW YORK: Consumer packaged goods brands are successfully utilising location-based marketing strategies to drive increased footfall and visit frequency at retailers, new research has shown.

Mobile ad network Verve, which earlier this year launched a programmatic direct platform for location-based mobile advertising, analysed more than 200 campaigns across a range of CPG categories including household products, food and beverage, personal grooming and pet food. It noted a 219% increase in mobile spend between 2012 and mid-2014, thanks in large part to location-based advertising, MediaPost reported

Using a sophisticated combination of data, which included location, traffic patterns, demographics and transactions, CPG brands were able to target custom audiences and generate a 74% increase in foot traffic and 56% lift in visit frequency for retailers.

In some cases the results were even more dramatic, as demonstrated by specific campaigns for battery and beauty items which aimed to drive foot traffic to a particular retail partner.

The use of location-based awareness campaigns led to a 154% increase in foot traffic and 182% visit frequency to the same retailer, compared with non-location-aware creative ads.

Up to now the use of location-based marketing has largely been the preserve of retailers and auto dealers, but it is growing fastest among CPG brands.

"We see CPG advertisers have great success transitioning time-tested shopper marketing strategies to mobile through location-based audience data and proximity targeting," Tom MacIsaac, CEO at Verve, told MediaPost.

At a recent conference, Scott Martino, marketing analytics lead at Mercedes-Benz USA, outlined how location-based marketing could be an especially powerful tool for automakers, not least as most people visited a dealership at some point, whether researching or buying a car.

Not only could targeted content be served to consumers on a forecourt but "if we understand that advertising drove them to physically walk onto a dealership, that's a win for us," he said.

Beyond the dealership there were other opportunities, such as targeting people who had attended an event sponsored by the brand.

Data sourced from MediaPost; additional content by Warc staff