Weather-Responsive Marketing
Marketers already use targeting techniques to segment their audience and deliver more relevant and timely messages - with geotargeting, demographic and behavioural targeting, and dynamic retargeting all being industry standards.
However, a powerful new method of consumer segment-targeting has now become available to marketers - meteo-targeting. Weather-responsive marketing is a pioneering concept meaning marketing messages can be activated by a consumer’s past, current or future weather conditions. For instance, ads for ice cream can be served to consumers experiencing hot and sunny weather, or promotions for antihistamines can be displayed in areas where there is a high pollen count. In other words, contextually relevant content is displayed at the exact moment when conditions are perfectly ripe for purchase.
The weather is perhaps the most important determinant of an individual’s mind frame and their purchase decisions. For marketers to be able to leverage real-time weather information in this way offers a goldmine of possibilities. When combined with the other forms of consumer profiling,meteo targeting becomes an exciting and disruptive way of engaging a savvy audience. By serving content that is both hyper-contextual and ultra-relevant, adverts no longer interrupt the customer experience - they enhance it.
This sentiment is echoed by Tom Jenen, head of marketplace engagement development at Google. He claims consumers appreciate when marketers acknowledge their current weather conditions: “People want an immersive experience (in advertising)… so you must make sure you are creating an experience they can really get into and something that speaks to them. Weather is so hyperlocal you can accomplish that. Weather is one of those things where you can show the usefulness of the product advertised. “Weather ads are relevant and helpful.”
