Local footfall campaigns fail in a distinctive way: they are seen by thousands of people who could never plausibly visit, and by very few of the ones who walk past every day. The metrics look healthy the entire time. What is missing is not creative quality — it is the recognition that this is a geography problem wearing a marketing problem's clothes.
The second thing that goes missing is orientation. An address is not a location; it is a string that a person has to convert into a place, and almost nobody does that work for a business they were not already looking for. A landmark does the conversion instantly. 'Next to the bridge, opposite the chemist' puts the door in someone's head in a way that no street number ever will.
Definition of done
The one number that moves
Counted mentions and redemptions at the counter
What counts
A physical tally kept by whoever is serving — how many people referenced the campaign or used whatever the campaign asked them to use. It is the only measurement of this goal that measures the goal.
Set it up before you start
Give staff one thing to record and one place to record it before the campaign starts. A word to mention, or something to show. If it takes more than a moment at a busy counter, it will not be recorded.
The decoy — looks like success, is not
Local reach and impressions. This campaign can reach an entire neighbourhood and produce nobody, and the reach figure will look excellent throughout.
The viewer
Where their head is already
Physically close, mentally unaware
- What they already know
- The street, usually. Not you. Many have walked past repeatedly without registering that the place exists or what happens inside it.
- What actually stops them
- Being unable to picture the door, and having no reason to alter today's route. Both are practical problems and neither is solved by making the business look appealing.
The mechanic
Orientation plus a reason for today
Two things have to be true simultaneously: the viewer can locate you without thinking, and something makes today different from any other day they did not come in. Either alone produces nothing.
The constraint that turns intention into action
Distance. Everything about this campaign is bounded by how far someone will genuinely travel for the category, which for most local businesses is much shorter than the owner believes.
The campaign
Four assets, four jobs
Each asset is responsible for something none of the others cover. The order is the order the viewer needs them in, not a schedule — run them at whatever pace your calendar allows.
- 1
Strangers outside your own door
The job
Provide third-party credibility from people who visibly are not you, filmed in a place locals recognise.
Hook shape
Open on a stranger mid-answer. A real passer-by speaking is instantly distinguishable from an advertisement and buys several seconds of attention that a presenter would not.
What has to be on screen
The recognisable street behind them. The location is doing as much work as the words.
The ask
None. This asset builds recognition; asking for a visit here wastes the credibility it just earned.
- 2
The landmark walk-up
The job
Make the door findable. This is the asset that converts 'somewhere around there' into a place.
Hook shape
Start from something everyone in the area knows and walk to the door in one continuous move. The landmark, not the business, is the opening image.
What has to be on screen
The route, unbroken. A cut between the landmark and the door breaks the mental map the asset exists to build.
The ask
You already know where this is. Nothing more is needed.
- 3
What happens at the counter
The job
Show the inside, because the threshold is the real obstacle and people do not cross into rooms they cannot picture.
Hook shape
Begin with hands doing the thing. Process is more inviting than premises, and it reads instantly without sound.
What has to be on screen
The making, serving or fitting, done properly and unhurried. This is the asset where craft is the argument.
The ask
Come and watch it happen. A low-commitment ask that suits the medium.
- 4
The reason today is different
The job
Convert the people the other three assets made aware, by giving today a property tomorrow does not have.
Hook shape
Name what is true only today or only this week, in the first line. Specificity is the whole asset.
What has to be on screen
The thing itself, plus opening hours legible on screen. A campaign that omits the hours sends people to a closed door, and they do not come back.
The ask
Come in today, before a stated time. Mention or show one thing at the counter.
Distribution
Where each asset runs
A radius, not a city
Set paid distribution to the distance people actually cross for this category. A city-wide campaign for a business with a five-minute catchment spends most of its budget on people who will never come.
The business profile that appears in maps
The listing people find when searching the category nearby is the highest-intent local surface there is. Keep its media current and follow that platform's own media rules, which are stricter than a social feed's.
Local community groups, carefully
Enormously effective and easy to get wrong. The counter asset belongs there; the promotional one usually does not.
The window itself
A screen or a printed frame from the campaign, facing outward. It reaches exactly the people who are already within walking distance, which is the audience the whole campaign is trying to buy.
Resistance
What they are thinking, and what answers it
“I did not know this was here.”
Not an objection so much as the diagnosis. The landmark asset is the direct answer, and its performance is the clearest signal of whether the campaign's problem was awareness or desire.
“Is it expensive?”
Show something with a visible, ordinary price point rather than answering the question abstractly. Uncertainty about cost keeps more people outside a door than actual price does.
“Is it for people like me?”
Show a range of people in the assets, filmed locally. Belonging is communicated by who is on screen far more than by anything said.
“I will come another time.”
The only counter is a property today has that tomorrow does not. Without one, 'another time' is a permanently correct decision.
Measurement
How to know whether it worked
- 1
Give staff one thing to count
One word, one card, one gesture. A busy counter will record one thing reliably and three things not at all.
- 2
Write the count somewhere physical
A sheet by the till beats an app nobody opens. The measurement has to survive a rush.
- 3
Compare like days
This week's Tuesday against last month's Tuesdays. Local footfall varies enormously by day and weather, and totals across mixed days tell you nothing.
- 4
Ask the ones who mention it where they saw it
One question at the counter produces better channel attribution than any dashboard available for a physical business.
The usual failure
How this campaign goes wrong
A campaign that is visible everywhere and actionable nowhere — no landmark, no hours on screen, and a radius set to the whole city. It generates the best-looking reach numbers of any goal on this surface and an unchanged Tuesday.
Frequently asked questions
Why use a landmark instead of the address?+
Because an address is a string someone has to convert into a place, and almost nobody does that work for a business they were not already looking for. A landmark puts the door in the viewer's mental map immediately.
How wide should the targeting radius be?+
The distance people genuinely cross for your category, which is usually shorter than owners expect. Reach beyond it costs money and produces impressions from people who were never candidates.
How do I measure walk-ins at all?+
Physically. Give whoever is serving one thing to record — a word mentioned, a card shown — and one place to write it down, decided before the campaign starts. No online metric measures feet through a door.
Should opening hours be in the video?+
On the asset that asks people to come today, always. Sending someone to a closed door does more damage than never reaching them, because they rarely try a second time.
How is this different from a booking campaign?+
A booking is scheduled in advance and can be completed from a sofa; a walk-in is an unscheduled decision made close by. That is why this campaign is built around orientation and a reason for today, rather than around availability and reassurance.
Other goals
Build it with
Footnote — what the recipes cost
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Figures are each recipe’s own published cost and move when the catalogue does. How credit costs are calculated.
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