Guangzhou subway personal billboards become popular, and regional media returns to individuals and local life

Recently, the topic #Guangzhou Metro allows individuals to place advertisements# has attracted attention. Subway advertising is no longer just for the B-end, but can also be targeted at the C-end.

Recently, the topic #Guangzhou Metro allows personal advertising# has become a hot search topic. The personal advertising content such as birthday wishes, job hunting and blind dates that appeared in the Guangzhou Metro has attracted people's attention.

The reason was that there was a "first person to submit a resume in Guangzhou subway ads", with a simple blue and white "Pure Prison Style" and a message on his profile photo saying "I can't find a job, I'm too embarrassed to see people", which attracted many passers-by to stop and watch. According to reports, the effect of the placement was immediate, "WeChat was flooded with additions within two days."

In addition to job hunting and blind dating, personal advertising is more about birthday wishes. Ms. Wu designed a pixel-style game poster for her programmer husband and put it in the subway station downstairs in their community near the suburbs. The advertising space here is not only cheaper, but also has less traffic, so it won't make people too "socially dead".

From the demand point of view, the main types of personal advertising are "Pet, Show, Thank" in four series, including pampering loved ones, pampering yourself, pampering cute pets, and pampering idols; looking for a job, looking for a partner, and looking for loyal fans; showing off talents, showing off your team, and showing off your hometown; thank you series: thank family, thank relatives and friends, thank teachers, etc. Compared with commercial advertisements that cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan, personal advertising space is more affordable.

The Guangzhou Metro Youyou Smart Investment Platform shows that the prices of individual investment products range from 380 to 999 yuan, including 12-seal light boxes, all-day carousel electronic screens and time-sharing sales electronic screens.

Different from traditional brand commercials, these personal ads reflect more localized life content and "down-to-earth" atmosphere. They not only advertise for individuals, but also serve as advertisements for the city, winning praise from many netizens on social media.

Behind the mundane atmosphere is the dilemma faced by Guangzhou Metro. According to Interface News, by the end of 2023, Guangzhou Metro's asset-liability ratio reached 56.6%, and its net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company fell by 820 million yuan. Under tremendous financial pressure, Guangzhou Metro has become urgent in developing its personal advertising business.

This new attempt has achieved some commercial success and has attracted subways in other cities to follow suit. In addition to the Guangzhou Metro, subway stations in Hefei, Beijing, Zhengzhou, Chengdu and other cities have already launched personal advertising services.

Guangzhou Metro’s attempt is a microcosm of advertising changes. Including subway advertising, elevators, movies and other regional media all have the same characteristics. They are essentially closely connected with local life.

In fact, we can see the shadow of old newspaper advertisements from this. Using traditional newspapers as an analogy, newspapers often have separate sections for personal advertisements, including job openings, house rentals and sales, community activities, personal statements, etc. When people are accustomed to advertisements targeting the whole country or even the world, advertisements focusing on individuals and local areas have the advantage of being more intimate and down-to-earth.

From this perspective, it makes sense for regional media to return to individual and local life.

In the future advertising market, we can foresee that localized advertising will undergo a profound transformation, showing two significant trends:

1. Advertising entities will become increasingly diversified

No longer limited to big brands with strong financial resources, small and medium-sized businesses and even individuals will gradually become important participants in the advertising market. With the development of technology, especially the popularization of tools such as AIGC, the threshold for advertising production and delivery has been greatly lowered, giving more individuals the opportunity to make their own voices heard.

This trend will lead to the diversification of advertising forms, the authority of the form will gradually weaken, and the fun and ease of the content will become the key to attracting the audience. Advertising creativity needs to pay more attention to emotional resonance and interactivity with the audience in order to enhance the appeal and memory of the advertisement.

2. The allocation of advertising resources will be more refined and personalized

Faced with the reality of slowing down of large advertisers, the advertising industry will turn its attention to small and medium-sized businesses and individuals, and launch advertising products that better meet their needs and payment capabilities. This means that advertising services will be more segmented, providing customized options to suit customers of different sizes and types.

Through big data analysis, artificial intelligence and other technical means, advertisers can accurately locate the target audience and provide more personalized advertising content. This personalization is not only reflected in the advertising content, but also in the advertising pricing model, allowing advertisers with small budgets to enter the market at a lower cost, activating potential advertising demand and enhancing the vitality and innovation of the entire advertising market.

In short, the future of localized advertising is a diversified and personalized era. Advertising will be closer to the lives of ordinary people and pay more attention to creativity and effects, rather than just the size of brands and budgets. This transformation will bring new growth opportunities to the advertising industry, but also pose new challenges to advertising practitioners and companies, requiring everyone to constantly innovate their concepts to adapt to this rapidly changing market.