The global economic impact of weather events is predicted to reach $5 trillion over the next five years. Despite Mother Nature’s volatility, the power of weather can be leveraged by brands to help drive business growth across an organization. For marketers, brands can harness weather to help meet objectives, reach audiences, and build brand loyalty. Faced with the impending post-cookie future, savvy brands are already tapping into the weather for a competitive edge.

At CES in January, The Weather Company first showcased its 2024 class of Rainmakers, forward-thinking brands who are using weather insights to better understand their audience’s needs, cultivate meaningful messaging and drive business growth.

“With the  amount of data and reliable forecasts we now have available, gone are the days when businesses could blame poor results on the weather. Rather, businesses should have a weather strategy to deliver future growth,” said Randi Stipes, chief marketing officer for The Weather Company. “Working with innovative brands who are open to digging in to understand the pervasive impact weather can have on their operations is energizing.”

Using data, AI and expertise from The Weather Company, below we highlight two of these Rainmaker brands who not only understand but also predict how consumers will feel, what they’ll try, and what they’ll buy.

CeraVe

Core insight: More than half of millennials, Gen Z and multicultural audiences change their personal care routine as the weather changes because their skin needs change.¹

The CeraVe team leveraged this seasonal connection to reach consumers while they were considering a change in their skincare routine as spring turned to summer. The #1 Dermatologist Recommended Skincare Brand in the U.S.² chose to reach audiences when their real-time local weather conditions were – or were forecasted to be – clear, warm, sunny, cloudy, or high UV. The campaign resulted in an improved sales lift, a return on ad spend that exceeded benchmarks, and a majority of incremental sales driven by new buyers.

Sanofi

Core insight: 61% of people use weather information to assess their flu risk.³

Recognizing the connection between weather and flu to help boost overall community health, Sanofi Flu leveraged a combination of real-time weather data, insurance claims and anonymized health info (down to the ZIP code) to reach at-risk audiences with proactive flu vaccine messages 14 days before flu risk spiked in their area. This led to a healthy 14% lift in familiarity across their target audience, as well as a 3x bump in intent to search for flu vaccines online.

CeraVe and Sanofi join this year’s honorees and the inaugural class of Rainmakers announced in 2023, which includes e.l.f. Cosmetics, STIHL, Toyota and McCormick.

With an abundance of weather data available, it’s critical now more than ever to seek out accurate, actionable data when it comes to insights that go into making important business decisions. The Weather Company is the world’s most accurate forecaster⁴ and the world’s leading weather provider.⁵

21 February 2024 (Geneva) – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is expanding the transmission of its Turbulence Aware data for use within industry-leading aviation solutions by The Weather Company, which serves a majority of North American commercial airlines and many others globally. With this enhancement, participating airlines will soon be able to access Eddy Dissipation Rate (EDR) turbulence data directly through Fusion™ and Pilotbrief® tools by The Weather Company. IATA Turbulence Aware will be enabled as an additional data layer within these tools, allowing pilots, dispatchers and flight planners to have needed turbulence observations integrated directly into their mission critical applications in one place rather than relying on multiple screens.

Turbulence can impact crew and passenger safety, route planning, arrival and departure times, customer satisfaction, equipment maintenance and more. Combining IATA Turbulence Aware observations with forecasts from The Weather Company, the world’s most accurate forecaster,¹ aims to better mitigate the impacts of weather and turbulence for contributing airlines globally.

Accessing real-time, accurate turbulence information enables pilots and dispatchers to choose optimal flight paths, avoid turbulence and fly at optimum levels to maximize fuel efficiency and thereby reduce CO2 emissions. IATA Turbulence Aware was launched in 2018 to help airlines mitigate the impact of turbulence, which is a leading cause of passenger and crew injuries and higher fuel costs each year. The platform pools anonymized EDR turbulence data from thousands of flights operated by participating airlines. EDR is the official ICAO and WMO atmospheric turbulence intensity metric.

“As weather grows more impactful due to a changing climate, it’s critical now more than ever for aviation leaders to incorporate accurate, real-time, globally scaled weather data and insights within decisions,” said Ravi Vanmali, Head of Aviation for The Weather Company. “Reliable weather data and forecasts, combined with human expertise, can help airlines and pilots plan around inclement weather and turbulence, improve crew and passenger safety, and mitigate impact to the bottom line.”

“It is our aim to make access to turbulence-related data as simple as possible. By collaborating with The Weather Company, IATA Turbulence Aware data will be available to pilots and dispatchers through existing flight deck and flight planning applications and tools, enhancing the decision-making process in turbulence mitigation and avoidance”, said Frederic Leger, IATA’s Senior Vice President Commercial Products & Services.

Managing turbulence is expected to remain challenging, as climate change continues to impact weather patterns. This has implications for both safety and efficiency of flight. Turbulence Aware provides a significant improvement in turbulence reporting and avoiding excess fuel consumption.

At present, 21 airlines participate in the IATA Turbulence Aware Platform with more than 2,000 aircraft providing data daily. In 2023, a total of over 380 million turbulence observations was generated. Thanks to the data provided by Turbulence Aware, over 700 million passengers* have enjoyed a safer and more comfortable travel experience.

– IATA –

Notes for Editors:

• IATA (International Air Transport Association) represents some 320 airlines comprising 83% of global air traffic.
• You can follow us at com/iata for announcements, policy positions, and other useful industry information.
• * based on the number of passengers carried by participating airlines from 2020 onwards based on IATA’s World Air Transport Statistics
• Fly Net Zero
• The Weather Company, Fusion and Pilotbrief are trademarks of The Weather Company, LLC.
• Learn more about The Weather Company aviation business: weathercompany.com/aviation.

Customizable Experience from The Weather Company Includes AI-derived Weather Insights to Help People Make More Confident Decisions about Weather’s Impact on their Well-being and Daily Routines  

Research¹ Reveals: 58% of People Surveyed Check the Weather More Than Once a Day; 67% Surveyed Report That Their Physical Health is Impacted by Weather, with Younger Segment (18-34) Seeing More Influence of Weather on Their Physical Health, Mood and Activities

ATLANTA (Feb. 5, 2024) – As weather around the world is growing more intense and having a significant impact on society, people may no longer be able to rely solely on seasonal norms to know when pollen season will start, to plan a fall trip, or make other decisions based on weather. Recognizing the profound influence of weather, The Weather Channel, the flagship consumer brand of The Weather Company, today introduces a new app experience that goes beyond the forecast to help translate how the weather impacts your daily life, activities, and physical and emotional well-being.

Ensuring people can stay ahead of and be prepared for disruptive weather conditions is critical, especially as extreme weather could cost the global economy $5 trillion over the next five years.² As the world’s most accurate forecaster,³ and most downloaded weather app,⁴ The Weather Channel has long been the source for reliable forecasts.

“Our mission has always been to help keep people safe and help them lead better lives. In our forty-year history, weather has never been more impactful and therefore never more important to consumers and businesses,” said Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company. “Our transformed app will set a new standard for what people can and should expect from their weather provider, whether it is getting ahead of a storm, planning a trip, understanding how air quality could affect your health, or simply deciding when to go for a hike. The work by our combined team of meteorologists, product leaders and engineers truly focuses on the needs of our hundreds of millions of monthly users around the globe.”

First and foremost, The Weather Channel app offers reliability. It combines 100 forecast models and then uses a proprietary mix of AI and human expertise to create the freshest, best possible forecast for any time and location requested, on demand. No other app comes close to the personalized weather forecast The Weather Channel app delivers, unique to you.

10 New App Features and Improvements to Help Plan Your Day and Live Well

In addition to a precise forecast, The Weather Channel app offers a stunning new look and simple user interface. At launch and in the coming weeks, this new experience will include new tools and features to help:

• Understand how weather may impact your well-being⁵ – Get content, forecasts, and tips tailored to several health conditions that can be impacted by weather. Sections focused on skin health, breathing, allergies, and cold & flu are available to help people prepare and mitigate their symptoms. Coming next will be sections on headaches, hydration & heat illness, and pet health, with even more to follow.
• Look ahead at what the air quality will be – The Weather Channel app now offers an air quality forecast in addition to current conditions. Air quality will now also factor into the new “Breathing Index” for a better look at how breathing may be affected based on air quality, pollen, smoke, heat, humidity and more.
• Weather insights, front and center – AI-derived weather explainers delivered at the top of the app aims to show users the important things they may need to know in that moment, such as “Cold temperatures will result in the risk of frozen pipes tonight,” “Conditions for breathing are poor today, partly due to high pollen levels,” or “Thunderstorms possible after 7pm.”
• Quickly know what weather to expect – A first look at the app offers dual tabs now with deeper insights and details. “Today” shows current conditions and “This Week” reveals the 15-day forecast. When severe U.S. weather threatens such as major winter storms, a tornado outbreak or hurricanes, a dynamic third tab will show up to provide critical detail. In moments of sunny weather, uplifting content such as pets or stories of people helping people aim to put a smile on your face.
• Make better plans based on your favorite activities – While people are quick to turn to their weather app when bad weather threatens, The Weather Channel app also helps people maximize plans when the weather is nice. Using algorithms that factor in how various weather conditions affect specific interests, a new Activities feature helps with planning outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, golf, tennis, running/walking, gardening, with more to be added to the app throughout the year.
• Translate what the weather means for you – Those who choose a more customized view can register and select what weather conditions are important to them (temperature, wind, humidity, precipitation, etc.) and topics of interest (health and well-being; travel; climate and environment; pets; etc.). As you interact more with this smart app, it can learn your preferences for a more tailored experience.
• Immerse yourself in the weather with advanced AR technology – Coming soon in a beta version, subscribers of The Weather Channel Premium app will be able to visit virtual environments and engage in immersive, interactive weather-related experiences with augmented reality (AR). The map-based, 3D view is designed to help subscribers better visualize how conditions like UV, pollen, or inclement weather could affect their current location.
• Go deeper with expert partner content – Expanded content is included from trusted brands like Healthline on the impact weather can have on people’s health and well-being and from Outside to help people plan their next outdoor adventure.
• Plan outdoor time and effects from the sun and moon – Going well beyond showing sunrise and sunset times, the “Sun” and “Moon” features will soon deliver the data people need to help maximize their daylight hours; learn about stargazing and celestial events; plan for high tides and more.
• Experience integrated advertising – Brands will have a portfolio of ad products that are underpinned by weather data and can flex with the changing conditions, to help build a more relevant experience for ad-supported users.

The new UI design is modern and intuitive, intended to delight users. It was built with newly written code and current state-of-the-art design patterns, tools and APIs. Especially critical during threats of severe weather, relevant and personal information shows up quickly to users in impacted locations to help them stay safe and informed. First available on both the free, ad-supported and premium version of The Weather Channel app for iOS, the modernization will extend next to Android and to weather.com on web and mobile web.

The Weather Channel is the world’s most downloaded weather app,³ one of America’s most trusted brands,⁶ the world’s leading weather provider,⁷ and the world’s most accurate forecaster.²

The new app experience is available for download now from Apple’s App Store, and coming next to Android in the Google Play Store. For more, visit weathercompany.com.

_{The Weather Company  
The Weather Company helps people and businesses around the world make more informed decisions and take action in the face of weather. With its deep industry expertise and highly accurate, high-volume weather data combined with advanced technology and AI, The Weather Company provides insights and solutions that harness the power of weather in a scalable, privacy-forward way. The world’s most accurate forecaster, the company serves hundreds of enterprise customers across media, advertising, aviation and more, and is trusted by hundreds of millions of monthly active users via digital properties from The Weather Channel (weather.com) and Weather Underground (wunderground.com). For more, visit weathercompany.com.}   

Upon close, The Weather Company to become standalone company, unlocking new growth potential.

ARMONK, N.Y. and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 22, 2023 — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses, today announced that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement under which Francisco Partners will acquire The Weather Company assets from IBM. Specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The assets being acquired by Francisco Partners include The Weather Company’s digital consumer-facing offerings, The Weather Channel mobile and cloud-based digital properties including Weather.com, Weather Underground and Storm Radar, as well as its enterprise offerings for broadcast, media, aviation, advertising technology and data solutions for other emerging industries. The Weather Company will also bring its forecasting science and technology platform to Francisco Partners.

The Weather Company provides highly accurate weather data to consumers and businesses and is among the top 10 most trusted brands in America¹. The Weather Company serves an average of more than 415 million people each month through its consumer-facing digital properties, including The Weather Channel mobile app and website, Weather Underground and Storm Radar, and more than 2,000 businesses across a variety of industries through its enterprise offerings.

IBM will retain its sustainability software business, including its Environmental Intelligence Suite (EIS) to help clients curate, measure, report and operationalize ESG data to inform decision making, improve performance and meet regulatory requirements. IBM intends to continue leveraging The Weather Company’s weather data for EIS, which spans various climate related use cases. EIS also uses a geospatial foundational AI model powered by NASA’s satellite dataset and offered as part of watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform. This model has a wide range of applications, including tracking changes in land use, monitoring natural disasters, and predicting crop yields.

Through increased investment and resources from Francisco Partners, The Weather Company will look to move beyond forecasting alone and bring new tools and experiences to users to help them understand how weather impacts all aspects of their lives, starting with health and well-being. For businesses, The Weather Company plans to offer more actionable insights so organizations can provide greater value to their customers. With its advertising platform, The Weather Company will continue to provide quality real-time experiences for the ad and subscription media industry, while complying with all consumer privacy laws and regulations.

“We’re proud of what The Weather Company team has accomplished with IBM, and we are confident that the best path forward is as a standalone company benefiting from Francisco Partners’ expanded investment, dedication and expertise. We’re excited to see the next phase of The Weather Company’s journey,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. “Over the last few years, we’ve evolved IBM to be a hybrid cloud and AI company. We regularly review our portfolio to make sure our business areas are core to that strategy, and today’s news reflects our continued focus on these two transformational technologies.”

Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in over 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and long-standing investors in the technology industry. Francisco Partners’ investments have focused on companies that provide the best possible products and service for its customers and partners. Francisco Partners also has extensive experience partnering with corporations to execute divisional carve-outs with transactions such as Dell Inc.’s Dell Software business and Discovery Inc.’s Discovery Education business.

Alan Ni, Partner at Francisco Partners said “Amid the growing volatility of weather, The Weather Company’s unique set of consumer, media, and industry-specific products provide mission critical, data-driven weather insights to individuals and businesses around the world. We are excited to partner with the management team to grow The Weather Company’s robust portfolio of technology offerings and deliver a great product experience for its customers.”

Mei Shi, Principal at Francisco Partners, added “We have a long and successful track record of executing divisional carve-out transactions and look forward to helping The Weather Company drive crucial focus in executing on organic and inorganic growth strategies.”

The transaction is expected to close by the end of Q1 2024 and is subject to regulatory approvals, completion of local labor processes and other customary closing conditions.

_{1 https://pro.morningconsult.com/analyst-reports/most-trusted-brands-2023}

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in over 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. With approximately $45 billion in capital raised to date, the firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

Press Contacts:
For Francisco Partners:
Whit Clay, 917-601-6012
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM

• The Weather Company was over 3 times more likely to be the most accurate forecaster than other weather providers studied.¹
• AI and advanced technology combined with human expertise helps enable more informed weather decisions.

NEW YORK and ATLANTA, May 15, 2023 — The Weather Company, which includes The Weather Channel digital properties, was determined to be “the overall most accurate provider globally” by ForecastWatch, a premier organization for evaluating the accuracy of weather forecasts. In fact, The Weather Company has been the world’s most accurate forecaster overall every year since the study began in 2017.²

Accuracy has become increasingly paramount as people and businesses continue to monitor weather forecasts to help them make decisions, especially amid the growing volatility of weather and a changing climate. In fact, a recent study validated that 91% of respondents cited accuracy among the top five leading criteria for why they select a weather provider.³

In its latest comprehensive report of forecast accuracy released today,² Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2022, commissioned by The Weather Company and IBM, ForecastWatch named The Weather Company as the weather forecast provider whose forecasts were more likely to be the most accurate across all geographic regions studied and time periods covered. Further, the report data showed that the accuracy gap between The Weather Company (noted as The Weather Channel in the report) and the next best overall provider has grown larger since the study began, from 2 times in 2017 to over 3 times more likely in 2022 to be the most accurate forecaster, even with the addition of more weather providers studied.¹

“We’re seeing more companies jump into the business of weather forecasting as weather becomes more erratic and impactful. Despite increased competition, this report validates our continued innovation and leadership in weather accuracy,” said Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company. “Our unique mix of ‘human and machine’ – advanced AI and technology plus human expertise – has helped us vastly outpace the field as we help people and customers make informed decisions based on insights from a recognized, trusted source.”

About the Report
The report is a comprehensive weather forecast accuracy study spanning six years, 2,182 global locations across eight regions of the world, and 84 different accuracy metrics covering precipitation, temperature, cloud cover, wind and other forecast variables. ForecastWatch analyzed about 250 million forecasts from 23 different weather providers. Each provider was noted each time it finished in first place for each metric, and according to the report, The Weather Channel recorded the most first-place finishes globally for every year studied and all forecast days of all the providers compared.

Major highlights and findings of the report include:

• The Weather Company is the world’s most accurate weather forecaster overall of the providers studied.²
• The Weather Company was over 3 times more likely to be the most accurate forecaster than any other provider studied.¹
• The accuracy gap between The Weather Company and the next best overall provider has grown larger since the study began, from 2 times more likely in 2017 to over 3 times more likely in 2022 to be the most accurate forecaster than any other weather provider studied.¹
• The Weather Company was the most accurate forecast provider most often in each region compared, including the U.S., Canada, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific.⁴
• The report states: “The Weather Channel had more first place finishes in the wind metric alone than any provider had globally for all metrics combined.”

Industry-Leading Accuracy Built on Science, AI, and Tech
The report is evidence of how The Weather Company is helping advance the science of weather forecasting through continued innovations, including in AI and cloud computing. Artificial intelligence is a critical tool for meteorologists to make sense of billions of unstructured weather data points produced by satellites, ground sensors, radars, and more. With advanced machine learning algorithms and computing power from IBM, meteorologists at The Weather Company can use this data to simulate atmospheric conditions and better forecast the weather.

Continued investment and innovation at The Weather Company have allowed its team of meteorologists and experts to develop technologies that have helped keep it ahead in overall accuracy, such as:

• A forecasting engine that uses AI to integrate input from nearly 100 forecast models around the world, weighing factors from each model based on geography, time, weather type and recent forecast accuracy, on demand.
• A significant breakthrough in global weather forecasting with its proprietary GRAF (Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting) system, the first hourly-updating global weather model able to predict something as small as a thunderstorm.
• A unique collaboration of human and machine – proprietary technology called “human over the loop” forecasting that brings AI together with an expert team of nearly 100 meteorologists. The process helps customers get an on-demand forecast based on fresh information and human expertise.
• Global radar leadership thanks to one of the world’s largest assimilations of weather radar data and technologies such as AI to use that data effectively.
• On-demand assessment of both current and forecast weather conditions from proprietary technology at The Weather Company.

Forecast Accuracy Helps Inform Businesses, People and Marketers
The accuracy of forecasts within The Weather Company’s products is critical not only for keeping consumers informed, but also for delivering AI-based insights and decision capabilities across industries. Leveraging weather signals and insights helps businesses, marketers and customers prepare for and respond to weather.

The Weather Company forecasts are distributed across The Weather Channel app and weather.com, Weather Underground app and wunderground.com, as well as weather products for enterprise clients.

The Weather Company is the world’s leading weather provider⁵ and powers the weather forecasts on over 2 billion devices.⁶ The Weather Channel is the world’s most downloaded weather app⁷ and one of America’s most trusted brands.⁸

_{1 The Weather Channel global percent of top rankings averaged over all forecast lead days (1-9) during 2022 was over 3 times higher than any other weather provider studied. Derived by The Weather Company using data from: ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2022, https://forecastwatch.com/AccuracyOverview2017-2022, commissioned by The Weather Company and IBM.
2 ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2022, https://forecastwatch.com/AccuracyOverview2017-2022, commissioned by The Weather Company and IBM.
3 According to a third-party global management consulting firm study, Q1 2023, commissioned by IBM.
4 The Weather Channel had the highest percentage of first-place finishes over the study period and averaged over all forecast lead days (1-9) in each region studied, according to ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2022, https://forecastwatch.com/AccuracyOverview2017-2022, commissioned by The Weather Company and IBM.
5 According to Comscore, The Weather Company was the largest provider of weather forecasts worldwide (web and app) in 2022 based on the average of the total monthly unique visitors. Comscore Media Metrix®, Worldwide Rollup Media Trend, News/Information – Weather category incl. The [P] Weather Company, The, Jan-Dec. 2022 avg.
6 Based on The Weather Company review of third-party market analyses of worldwide consumer device data for 2022.
7 According to data.ai Intelligence, The Weather Channel has been the world’s most-downloaded weather app across Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store beginning on July 4, 2010 and into 2023.
8 According to Morning Consult, June 2022: https://morningconsult.com/most-trusted-brands/ The Weather Channel brand is named #8 most trusted brand for the US. The surveys were conducted from 3/3/2022 through 4/14/2022, among a nationally representative sample of 2,200 U.S. adults and over 4,000 brands.}

PRESS CONTACT:
Melissa Medori, The Weather Company, [email protected]

• Max Velocity Built on Max Cloud Allows for the Creation of Weather and News Video Stories from Anywhere
• Launching in June, Max Alert Live Will Keep Audiences Informed Through On-Air Notification of Disruptive Weather Events

ANDOVER, Mass., and ATLANTA, April 25, 2022 — The latest innovations to the Max Platform, Max Velocity and Max Alert Live, are being unveiled by IBM (NYSE: IBM) and its subsidiary The Weather Company in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas.

Like it did over a decade ago with its first real-time weather graphics rendering system, The Weather Company aims to transform the broadcast industry with Max Velocity, a new browser-based video storytelling tool designed to allow media clients to create high-quality digital content quickly and easily from any environment for publishing across platforms. The new tool, available now, helps accelerate storytelling, combining template-based video creation with weather data, interactive mapping and streamlined person-to-person interviews. The browser-based technology allows users to publish the videos from a remote live shot, the studio, or while working from home – anywhere with an internet connection. It is built on top of Max Cloud, a modern, hybrid cloud platform designed to help broadcasters collaborate at scale and increase their content output.

“Our customers want to work from different environments and leveraging cloud-based workflows can help make that possible with Max Velocity. It addresses today’s evolving needs of the media industry to report from any location utilizing high-quality weather graphics expected by audiences, while keeping their infrastructure and assets protected,” said Joe Fiveash, vice president of strategy and media solutions, The Weather Company. “We have the experience, investment and expertise to provide powerful tools at scale. Station groups can use this type of innovation to help realize operational efficiencies, as well as create more content that can potentially be used to help generate advertising revenue.”

The availability of Max Velocity on the secured and highly available Max Cloud helps drive increased collaboration among station groups and deliver disaster recovery at scale. Max Velocity is engineered to enable broadcasters to:

• Expand and improve storytelling capabilities – Max Velocity’s easy-to-use interface allows team members, or even a sponsor, to create videos quickly whenever and wherever they choose without needing specialized skills or professional hardware.
• Publish from anywhere – Stories can be told from a browser-based device (i.e., laptop, tablet or mobile phone) while at a local school or even at the county fair – anywhere with an internet connection. To add interviews or outside perspective, external experts using a tablet or mobile device can also be brought into the story from remote locations with the click of a button.
• Optimize resources and teamwork – Using Max Velocity, station resources, whether in the same city or across the country, can help produce weather content when needed, especially during severe weather events.
• Potentially drive digital revenue – Creation of video content using Max Velocity can potentially be used to generate advertising opportunities across digital and broadcast platforms. The integrated remote interview component allows for quick and easy production of native advertising content.
• Educate viewers with climate change content – Thanks to a new collaboration with Climate Central, a nonprofit news organization that shares independent climate-related content by its scientists and science reporters, Max Velocity provides quick access to engaging content to help tell deeper climate and weather stories.

In late June, Max Alert Live, the newest component of the alerting platform, will debut to help keep audiences informed and safe by notifying them of disruptive weather events. The solution will utilize the familiar Max user interface and cloud-based technology, so alerts can be managed from anywhere with an internet connection. Once available, broadcasters will be able to match their current on-air look with modern graphics that dynamically adapt to the changing weather to convey the urgency of the emerging threat. By directly integrating data from the National Weather Service (NWS), Max Alert Live will have the ability to automatically trigger messages that scroll across the bottom of the screen when predetermined weather alerts are issued by the NWS.

“Max Alert Live will allow stations to manage National Weather Service watches and warnings from anywhere with an internet connection, helping provide viewers with quick and engaging severe weather notifications,” noted Bill Dow, head of media solutions, The Weather Company. “Messaging can be placed anywhere on screen and set to display automatically or manually depending on severity level. Since Max Alert is leveraging Max graphics technology, weather crawls and alerts can match the look and branding of the station’s main weathercast.”

To see a demo of Max Velocity, Max Alert Live, and the rest of the industry-leading Max suite, visit The Weather Company booth #N4325 at NAB 2022.

Learn more about Max Velocity and Max Alert Live.

Across the digital web, consumer expectations for the brands they interact with seem to be intensifying.  Now more than ever, users may expect the companies they interact with to know and anticipate their needs.

However, meeting these expectations can be challenging because it requires combining data from multiple sources to get a clearer picture of each individual customer and act on those real-time insights to deliver a truly connected experience.

Today, at the annual Adobe Summit, IBM announced a significant expansion to their partnership with Adobe, around the use of artificial intelligence-powered weather data from The Weather Company, an IBM Business, on the Adobe Experience Platform. Adobe plans to also leverage Weather Channel data as part of its Digital Economy Index, exploring how weather patterns affect online spending and other trends in e-commerce.   These expanded solutions are expected to be generally available later this year.

IBM is designing a new solution to enable customers of Adobe Experience Platform, the foundation of Adobe Experience Cloud applications, with the ability to derive new AI-driven insights on how weather could affect consumer purchasing habits across different categories such as retail, healthcare, travel and hospitality, and consumer packaged goods. Brands could be able to gain an understanding of how customer behaviors may shift in response to forecasted weather changes, with deep insights to help them deliver the right experiences, to the right audiences, at the right moment.

“Weather data is a proven predictor of consumer behavior, and by further expanding our relationship with Adobe, The Weather Company is providing Adobe Experience Platform customers more insights to help them create individualized experiences for every consumer,” said Sheri Bachstein, Chief Executive Officer at The Weather Company. “IBM and Adobe have enjoyed a strong, strategic partnership for more than 20 years and this latest announcement only reinforces the vision both businesses share for improving the customer experience.”

By building on IBM’s partnership with Adobe, customers on Experience Platform, later this year, are expected to be able to leverage weather data from the world’s most accurate weather forecaster overall,¹  to build richer and distinct customer segments to help drive personalized offers and support cross-channel growth.

“By expanding our partnership with IBM, Adobe can empower our customers to unlock new personalization opportunities and drive business growth,” said Justin Merickel, Vice President of Business Development, Adobe Experience Cloud. “Weather data is a natural complement to Adobe Experience Platform, which our customers rely on to have a comprehensive view of customer journeys and trigger relevant, engaging experiences across channels.”

Commenting on the potential value of bringing weather data into the customer experience, Chris Luna, Senior Global Media Manager at 3M, an existing IBM and Adobe customer said, “The powerful combination of AI-driven weather data and insights, from IBM, with Adobe’s open system for building and managing solutions that drive the customer experience, the Adobe Experience Platform, have the potential to help provide brands with a broad approach to their marketing strategies. As third-party identifiers and traditional forms of targeting are phased out via impending legislation and consumer privacy regulations, brand marketers will need to leverage alternative datasets and solutions to ensure their customers are receiving an enjoyable, web-based experience.”

To support this offering, IBM iX, the customer and experience transformation group of IBM Consulting, will expand its Adobe services and add to the Adobe Experience Platform user experience.

Together, Adobe and IBM iX offer strategy, industry expertise, technology and processes to guide clients through experience-led business transformations. As part of its Adobe practice, IBM iX continues to bolster its consulting and implementation capabilities across Adobe Document Cloud, Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Workfront solutions, helping clients evolve marketing, sales, and service capabilities across the customer lifecycle.

This is just the latest example of how IBM is creating solutions with ecosystem partners to help clients modernize their infrastructure and address their hybrid cloud needs. IBM has committed to a $1 billion investment in its partner ecosystem.

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

_{(1) ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2020, https://www.forecastwatch.com/AccuracyOverview2017-2020, commissioned by IBM.}

Previously, The Weather Company, UCAR, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research collaborated to develop a groundbreaking weather forecasting model that launched in 2019. GRAF is a supercomputer-driven weather forecasting system that provides high quality forecasts globally, reaching many parts of the world that did not have that access before, nor as frequently.

We believe open collaboration among governments, businesses, and researchers is critical for advancing our collective understanding of forecasting science, severe weather and climate change, in addition to developing tools that allow our society to prepare for and respond to these challenges. The Weather Company, as part of IBM, will continue working toward establishing these relationships and encouraging collaboration across the forecasting industry.

IBM and The Weather Company have built strong relationships in research and academia, also working with The University of Oklahoma in its establishment of a new U.S. National Science Foundation-funded AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate and Coastal Oceanography. The AI Institute is deploying artificial intelligence at scale to analyze the immense amounts of data from satellite systems, ground observations, numerical weather models, and even mobile phones around the world.

With its digital weather brands, The Weather Company has established itself as a trusted resource for consumers as well, powering the weather for technology giants like Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Samsung to share its forecasts with over two billion devices around the globe. In fact, its consumer brand, The Weather Channel, is one of America’s top-5 most trusted brands.²

The most recent, record-breaking hurricane season of 2020 underscores the immense scale of The Weather Company’s weather operations. In the month of August, coinciding with coverage of Hurricane Laura, the consumer brands sent 500 million breaking news alerts, welcomed 54 million daily visitors, and delivered 189 million video views.

IBM strives to continually apply science and technology to help solve the world’s toughest problems. IBM embodies the idea of putting smart to work and is using advanced technology, including blockchain, AI, machine learning, and analytics, to make a positive impact on the world.

Likewise, The Weather Company aims to help people make informed decisions and take action in the face of weather. We offer accurate, personalized, and actionable weather data and insights to millions of consumers, as well as thousands of marketers and businesses via Weather’s API, its business solutions division, and its own digital products from The Weather Channel (weather.com) and Weather Underground (wunderground.com).

_{1  An extension to the memorandum of understanding was signed September 28, 2020.
2 According to a Morning Consult May 2023 survey: https://pro.morningconsult.com/analyst-reports/most-trusted-brands-2023 The Weather Channel brand was the #9 most trusted brand in the US. The surveys were conducted from 3/3/2023 through 4/3/2023, among a nationally representative sample of 799 to 8,434 U.S. adults.}

Last week saw a big day at The Weather Company. The team kicked off the very last run of the RPM model, bringing an end to one of the most successful and impactful weather technologies and products from The Weather Company, nee WSI.