For years, audience targeting has shaped how we plan media.
Marketers build segments, define profiles, and apply them across territories. It’s logical. It’s scalable.
But in a fragmented, post-ID world, that logic is starting to fall short.
Because what’s really behind those audience segments?
Too often, they’re pre-packaged, created by platforms or third-party providers, with little transparency into how they’re built or how recent the data is. You’re told you’re reaching “shoppers,” “intenders,” or “loyalists”, but you rarely know whether those behaviors are still relevant.
Even with custom audiences, we often rely on socio-demo proxies or outdated behavioral signals.
And with the disappearance of personal identifiers, many marketers are turning to contextual or cohort-based targeting, but with the same logic underneath: → Build a segment. Run it everywhere
Same audience. Same message. Every area.
It feels efficient. But it misses the point.
Because while your audience may be the same on paper, your brand challenges aren’t.
It’s not just who you reach → it’s where and why.
The real issue isn’t just who we target, it’s what we’re targeting for.
Audience segments are just a media response to a business objective. And those objectives can vary dramatically, even for the same brand, in the same country.
- Want to grow your customer base? You’ll look to reach new or underexposed segments.
- Looking to build loyalty? You’ll re-engage existing customers, with tailored creative.
- Facing aggressive competition? You’ll focus on brand switchers or competitor loyalists.
These scenarios require different strategies. Yet, many brands still deliver the same campaign everywhere.
One brand. Multiple local contexts. Different dynamics.
Local dynamics vary, and so do consumers. What works in Lyon may fail in Marseille. What performs in Brussels might flop in Antwerp. Milano and Roma don’t follow the same path to purchase.
Each local context has its own:
- Brand presence
- Shopper journey
- Competitive landscape
- Level of media saturation
So why apply a single targeting logic across all of them?
The Business Context Planning imperative
At Locala, we believe the next big shift in media isn’t just about better audiences, it’s about smarter planning. That’s the idea behind Business Context Planning.
The media planner’s role is no longer to chase IDs, but to orchestrate campaigns based on market-specific business signals.
That means understanding, for every geography:
- Your brand’s performance vs competitors
- Who you’re reaching, and who you’re not
- Where growth, loyalty, or conquest opportunities lie
- How to act on those signals across channels
Because media planning shouldn’t stop at insight, it should tell you what to do next.
Other platforms optimize audiences. We optimize brand outcomes.
From insight to action: Omni Planner
To make this vision real, we built Omni Planner: the first tool to operationalize business context planning at scale.
It doesn’t just show you where you’re strong or weak. It translates signals into actionable, local media strategies, by bridging online and offline signals for your brand and its competitors.
- In Chicago, you’re a category leader but engagement is soft → we deploy a consolidation strategy with high-frequency, upper-funnel formats.
- In Detroit, your competitor is gaining ground → we run a conquest strategy with broader reach and price-focused creative on mobile and Meta.
- In Cleveland, online traffic is high but footfall is low → we activate a drive-to-store mix using DOOH and geo-mobile.
Omni Planner helps marketers zoom in on the brand’s local context, assess audience relevance, and deploy tailored, scalable campaigns without media waste.
Rethinking campaign logic
In a world without IDs, your targeting logic becomes your strategic edge. You can’t afford to treat every audience the same, and every territory as equal.
At Locala, we help brands switch from generic targeting to context-driven media strategies, built on real signals, adapted to real-world dynamics.
If you’re done running the same campaign everywhere,
If you’re ready for your media to reflect your brand’s ambition in every local context,
If you want to know where and how to grow, not just who to reach…
Let’s explore how Business Context Planning could improve your brand performance.
