Has the Penny Dropped?

For years, “local” has been treated as the slightly boring bit of the marketing plan. Postcodes, store radiuses, a bit of local SEO, then the same national creative rolled out everywhere.

What's interesting now is how many big players are finally saying the quiet part out loud, local is not just a media setting, it is a creative advantage.

Adobe’s 2026 Creative Trends forecast calls one of its four key themes “Local Flavours”, encouraging brands to collaborate with local creators, spotlight regional culture and show real communities, not generic “anywhere” visuals.

 

Marketing publications are talking about the rise of hyperlocal marketing, with brands “thinking smaller to go bigger” as people tire of mass, impersonal campaigns and look for brands that feel rooted in their area and values.

Even social platforms are building hyperlocal ad products and investing in regional creators because community based, locally relevant content is what actually drives trust and attention.

In other words, the trend reports are catching up with what anyone who works on multi location brands (like us) has known for a long time: People respond differently when the work feels like it could only exist on their street.

For creatives, that's good news. It's permission to design with local nuance in mind, not just swap out the address in the footer.

That might mean, typography that borrows from real local language, imagery that looks like everyday life in that city rather than “anywhere”, systems that are built to flex by neighbourhood, not fight it.

So yes, “local” is suddenly on trend. But for brands with hundreds of sites and thousands of neighbours, it was never a trend. It is where the real, long term value has always been hiding.