By Jon Bross, Vladimir Jones, Director, Integrated Media and Data
Cookie-based audience targeting often created the illusion of “personalized advertising.” But now that consumer privacy has become a key industry priority, third-party IDs, gleaned from invasive tech like Google Chrome cookies, are being sidelined. Never mind the often questionable value of third-party cookie-derived audience segments in the first place.
This presents a great opportunity for brands and their agencies to reinvent their audience targeting paradigms in a way that not only protects consumer identities but delivers more relevance and engagement with them. While mainstream media channels like digital, social, search, and linear and over-the-top (OTT) will remain as linchpins of most media plans, the infusion of nontraditional and legacy media could be exactly the boost to turbocharge engagement and action by your target audience.
By “nontraditional media,” I mean everything from community newspapers to out-of-home (billboards, gas stations, laundromats) to more granular local media like church bulletins and Native American radio, which can be particularly effective in localities with limited, specific consumer media diets. Yes, we’re talking about the granular local media that are all too often ignored by brands. There is compelling evidence that nontraditional local-based media channels can be a big boost to your brand’s efforts.
Brands need to understand how audiences live their daily lives
All too often, brands and their agencies rely on established channels without going the extra yard to see where else they can engage their audiences. By inserting their messaging into more intimate corridors of people’s everyday experiential lives, brands have the ability to connect to their audiences more seamlessly and meaningfully. Intuitively, digital channels are associated with younger audiences while traditional analog channels like TV, terrestrial radio and print are preferred by more mature audiences.
By seeking out the points of contact within consumers’ local communities, brands are reaching the “in-between” channels where your brand’s magic can come to life with “#NeverBeenDone” advertising programs. These “#NeverBeenDone” efforts can be unexpected and delightful antidotes to typically undifferentiated messages that fail to break through the media clutter.
A prime example of this is the recent work from the Colorado Department of Transportation. CDOT works arduously to create safer travel throughout the state with safety messages around distracted driving, impaired driving, and even pedestrian safety. Geared toward the general population and tailored for the most at-risk Coloradans, CDOT took a bold approach: using unexpected, nontraditional media placements in ways designed to disrupt, educate, and resonate.
As context has always been and remains central to audience engagement, CDOT focused on reaching cannabis users at the exact moment they make a purchase. Branded “Don’t Drive High,” CDOT distributed cannabis dispensary bags in Denver and El Paso counties, serving as contextually relevant, non-judgmental reminders. Pairing physical media (bags) with in-store digital screens extended reach and frequency, reinforcing the message in a way that felt natural, not forced. This generated 1.5 million impressions from both recreational and medicinal dispensary customers actively purchasing cannabis.
Another compelling component of CDOT’s work on another campaign manifested in chalk art on metro streets that urged people to look up from their phones at intersections. This effort along with the dispensary bags exhibited a level of ingenuity that forged stronger emotional connections.
Of course, these compelling #NeverBeenDone elements cannot deliver the scale of engagement alone. Established media channels remained a bedrock of CDOT efforts. The connective tissue that bound all these efforts was a standard of creativity that you may not typically see in typical established channels. For instance, CDOT didn’t just serve mobile ads—it invited users to interact. Through quizzes embedded in rewarded video ads and interstitials, cannabis users learned about the risks of driving high in exchange for in-app rewards. Interactive, gamified experiences turn passive awareness into active learning. The mobile effort registered a 92% engagement rate for rewarded video units (vs. 80% benchmark) as well as a 12% engagement rate for interstitial ads (vs. 10% benchmark).
How Do We Go About Locating These Elusive Audiences?
There are plenty of available tools to identify what channels audiences use. Naturally, it varies by metro and demographic. In rural locations, we would look at resources like Nielsen county coverage data to know where radio stations have audience reach in a rural community. Tribal radio, for one, has localized heavy coverage of audiences.
In places without local newspapers, church bulletins are strong options as churches are eager to carry messages of value for services like substance addiction treatment. The novelty of nontraditional media channels can spark skepticism as a risky endeavor for brands, so you have to thoroughly explain relative efficiency and effectiveness just as you would with traditional media.
As we move into 2025 with much change afoot, one of the lessons our industry needs to learn is that some of the established media playbooks need updating. If we truly want to create a legacy of a unified industry serving a less divided, polarized country, then we need to dig deeper in crafting messages and finding channels that resonate with many consumers, who established media all too often tend to ignore.
As consumer privacy concerns push digital strategies to evolve, it’s time to look beyond the algorithm. The opportunity for traditional plus nontraditional paid media isn’t just about nostalgia—it’s about redefining how brands connect.
