• by Larissa Faw , September 30, 2014

Brands spend millions to connect with consumers through national advertising, but it has been difficult to track whether national reach truly resonates locally. Simply put: do commercials during "Monday Night Football" really push a consumer in Wichita, Kansas to engage with that brand?

YP (formerly YellowPages.com) works to bring local consumer insight to national brands through an offering that analyzes the effectiveness of a national brand spend with local consumers, as well as how these brands stack up with their competitors.

YP is offering this Local Brand Analysis for national brands onsite for the first time at the IAB MIXX Conference, the official interactive event of Advertising Week 2014 in New York City.

The platform uses local search data mined across all YP properties combined with location-based mobile data. This collected data includes the average number of monthly brand name searches conducted year to date as well as location data indicating a store visit during the same period.

Then, it tracks path to purchase data by category and market based on search activity on YP.com online, mobile properties and mobile user data.

At the same time, YP analyzes competitors’ results by tracking the total number of category searches and competitor’s effectiveness in connecting with local consumers. Plus, mobile location data and behavioral attributes are also used to determine mobile user intent during the same period. Lastly, the service monitors the presence and accuracy of local listings.

Ultimately, the results showcase the brand’s effectiveness in reaching their local consumer as compared to industry competitors.

"YP has proprietary local search and mobile location data on over 150 million customers," says Luke Edson, SVP of National Markets at YP. "Brands can use our information to inform highly strategic marketing campaigns. YP is the only company to offer this data on these consumers– it is unique, proprietary and available on a national scale."