Editor’s note: In March 2024, we conducted a Severe Weather Consumer Behavior Survey of The Weather Channel app users. Here are our data-rich findings and valuable insights for marketers.

Hurricane season is right around the corner and the forecast calls for one of the most active on record, with almost double the amount of named storms. It’s hard to ignore the increasing severity and volatility of weather. In fact, 63% of people surveyed believe weather is becoming more severe or unpredictable. And while more devastation is likely to come, a staggering 9 out of 10 of respondents have already personally felt the effects of severe weather in the past two years. 

So, how do we prepare for, or–more importantly–recover from, the seemingly inevitable impact of extreme weather events? 

We don’t have to go it alone and–the good news for marketers–consumers don’t want to. People turn to brands, products, and services they trust the most ahead of, during, and after severe weather events. Which gives marketers across retail, CPG, energy, health, insurance, travel, and more, an invitation to show up with empathy, authenticity, and support when it matters most.

The far-reaching effects of severe weather

The impact of severe weather is sweeping, significantly touching many aspects of people’s lives. Where does your brand see itself in this picture?

Physical surroundings

Starting with perhaps the most obvious impact, severe weather can wreak havoc on the physical things in our lives. In fact, 80% of people report facing physical challenges of some kind when it comes to severe weather, notably the safety of their home, loss of gas or heat, and diminished air quality.

Mental health

The toll on mental health due to severe weather is also very real. The fear of being in harm’s way, experiencing property damage, or having a disruption in plans or routines can be incredibly stressful, with 40% of those surveyed reporting heightened anxiety. This increased stress affects all generations, especially younger ones.

Decision-making

Severe weather influences obvious things like travel plans. But it can also come into play when choosing a vehicle to drive or exploring home energy options. The data speaks for itself–84% of people admit weather plays a role in their decision-making process. Particularly striking is the number considering relocation due to severe weather events: 1 in 4 have considered, or would consider, moving because of severe weather events.

Preparing for severe weather 

We have entered an era where severe weather can happen pretty much anytime and anywhere. We don’t have to look too far in the rear view to recall the raging Canadian wildfires, uncharacteristic twisters in the upper midwest, and Los Angeles blizzard warnings. Our respondents also reported an increase in both the number of severe weather events and unusual activity for their location/season. This means seasonal preparedness is an always-on activity, with consumers seeking trusted guidance and solutions year round.

Staying informed  

As a result, checking the weather has become second nature: 99% check the weather more often when severe weather is forecasted, up 18% since 2021. For most, it’s to ensure safety for themselves, friends and family, while others are simply interested in the science of severe weather phenomena.

When it comes to critical safety and preparedness information, people rely on weather websites and apps above all other media sources, including government alerts: 

• 88% rely on weather websites or apps the most, vs other media sources (#1 response).
• The Weather Channel is the leading weather provider, with 90% of respondents indicating they rely on the Weather Channel for accurate severe weather information (#1 response). 

Stocking up and charging up

We’ve all been there, faced with rapidly emptying shelves of supplies and essentials as severe weather approaches. Meanwhile, the ultra-prepared plan ahead with fully-stocked emergency kits of non-perishables, flashlights, batteries, and first aid. Whether proactive or reactive, the most common preparation behaviors reported range from stocking up on supplies like groceries, medication, and air purifiers; preparing back-up energy sources; and securing a home, yard, or car. 

Brands can authentically help customers weather the storm

It’s a sensitive topic, for sure. Brands may feel uncertain about how to engage when people are in some of their most anxiety-filled, vulnerable moments. When actually, they’re expected to intervene and provide assistance, whether it’s offering preparedness tips or essential supplies like medication, power and groceries. Not to mention, 94% also expect brands to step up to help communities affected by severe weather events.

TruFuel’s full-funnel lift and engagement

TruFuel, a maker of pre-packaged precision-engineered, outdoor equipment fuel harnessed the power of a weather-driven strategy in 2023. Tapping into their authentic desire to help consumers be prepared for severe weather conditions and outcomes, TruFuel dynamically aligned messaging with real-time, local weather conditions. 

Activated across The Weather Channel properties and digital ecosystem through Adform, this targeted, contextual messaging helped highlight the importance of  keeping generators, chainsaws, snowblowers, and other equipment ready for when severe weather strikes. And, also resulted in benefits for the brand, including:

• 5% lift in aided awareness
• 7% lift in favorability and purchase intent
• 8% lift in familiarity

Secure your weather strategy

Brands can play a crucial role–and earn priceless brand trust in the process–by providing resources and support to address the physical, emotional, and lifestyle concerns caused by severe weather. With a portfolio of advertising solutions, we can help you deliver the right, empathetic message, in the right place, at the right time:

• Leverage Weather Targeting to integrate your preparedness message across the digital ecosystem 
• Align your brand with seasonal and severe preparedness content on The Weather Channel to help consumers stay safe and informed 
• Drive awareness with exclusive, native CTV content integration in the LG home screen when there is an active National Weather Service (NWS) alert in the viewers’ local area

Severe weather is a reality we can’t ignore. But with it comes the chance for brands to help consumers navigate this reality, with preparedness before, support during, and resilience after the storm. Will your brand be there when consumers need you most?

Since waiting for Google to deprecate the third-party cookie feels a bit like waiting for a watched pot of water to boil, visionary marketers are already capitalizing on the renaissance of contextual advertising to supercharge their strategies.

But let’s start with some…  context.

Since 1994, third-party cookies have used basic technology to fuel just as basic personalization, but they lacked the dimension that allowed marketers to achieve precision and deep connection. As technology has advanced, consumers are increasingly wary of the overuse of data to make up for the limits of cookies:

• Almost half (46%) of consumers worldwide think promotions based on their activity within 2 minutes of visiting a website or app is “creepy,” according to a Marigold and Econsultancy survey. 
• A poll of social media users by social justice organization Global Witness and YouGov found that 57% of people said, “I don’t want my personal data being used to target me with any ads, either commercial or political.” 

Now, marketers are excited to re-focus their data strategies toward a more privacy-friendly and human-first approach. 

One strategy that’s very much a part of that future ecosystem is the legacy solution of contextual targeting, given its ability to personalize relevant media messages without cookies. But to truly be innovative, we need to broaden the definition of contextual targeting’s capabilities and how effective it can be. 

Contextual targeting in 2024 has the potential to be so much more visionary than activating media tied to simply a few words on a page. It’s emotional, it’s environmental, it’s personal–not to mention, it’s effective.

When contextual targeting is used to its full capacity, it supercharges smarter advertising decisions, influencing and reflecting media consumption according to a person’s physical environment and emotional state. 

But how exactly can marketers use data to better connect to a person’s state of mind? And even more, how do they reach people in real-time when they are making those emotionally-driven decisions? Enter weather data.

Weather data is the ultimate contextual accelerant

Weather is a hyper-local signal that influences every aspect and decision—consciously or not—of people’s lives. It influences how we feel, what we do, where we go, and what we buy. 

Advertisers have long used weather data to target specific products based on changing conditions. Think of a coffee brand switching beverage messages from warm to cold as the seasons change, or a cruise line showcasing images of warm locales in the depths of winter. Think of yourself lounging poolside with the sun shining  based on the weather forecast–sounds nice, right?

While all great, effective, and somewhat obvious use cases, weather data presents a more nuanced and much deeper understanding of the consumer with a holistic, multilayered view that goes far beyond surface-level transactions. With The Weather Company’s Weather Targeting suite of signals, brands are tapping into a much more inspired set of data and use cases that are richer and more privacy-friendly cookie alternatives.

Here’s why:

1. Contextual weather data enables rigorous privacy and ethical standards while still achieving scalable precision. The unique combination of proprietary and NVIDIA AI-based technologies along with deep expertise from over 100 meteorologists allow us to deliver the most accurate and trusted weather data. That combination is one of the reasons that ForecastWatch, the only globally recognized measure of forecast accuracy, named us The Most Accurate Forecaster¹, 3 times more likely to deliver an accurate forecast than our closest competitor. In addition, our consumer brand, The Weather Channel, was named a Top 10 Most Trusted brand.² 
2. Weather data presents a more nuanced and deeper understanding of the consumer. That’s because weather information not only reaches people during specific conditions, but also when they’re in the right mindset; often when they are motivated to do something. Consider the national department store that recently tapped into weather signals to predict when consumers needed retail therapy (due to lousy weather), or when they were feeling optimistic and eager to spend (sunny, bright skies brightened the “outlook,” in more ways than one). That retailer saw a 26% incremental jump in foot traffic by tapping into those signals.
3. Weather data can help drive timely demand. With a personalized message at the right time, precise weather insights motivate behavior and drive action–within seconds of the message being seen. For example, a travel bureau recently activated messaging to consumers in snowy climates with invitations to warm escapes, generating a 57% surge in time spent on the bureau’s site when those blustery conditions made them crave being anywhere else.
4. Weather information can predict utility, ultimately increasing brand preference. TruFuel, a premixed fuel product that powers outdoor equipment, leveraged the connection between weather and power equipment to engage people ahead of severe weather in their area. Knowing that 54% of people look to brands for tips and solutions around electricity and/or portable power solutions during inclement weather, TruFuel activated contextually relevant creative. The intelligent creative aligned generator messaging with a person’s real-time weather conditions, resulting in a CTR 8 times higher and a 7% lift in purchase intent. 

With the right signals, contextual targeting is evolving into a dynamic and lasting solution for performant media strategies. Brands, like the ones above, are able to achieve holistic relevance that drives action, all while respecting the privacy of their customers. 

As the advertising industry nears the end of one era and the beginning of another, the call for strategic and innovative signals like weather data is at an all-time high, and the opportunity is ripe for marketers to be first movers in setting the tone.

Sunny skies ahead, indeed.

Sunrise to sunrise, weather influences our lives every day. For some, the weather determines if they can work outside or the best time to go for a run. For others, the weather affects how they manage their seasonal affective disorder or when to stock up on allergy medication. Checking the weather forecast isn’t just a daily habit, it’s a life habit.

As the world’s most accurate forecaster overall,¹ we have a front-row seat to how changing weather is impacting consumers’ lives. Tornado alley has widened², allergy “season” is longer³, and daily high-temperature records continue to be broken⁴. In fact, did you know that 2023 was the earth’s warmest year on record?⁵ As a result, consumer needs are changing and the utility of weather in our lives needs to reflect these realities. We knew we must provide more to our 360 million+ average global monthly users.⁶

A tool for more than just every day—but every lifestyle

Together, with input from our audience, we set out to reimagine a weather experience that better anticipates users’ needs and delivers personalized insights in the moments that matter—from informing consumers about conditions that can affect breathing in their area to how to maximize time outdoors. Our ambition? To create a seamless, intuitive user experience, getting people what they need quickly within a modernized design that is as inspiring as it is functional.

We re-examined the tone of our experience as well. More than 80% of  surveyed respondents reported they agreed that weather influences their moods and emotions, and 67% noted that weather impacts their physical health.⁷ While we will always prioritize safety during severe weather moments, we felt compelled to surface moments of good as well. Not only telling customers that it’s going to rain, but also when their next sunny day is. We wanted to offer more of a balance between critical severe weather information and insights into how weather can impact their passion points like wellness, travel, pets, gardening and more. Ultimately giving people information to help them live smarter and happier lives.

This approach created a distinct challenge—in which we needed to personalize an individual’s unique, hyperlocal interests and must-haves, while simultaneously being a trusted resource for more than 45 million daily visitors who visit our digital properties, on average⁸. Especially for our mobile app audience who visits an average of 28 times a month⁹. Solving this issue wouldn’t be possible without our combination of data with AI technology to quickly determine the most impactful information.

Basic weather data continues to proliferate. Thanks to the increased accessibility of AI, we’re seeing more businesses enter the weather sector. But not all weather providers are created equal—that’s where The Weather Company’s decades of meteorological expertise, deep understanding of consumer behavior, and data-science proficiency in uncovering insights pay off. In a world where seasonal norms are being upended and many consumers prioritizing their wellness¹⁰, accuracy and trust have never mattered more.

The intersection of consumer and marketer needs

Weather isn’t the only changing element. We’re all experiencing the unique transformation underway in marketing and media, one that aims to consider consumers’ privacy—a shift I applaud. Weather, as a digital consumer experience and data signal, provides marketers with contextual, timely and privacy-forward data that is necessary to navigate this new advertising paradigm.

While reimagining our consumer weather experience, we thought hard about the unique intersection we occupy between consumers and marketers. This app creates spaces for more storytelling freedom, a canvas that enables marketers to align their stories with the unique, weather-related needs of millions of consumers.

We focused on elevating and modernizing our advertising integrations that contextualize a brand’s message to specific consumer needs. Whether it’s capturing the first impression of the day as users are in a planning mindset with our Integrated Marquee or creating a deeper connection through wellness experiences like our Allergy Forecast, every integration is built from a consumer-first perspective.

Welcome to The Weather Channel’s fully reengineered flagship app

As we all look to the future, cookieless targeting solutions will only increase in importance. Given the reach and frequency of The Weather Channel digital properties, and its recognition as one of America’s most trusted brands,¹¹ our suite of data-targeting solutions is designed to help mitigate the risk many brands are up against. From a robust weather-targeting suite to contextual signals like health or travel and first-party audiences like pet owners, parents and new homeowners, our goal is to help marketers succeed in the short-term and long-term.

We can’t escape the changing atmosphere of our earth or our industry. Keeping pace with the weather means keeping pace with consumer needs at any given moment. The relaunch of The Weather Channel app is the first evolution of an engaging experience that can empower people to thrive amidst increasingly volatile weather, and propels brands to succeed within a shifting advertising landscape.

We welcome you to experience the next chapter of weather with us and enjoy the next sunny day to its fullest. Download the new app for iOS in the Apple App Store and Android later this year.

It’s Dynamic. Bold. Personal. I’d love to hear if you feel the same.

To learn more, visit our press release.

Why care?

Advertising has the power to shape society and drive our economy. Industries with far less influence and reach than ours are being held to a higher standard when it comes to addressing bias at the core. It’s time for the advertising industry to hold itself accountable.

We’ve made significant improvements to eliminate deep-seated prejudice and inequality. The creative we see today, for example, is far more balanced and representative of all consumers versus the chosen few that were historically featured.

However, the same level of effort has not been applied to the advertising technology that enables connections between brands and consumers.

As we reinvent the advertising technology infrastructure with consumer trust at the center, we must build a system that addresses bias in the technology that powers the entire marketing industry. It’s a business imperative and it’s the right thing to do.

Bias in advertising technology

In the summer of 2021, The Weather Company announced a research initiative using Artificial Intelligence to gauge the prevalence of unwanted bias in digital advertising and explore how to reduce it. We proved our hypothesis right: bias exists in advertising technology, and AI can help identify and mitigate it.

After sharing our initial research findings in January 2022, we began to enhance tools, data and AI models to create powerful open-source technologies that can help automate bias mitigation in advertising.

Take action

We are on an industry-wide mission to get brands, agencies, industry associations and ad tech providers to join us and to commit to addressing bias in advertising so that we can create a fairer, more equitable industry – together. Here’s how you can take action:

As the pace of digital transformation continually quickens, all industries are challenged to keep up. Advertising is no exception. As advertising becomes increasingly digital, businesses need to find new advertising techniques and strategies that set them apart from their competitors. Current technologies offer advanced techniques that can give savvy firms the advantage.

What is an advertising strategy?

An advertising strategy is a comprehensive marketing plan for how your team will place your product or service in front of consumers and persuade them to buy. To make an advertising strategy effective, thorough research is required. This process includes having a deep understanding of the products or services you offer, your target audience, your competitors, and what your unique selling proposition (USP) is.

How to develop an advertising strategy

Although every organization has a slightly different advertising strategy with its own unique goals, there are some main components that should always be considered in development such as:

1. Determining the target audience
2. Setting key performance indicators (KPIs)
3. Determining the steps needed to reach those KPIs
4. Executing steps and strategies
5. Testing new strategies, messaging, techniques or technology
6. Measuring results
7. Repeating or revising strategies based on learnings

5 cutting-edge advertising techniques

Developing an effective strategy requires an innate understanding of the advertising techniques that are shaping the industry today. Here are five cutting-edge techniques and strategies to consider for your next campaign.

1. Improve decisions at scale through AI advertising

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the advertising industry and 52% of survey respondents¹ say that AI will play a critical or very important role in their jobs over the next twelve months. Therefore, advertisers who are looking to boost their strategy would be wise to realize the benefit of AI in analyzing vast amounts of data to optimize campaigns and drive more impact.

Despite the massive amount of information available to advertisers, 64% struggle to measure KPIs accurately. With the loss of cookies and the increased pressure for privacy, it can be harder than ever to deliver relevant ads to the right people. AI can use contextual signals based on the content, weather and location to help advertisers make better decisions in terms of ad placements and creative.

AI advertising can help marketers and advertisers across a wide range of disciplines, including analytics, targeting, and personalization. Different forms of AI Advertising may include cognitive advertising, conversational marketing, and programmatic advertising. With AI, the possibilities are endless, and when used to make decisions in advertising strategy, can greatly help to scale efforts and improve ROI.

2. Interact with consumers through conversational marketing

A top use case for marketers looking to implement AI is providing highly targeted content to users in real-time. With the challenges that data deprecation brings, marketers are concerned about loss of consumer trust in marketing tactics, and loss of ad delivery precision.

However, conversational marketing can deliver hyper-personalized experiences, without the use of cookies or being intrusive. Conversational marketing is a method that engages consumers in dialogue-driven, interactive advertising experiences at a one-to-one level. It is a great way to interact with consumers in real-time while gaining unique customer insights that you can use in the future to better target your audience.

3. Achieve personalization through predictive targeting

Personalization is becoming increasingly important to consumers and marketers alike. Ninety-nine percent of marketers surveyed by Evergage agree that personalization has some sort of impact on the customer relationship and 78% agree that it has a strong or extremely strong impact.²

With personalization becoming increasingly necessary, marketers will need to think strategically about how they deliver on personalized experiences and stand out from competitors. Some constraints may include ever-changing privacy regulations and a loss of cookie targeting. One way to provide personalized experiences without cookies is through predictive analytics and targeting. A predictive advertising tool works by using the latest in AI technology to analyze relevant data and score users based on the probability of taking a particular action.

Predictive analytics can help anticipate consumer needs, enabling advertisers to save time and money by targeting the right audience the first time and putting ads in front of people who are likely to be interested.

4. Mitigate bias in advertising campaigns

Bias impacts nearly every decision we make, and in most cases this bias is unconscious. Positive or negative, these biases can become ingrained into the tools advertisers use, causing certain groups to become overlooked during campaigns.

Although CMOs and advertising executives strive to remain objective in their campaigns, bias can creep into the data being used and the algorithms deployed. However, AI and machine learning can also be leveraged to identify these advertising biases.

Our AI tools can discover subgroups that are being advantaged or disadvantaged during campaigns, so companies can take proactive steps in mitigating these stereotypes. Through The Weather Company, organizations can better scan for unconscious biases, so brands can more fairly target consumers across their entire advertising ecosystem.

5. Leverage weather targeting and weather-based ads

Also known as weather-triggered advertising, this AI-powered approach combines the power of weather’s ability to drive emotion and action with complex data sets like health conditions, product sales, and consumer activity, into an actionable solution that drives sales.

One way advertisers can see weather’s power to elicit emotions and affect buying behaviors is when you compare the response of an individual on a rainy day versus a sunny day. On a cloudy, rainy day, consumers may spend the day indoors, leading to increased foot traffic or online sales. If they venture outside, they may realize they need to buy an umbrella or rain boots. On the other hand, if it’s sunny, consumers may be more inclined to buy sunscreen or ice cream.

It’s also important to consider where in the world these ads are being placed. For example, New Yorkers may wear shorts and a t-shirt in 60-degree weather, while consumers in Miami may opt for a jacket and long pants. With weather-based ads, advertisers can put the right ads in front of the right people depending on the weather in their specific area and their unique buying behavior.

Learn more about The Weather Company

Whether you already have a strong advertising strategy under your belt or are looking to expand your techniques and stand out among competitors, The Weather Company can support your needs. With an array of AI-powered solutions that don’t rely on cookies, our solutions are designed for businesses looking to better predict future outcomes, automate complex processes and better optimize employees’ time.

What is programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising is the automated bidding and placement of ads on a given platform. Traditional ad placement involves a long, tedious process of negotiations, bidding, contracts, and requests for proposals. Programmatic, on the other hand, streamlines the process into mere seconds. How? Through the use of machine learning and AI to handle the sale and placement of digital ads.

More specifically, programmatic advertising uses historical traffic data and online targeting methods to put these ads in front of people who are the most likely to want to see them, which helps to improve conversions and ROI for your business.

Benefits of programmatic advertising

There are a number of benefits to using programmatic advertising in your ad campaigns, including:

Relevancy

Programmatic advertising helps ensure that ads placed in front of your target audience are relevant to their interests and preferences through superior targeting capabilities. Fifty-eight percent of advertisers note that the main drivers for their investment in programmatic are the ability to better use data and for the benefit of targeting efficiencies. Gaining access to premium inventory at scale ranked at third place in driving programmatic investments for advertisers, which saw substantial growth from 20% in 2020 to 50% in 2021.¹

Real-time data and analytics

Advertisers can optimize their campaigns by gaining access to real-time data and reporting how their ads are performing at that moment.

Reach

Programmatic advertising allows users to choose from an abundance of platforms and websites for the placement of ads. Additionally, you have the option to advertise at scale, enabling users to use their resources more efficiently.

Conversions and ROI

While a lot of advertising methods focus on clicks, programmatic focuses on conversions. Clicks are certainly valuable regarding expanding reach, but they don’t matter much if they don’t turn into leads or conversions. With programmatic advertising, conversions can increase due to better ad placement.

Additionally, with advertisers reporting the need for greater control of inventory and at a lower cost, it’s not surprising that supply chain transparency ranks as their primary concern, seeing a significant increase over last year (60% in 2020).

How programmatic advertising works

Programmatic advertising distinguishes itself by automating the bidding and placement of ads. There are several components to this method of advertising, including the publication and advertiser’s side. Below are some key terms to know before getting started with programmatic:

What is the ad exchange?

An ad exchange is an online marketplace in which advertisers and publishers can bid on advertising space as well as buy and sell digital inventory. It enables advertisers to make the media buying process more efficient and cost effective since they don’t need to negotiate with publishers individually to place their media.

Today’s digital market happens in real-time with bids happening on the back-end while users load the page. This can expedite and simplify what used to be a long and tedious process of negotiating. However, there are some disadvantages to this model including the increased potential for ad fraud and difficulty in tracking which websites ads appear.

What is an ad network?

An ad network offers ad placements from a specific number of websites. It is a technology platform that connects publications to advertisers who want to purchase digital inventory. The ad exchange often features different ad networks in the auction.

What is a DSP?

Demand Side Platform (DSP) is an automated buying platform where advertisers go to purchase digital ad inventory. It allows buyers to manage multiple accounts on one platform.

What is the difference between an SSP and DSP?

DSP is the advertiser side of the ad exchange. SSP is the publisher side of the exchange.

Types of programmatic advertising

For advertisers, there are a few different types of programmatic advertising to choose from.

Programmatic guarantee

With programmatic guarantee, the advertiser is guaranteed ad impressions on certain websites as well as assured ad space on specific publishing sites.

Real-time bidding (RTB)

Real-time bidding automates auctions for online ad space, enabling advertisers greater control over costs and the channels and platforms where they want to publish.

Private Exchange Buying (PMP)

Privacy Exchange Buying (PMP) is a private auction for ad bidding versus a public marketplace. PMP allows publishers to choose which ads appear on their page and maintain exclusivity.

How to use programmatic advertising

Traditionally, ad placements consisted of the following steps:

1. Advertisers offer bids for impressions
2. Highest bidder wins the placement
3. The ad is placed on the chosen website
4. The user clicks the ad and it converts

On the other hand, programmatic advertising takes these steps and condenses them to work in an instant. Competing bids are calculated by algorithms and analytics in order to determine the most cost-effective bid and placement for your ad.

Examples of programmatic advertising

Industries using programmatic

A number of companies spanning industries are realizing the benefits of using programmatic advertising to optimize their campaigns. They include the following.

Pharmaceutical & healthcare

The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry can benefit from programmatic by using it to better target their customers while helping to maintain privacy compliance laws like HIPAA.²

Retail

As the retail sector continues to increasingly focus on providing customers a personalized experience, they are quickly finding the value in using data and AI to create optimized campaigns that may deeply resonate with their target audience.

Automotive

The automotive industry is quickly finding the value in leveraging data to optimize their campaigns and garner quick results. Programmatic advertising helps speed up the ad-buying process from end-to-end and gets your campaign in front of people ready to convert. Additionally, since the automotive sales cycle tends to be longer than other industries, programmatic can help keep your brand top of mind. Automotive ads that leverage programmatic campaigns can be an effective way to keep audiences engaged in between car purchases.

Challenges with programmatic

Ad fraud

Programmatic advertising has the potential to drive clicks and impressions that come from a bot rather than a human. This means a portion of your budget is going toward clicks and impressions that may lead to no results.

Brand perception

If not partnering with the right solution, it is possible for your programmatic ads to end up on less desirable or relevant sites. Your consumers don’t know that these ads were placed automatically and poor ad placement can affect your brand perception.

Budget

If your clicks and impressions are being driven by bots rather than a human, there is the potential to waste advertising dollars on behavior that drives no real results. However, Google is increasingly working on ways to detect this fraudulent behavior before it happens.

The Disappearance of Cookies

Cookies have been traditionally used to track users across various browsers and websites. However, with AI and machine learning, brands can still effectively reach their target demographic. Cookieless targeting relies on contextual data, such as accurate weather information, page information, and data science to target the right audience with the right message.

Getting started with programmatic advertising

Getting started with programmatic advertising is a relatively easy process that includes the following steps:

1. Identify what your goals are
2. Determine who your target audience is
3. Select your DSP
4. Set up your ad campaign
5. Optimize your ad campaign using AI and analytics

Programmatic ad types offered through The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel has the following options available for programmatic placement

• Integrated marquee
• Integrated daily weather snapshot
• Integrated forecasts
• In-banner video
• Vertical video
• Video galleries
• Swipe/gesture
• Billboards
• Expandable rich media
• Dynamic weather
• Locators

With these options, advertisers have the ability to use dynamic creative to better deliver relevant experiences to customers on any platform, whether it’s The Weather Channel digital properties, OTT, or another aspect of your advertising ecosystem.

Programmatic: The future of advertising

Programmatic can offer many benefits to advertisers, but it is only one component to a robust and effective AI advertising strategy. As we look toward the future of advertising, we can expect a greater use of AI advertising tools. When these tools are combined with your marketing mix, it can help brands better tailor their messaging, place ads on the right platforms and allow you to engage with your consumers more effectively.

Advertising technology is rapidly advancing, opening up opportunities for advertisers to target their audience with highly personalized, relevant material that is more likely to convert. Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) is a key example, helping to uncover meaningful insights and achieve campaign success.

In this article, we’ll define dynamic creative optimization and explain how it works. Then, we’ll dive into the benefits of dynamic advertising and explore some case studies showing how dynamic creative can be used to increase conversions.

What is dynamic creative optimization?

Dynamic creative optimization personalizes advertisements toward specific viewers based on information about that viewer. For example, the ad may show different users different creative items based on their previous browsing habits or products added to their shopping cart.

Dynamic ads, because they are relevant and targeted, often outperform traditional static ads which appear the same no matter who is viewing them.

Why is dynamic creative optimization (DCO) important?

Consumers see thousands of ads each and every day. For this reason, it is very important for brands to actively engage customers through messaging and creative. DCO, or dynamic creative optimization, helps these same advertisers deliver more relevant and impactful ad experiences to these users.

In addition, DCO can also help improve the scale and efficiency of advertising. Instead of creating multiple versions of an ad to be placed on different locales, DCO does this automatically for them.

How does dynamic creative optimization work?

Dynamic creative optimization uses real-time analytics and testing to create hyper-personalized display ads. It begins by analyzing several data inputs (for example, the viewer’s geolocation, weather, device, shopping habits, browsing history, and more).

This data is fed to the DCO which automatically chooses key creative elements that are relevant to the viewer. With the elements in hand, the DCO algorithm then chooses how to display the ads in a way that has the right feel for the viewer. Powerful DCO solutions are able to then analyze how viewers respond to the ad, optimizing it further in real-time.

The benefits of dynamic creative optimization

DCO brings several benefits to the table, including the ability to:

Produce scalable, targeted campaigns

In an age of near-universal advertising and ad-blockers, creating ads that speak to your audience is necessary to cut through the noise. DCO makes it possible to produce personalized, relevant ads at any scale.

Optimize campaigns easily

Powerful DCO solutions are able to analyze consumer engagements in real-time and optimize campaign performance on the fly.

Automate processes

AI-driven creative optimization means you can reduce the time necessary to get started and allocate resources more efficiently.

Develop more effective campaigns

DCO helps you to deliver the perfect combination of elements that drive engagement and conversions.

Reduce bias

DCO makes it easier for marketers to test their assumptions, instead of relying on biases to create campaigns. However, bias can become embedded into the tools we use. Businesses like The Weather Company are committed to mitigating advertising biases through the advancement of AI tools that can segment groups in a more equitable manner. As these machine learning tools become more sophisticated, teams can further reduce bias in their advertising efforts.

How to use dynamic creative in a campaign

There needs to be a foundation of high-quality data to enable you to understand your customers, where they are, and so you can use data science to target them. To use dynamic creative efficiently, you need to consider the following three steps:

1. Create buyer personas with high-quality data

The first step is to build buyer personas for each segment that you are going to target. To do this, you need to analyze your data and learn the key characteristics of each group. For example:

• Demographic data – Age, gender, ethnicity, income, and so on.
• Geographic data – Country, region, and timezone.
• Behavioral data – Spending, browsing, and purchasing habits, as well as how the customer interacts with your brand.
• Psychographic data – Personality traits, hobbies, goals, values, and lifestyle.

This is just the beginning – there are many characteristics that might be important depending on your industry, product or service, and target segments.

The important thing is to build a picture of who your customers are, what their problems and priorities are, how you can target them, and how you can convince them to make a purchase.

2. Create multiple messages and ad elements

The next step is to feed the AI a set of assets. These assets could include product photography or videography, background elements, headline variations, and different voiceovers and calls-to-action (CTAs).

The more assets, the more variations are possible. The AI will then make use of advanced targeting data and predictive modeling to create unique experiences for each user.

The trick is to create compelling copy and CTAs based on the buyer personas you created in step one. Further, it’s crucial to stay on brand and align your messaging with your brand voice and audience needs.

3. Monitor performance and optimize campaigns

As the campaign continues, monitoring success is vital. Prior to launching your campaign, you should decide on the KPIs that will best describe whether your campaign is having success or needs to be optimized.

Using a powerful DCO solution means that the AI is able to self-train based on the highest-performing ad variations and improve performance across the board.

Industries that can benefit from DCO

DCO can benefit a large range of companies and organizations. The following industries can benefit from taking a dynamic approach to their advertising campaigns.

Automotive

With issues caused by supply chain disruptions, advertising executives are under increased pressure to make sure each dollar counts. Through DCO, automotive advertising campaigns can be personalized, while targeting users more likely to make a conversion.

Retail

Contextual signals matter in retail. Weather data can dictate the kinds of purchases someone makes, whether that be for ice cream, winter boots, or an umbrella. By leveraging location insights with weather information and AI advertising, retailers can deliver cognitive ads that will convert their audiences.

Healthcare

For healthcare advertisers, it’s important that ads don’t feel invasive, since patient data is highly personal. DCO can deliver personalized campaigns without relying on cookies or sensitive information.

The future of dynamic creative

Personalization matters in advertising. More than half of consumers¹ noted that they are more likely to make a purchase from a company that provides personalized ads. Even with privacy regulations, brands need to deliver ads that are relevant to users.

By employing dynamic creative, brands can leverage contextual signals and weather-based targeting to deliver better ads without feeling invasive to consumers. In a world where advertising is becoming cookieless, dynamic creative optimization will become more important for brands who want to remain competitive.