THE MARRIAGE OF DATA AND CREATIVITY

Certainly, creativity captures an audience’s attention. But, to retain digital eyeballs, advertising also needs to be both contextually relevant and targeted. As such, there is understandably a lot of hype around the relationship between data and creativity today.

Marketers are recognising the power of data and creativity working together and that, within the right framework, data can always improve the creative process and campaign’s success. The trick is marrying digital and creative into one seamless marketing campaign.

Marketers applying data insights to their digital marketing campaigns’ creative sides might be surprised by the opportunities data creates. Using analytics to identify specific groups of customers can help marketing teams ensure that messaging and branding are tailored to each audience. Data insights allow demographics to be broken down further than simply “college students” or “middle-aged parents.” Instead, marketers can target “highly educated Californians aged 20-30,” developing content that resonates with that audience.

The impact of data on campaigns shows that analytics and creative are no longer separate marketing categories; creative campaigns need to be based on data insights, and data has to be presented to consumers in a creative way to be useful. Data as the linchpin to creating more emotional content.

Take the NIVEA Protection ad (below) as an example. A print ad in a magazine supplied a tear-out bracelet with a built-in locator that parents can use to keep track of where their children are on the beach. Using advanced mobile and geo-tracking technology, the bracelet enables parents to set a maximum distance their child can go, and sends a smartphone alert if this distance is exceeded.

In this example, NIVEA uses a highly creative approach to engage parent’s emotions – fear, protectiveness and desire for a worry-free holiday – to establish themselves as a brand that keeps children safe.

The 'Melanoma Likes Me' campaign for MELANOMA PATIENTS AUSTRALIA, leverages real-time social data to identify when users are out in the sun, raise awareness of the risks of sun exposure and educate the audience on how to identify melanoma.

Using a real-time response tool that utilises API endpoints to identify popular hashtags related to having fun in the sun – such as #beachside, #sunkissed and #tanlines – the campaign instantly responds with social messages from @_melanoma.

In this example, MELANOMA PATIENTS AUSTRALIA reached its target audience (via their channel of choice) at the very moment they are at most risk from sun damage, and opens up an immediate channel of engagement.

The bottom line? Greater collaboration is needed between creatives and data analysts. While this is already beginning to happen with the examples above, the unison of data and creativity needs to become the rule rather than the exception.

WEATHER TRIGGERED MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Why Is Weather Data the Hottest New Commodity for Marketers?   

Primarily because the weather has a significant impact on our emotions, which directly translates into retail sales.The weather is a universal driver of consumer purchase behaviour, mood and receptiveness to marketing messages. Moreover, it has direct relevance to at least 30% of the products and services we consume and, behind the state of the economy, has the largest influence on consumer behaviour. 

 

Bottom line? The weather has a tremendous effect on what actions consumers take; where they go, how they travel, what food they eat, what clothes they wear, what products and services they buy, and even how they feel at any given time.

 

Just ask yourself what you had for lunch today? A salad or a hot soup? How did you travel to work this morning? Walk, bike, Uber, or cab? What clothes did you wear when you left the house? And what was your mood like? It’s clear that many of our everyday decisions are subtly shaped by the elements.

 

The impact of weather on consumer demand is so ubiquitous and the range of weather dependent verticals so vast, that many businesses may not even realize the true extent to which their sales are driven by weather.

WEATHER TRIGGERED MARKETING CAMPAIGNS 

Weather-marketing, commonly known as ‘weather-based marketing’ or ‘weather triggered marketing’, is a powerful form of marketing automation which utilizes real-time weather data to trigger ads and personalize marketing messages based on your audience’s local weather. In other words, you can serve ads for raincoats when it’s rainy, windbreakers when it’s windy, thermals when it’s snowy and breathable vests when it’s hot.  

Using Programmatic Advertising, you can easily refresh ad creative to match the viewer’s local weather, inject dynamic information into the ad itself, and even modify campaign spend levels and regional bidding decisions based on local weather conditions.  

Advertisers today can easily apply weather-based automation to their search, display, social and shopping campaigns. An ordinary AdWords, Facebook or Instagram campaign can be made weather responsive – triggering your ads or social media posts to activate before, during or after localized weather events.

INCREASED RELEVANCY

Imagine a snow-clearing business targeting ads to audiences who are located in areas where there has recently been a heavy dump of snow. The more snow that comes down, the more the Adwords bids could be increased. Or, imagine an insurance company demonstrating the merits of hail or crop protection insurance when there is hail coming down. Or Corona advertising kicking in anytime the temperature exceeds 80 degrees. The opportunities to drive relevancy using weather are obvious. 

 

You would be wrong to think that only low-ticket impulse buys are weather-driven. High-value purchases such as cars and houses are also influenced by the weather. Brand awareness campaigns perform just as well with weather triggered advertising as direct response. Jeep’s weather-responsive ad unit performed an amazing 600 per cent above the standard click-through rate of a mobile 320 x 50 banner ad.

SHOPPERS RESPOND TO THE WEATHER

The benefits of running weather adaptive campaigns are manifold – many brands have doubled or even tripled their conversions, clicks and engagement rates – whilst simultaneously lowering their cost per acquisition. For the 30% of businesses whose sales are directly impacted by the weather, being able to activate ads before, during or after specific weather events is an essential strategy for maximizing their key performance metrics across social.

Looking for more examples of weather-triggered marketing? Here are a few examples of weather-triggered campaigns that have produced considerable performance uplift.

 

-       - STELLA Cidre reported 65.6% increase in YOY sales during the period they ran their weather-responsive DOOH campaign. 
- MOLSON COORS increased CTR by 89% via their weather-triggered ad campaign on social media.

-       - NEUTROGENA Beach Defence Sunscreen used in-app ads which were activated by sun and UV levels, increasing purchase intent by 43% and product awareness from zero to 63%.

-       - Fashion retailer LA REDOUTE saw 34% traffic uplift and 17% sales increase generated by a weather-triggered DOOH signage campaign.

-       - BRAVISSIMO’s weather-triggered PPC ad campaign increased PPC-driven sales revenue for their swimwear range by nearly 600% during the 3- month campaign. The conversion rate of browsers to buyers increased by 103%.

-       - BURTON menswear used weather-activated dynamic website promotions to generate11.6% uplift in conversions.

-       - PURE360 reported 500% increase in email open rates for campaigns relating to domestic holidays during good weather. Click through rate rose from 12% to 27%.

-      -  PANTENE’s weather targeted display ads produced a 28% sales increase as well as 600,000+ social impressions.

-     - LIPTON's ran a weather-sensitive campaign across Facebook mobile. They reached 6.9 million people, and achieved a spectacular 12.8% video view rate - which equated to just £0.06 cost per view.

For the 30% of businesses whose sales are directly impacted by the weather, being able to activate ads before, during or after specific weather events is an essential strategy for maximizing their key performance metrics across social.  

 

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