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How location-based advertising brought Utrecht 124,000 footfall

At the Optimaal Digitaal event on October 11, Auke Boersma presented to over 100 city marketers, shopping district and city center managers how a smart use of location-based advertising helped promote the city of Utrecht and attract 124,000 physical visitors. This innovative approach, targeting the right audience at the right time, once again proved how important it is to advertise relevantly and specifically in today's digital world. But how exactly was this success story achieved?

In an era where cities and brands increasingly compete for consumer attention, it's becoming more important to advertise relevantly and personally. Traditional methods like broadly distributed advertisements no longer suffice; consumers want a message that aligns with their needs, location, and timing. The municipality of Utrecht approached this cleverly using location-based advertising. Together with Mobile Journey, a strategy was set up to attract more visitors to the city. The result? An impressive 124,000 in footfall, exceeding the target of 117,000.

The challenge: more visitors to Utrecht
Utrecht wanted to strengthen its position as a major destination for visitors while stimulating the local economy. With this in mind, the city set a concrete goal: attracting 117,000 physical visitors through a targeted marketing campaign. The question was how to reach people from all over the Netherlands and convince them to visit Utrecht in a cost-effective manner.

Location-based advertising uses technology to determine consumers' locations and reach them with relevant advertisements at the right moment. The power of location data was used to attract travelers to Utrecht.

The strategy: location-targeted advertising in action
The campaign for Utrecht was built around several core strategies aimed at leveraging location data and real-time data to reach people most likely to travel to the city.

Nationwide coverage, local focus
The first step was to achieve nationwide coverage for broad visibility. The campaign began by reaching a large audience through various digital channels but was quickly refined to focus on specific locations. The focus was on the 15 main areas in the Netherlands with good train connections to Utrecht. This ensured a targeted approach, addressing the right people at the right time.

Use of DOOH and mobile advertisements
A key element of the campaign was the use of Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertisements, for example at stations. DOOH screens at strategic locations, such as train stations with connections to Utrecht, played a crucial role in increasing the city's visibility.

Additionally, geofencing technology was used. This involved creating virtual boundaries around these locations. People within these boundaries who passed a DOOH screen were later re-approached via mobile advertisements. This combination of physical and digital advertisements ensured that the message was reinforced multiple times. This resulted in more engagement and a greater chance that people would actually travel to Utrecht. 

Dynamic media calendar
The timing of the advertisements was also of great importance. By using a dynamic media calendar, utilizing custom-made creatives and advanced tracking technologies, advertisements could be specifically tailored to certain moments, such as events or seasonal activities in Utrecht. This made the campaign more relevant to the target audience at that moment, increasing the likelihood that people would actually visit the city.

Target significantly exceeded
The campaign for Utrecht proved to be a great success. Ultimately, the city welcomed 124,000 people. This meant an over-achievement of 6%, demonstrating how effective the location-based strategy was.

In addition to the increase in visitor numbers, the campaign also brought economic benefits. The final cost per visitor was 27% lower than the planned cost per visitor. With an average spend of €60 per visitor, this resulted in a total economic impact of €7,440,000 for the city of Utrecht. These strong ROI and RoAS figures not only underscore the effectiveness of the campaign but also the value that location-based advertising can offer to cities and brands looking to reach their audience in a targeted and relevant way.

Why location-based advertising works
The success factor of this campaign lies in the combination of relevance, timing, and measurement. Traditional advertisements often work less well because they don't respond to the consumer's context. Location-based advertising offers a solution by tailoring advertisements to where someone is and what they need at that moment.

The use of geofencing and real-time data analysis allowed Mobile Journey to know exactly where and when the target audience was located. A custom made dashboard provided insight in all campaign data. This enabled them not only to increase Utrecht's visibility but also to strengthen the target audience's engagement. This led to more visitors actually taking action, whether to an event, store, or other destination in the city.

The future of location-based advertising for cities
The campaign for the municipality of Utrecht shows how powerful location-based advertising can be for attracting visitors and stimulating the local economy. This strategy is also relevant for other cities or regions looking for ways to better reach their target audience. In 2025, we expect to add new media channels such as Digital Audio, cTV, Native, and Video to provide even better omnichannel media deployment.

What made this campaign so successful was the targeted approach and the ability to accurately measure the effectiveness of the advertisements. Our team of experts utilizes the latest AI solutions to optimize the performance of our campaigns. By using tools such as heat maps, which showed where most visitors came from, the advertisements could be continuously optimized.

For Utrecht, this campaign meant not only more visitors but also a significant contribution to the local economy. The success of this strategy emphasizes the importance of targeted marketing and not only results in higher store visits but also measurable business results and a better ROI – all completely cookieless and GDPR-compliant.

Client: Stichting Centrum Management Utrecht