How These 4 Companies Killed It at Weather-Based Marketing

It doesn’t matter if you sell food or personal care products, delivery or digital marketing services, weather can affect every industry in different ways. Serving ads and delivering promotions that directly respond to a consumer’s local weather is a powerful form of marketing that establishes a deep sense of relevancy.

In fact, companies who adopt data-driven marketing are more likely to have an advantage over the competition and increase profitability. They are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year. Weather-triggered ad campaigns are lucrative. But don’t take my word for it. Here are four real-life case studies where a company took full advantage of the weather to astounding success:

Molson Coors

Molson decided to initiate a weather-targeted campaign that served mobile Facebook users. The campaign had two separate ad units. One was generic and the other was weather-specific creative. The ads were activated in real-time by cloud-cover and thermal triggers (anything above 23 degrees and sunny). As a result, the brand saw:

• Weather-specific ads vastly outperformed the generic ones.
• Users who clicked on the weather-specific ads were 89% more likely to click a link.
• The same users were 50% more likely to mention the brand page.
• People who clicked the weather-based ad were 33% more likely to comment vs. those with the generic ad.
• CPC rates on the ads that were weather-specific were 67% lower than the generic version.

La Redoute

Fashion retailer La Redoute took their weather-based marketing to the next level with an entire billboard that was responsive to both temperature and rainfall. The ads that were displayed directly corresponded to the weather outside. If it was cold, the model would be bundled up. If it was raining, she was holding an umbrella. The result of these preinstalled creatives included:

• A 17% increase in sales during the time the ad campaign was running.
• A 34% traffic uplift to their website, despite the campaign having been deployed via an offline channel.

Check out this incredible video to see it live in action:

Stella Artois

By mapping historical weather data with sales metrics for their apple cider beverage named Cidre, Stella noticed a pattern. A two-degree rise above a monthly norm in temperature triggered sales. Digital billboards were determined to be the most effective due to their proximity to stores.

The beverage company decided to run a cost-per-minute campaign that activated only when the temperature was right to induce purchase intent. The results were phenomenal. They saw:

• No wasted impressions. Since the ad only ran under certain conditions, cost efficiencies of up to 50% were achieved (vs. a standard OOH (out-of-home) purchase).
• A 6% increase in year-over-year sales for the time they ran their weather responsive campaign.
• The weather-based campaign generated over £15,000 in earned media value.

Bravissimo

The swimwear brand decided to follow in the footsteps of Stella and use historical weather data to analyze their consumer base. Using their sales data, they were able to determine that no matter the outdoor temperature, swimwear sales spiked when the sun was shining.

They decided to run a 3-month pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaign in the UK through Google AdWords using data from a live weather feed. It only appeared in areas experiencing sunny weather and the results were a great success, including:

• A 103% increase in the conversion rate from browsers to buyers.
• A 600% increase in PPC-driven sales revenues for their swimwear line during the 3-month campaign.

Weather is one of the primary determinants of consumer purchase behavior. Whether people are motivated to get outdoors or cozy up with their tablet, the opportunities are there regardless of the condition outside.

Social Industries is a service that can help you collect the social data you need to pair with weather data for campaigns that drive results. Everyday fluctuations can affect a wide range of industries but if your brand is smart, you can harness the power of the weather to initiative sales and increase your ROI. Tap into the weather-driven patterns of demand to legitimize communications, create authenticity, and deliver hyper-contextual messages that motivate people to buy.