From last October to this March, Vistar Media partnered with digital agency Spinnn to present a data-driven campaign for Rain-X ClearView windshield washer fluid. Photos courtesy Vistar Media
By Carly McHugh
As today’s out-of-home (OOH) advertising sphere continues to evolve, brands have even more opportunities to stand out from their competitors. In fact, even real-time elements, such as the weather, can be leveraged through programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH), to drive consumers towards a particular product.
From last October to this March, software solutions provider Vistar Media partnered with digital agency Spinnn to present a data-driven campaign for Rain-X ClearView windshield washer fluid. Utilizing a weather targeting solution from The Weather Company, the ads aimed to influence consumer behaviour with contextually matched creative based on local conditions.
Titled “No Matter the Weather,” the campaign ran across 13 major metro markets in Canada, delivering nearly 2.5 million total impressions. Featuring creative executions in English and French, it leveraged proximity targeting to surround key retail locations where the product was sold. The overarching creative strategy centred on four conditions—rain, sleet, snow, and any weather—and promoted the product as a universally cleaner and safer option to drivers throughout the country. The DOOH ads ran consistently across a variety of venues, pointing consumers to the nearest locations where they could make a purchase.
At the close of the campaign, data showed 44 per cent of the ads were delivered during inclement weather, and of the consumers who saw them, at least one in three were very or somewhat likely to purchase that particular windshield washer fluid over the next six months.
Vistar’s managing director for Canada, Scott Mitchell, shared his thoughts on what the success of this campaign means for others in the OOH media sphere, as well as the benefits of weather-based targeting and how the use of data is helping advertisers appeal to their audiences more than ever.
Sign Media Canada (SMC): What makes weather-based targeting a new, unique opportunity for media buyers and media owners?
Titled “No Matter the Weather,” the campaign ran across 13 major metro markets in Canada, delivering nearly 2.5 million total impressions within its scheduled time frame.
Scott Mitchell (SM): For OOH, it’s something that’s starting to be adopted as marketers think of how they can continue to provide relevant messaging to consumers. Weather-based marketing uses data and analytics to deliver highly relevant messages based on weather conditions. This could be in local areas or specific environmental conditions prone to influence consumer behaviours.
Weather triggers can include anything from air quality to pollen count to temperatures. When you think of what that looks like from a marketer’s perspective, you can start to use these triggers to provide relevant messaging based on different categories, or relevant messaging to reach consumers based on the product. For example, a drug company could show an ad on an OOH vending type that could be triggered when the pollen count or air quality is at a particular percentage.
It’s an opportunity for marketers to have a detailed or contextually driven message which will resonate with their audience. Now, obviously, OOH is not a one-to-one relationship, but having a nuance-based approach and allowing weather triggers to add an extra layer of contextual relevance gives them the chance to have that conversation with consumers and relate to them.
