Meteo-Marketing and Digital Signage in stores

Digital signage meteo-marketing takes advantage of weather conditions to highlight content that more easily engages target audiences and maximizes the impact of point-of-sale communication campaigns .

The ability to change ads instantly

To optimize sales, retailers need to be prepared to advertise discounts on products that people need, whether it's a scorching or rainy June. This is precisely where contextualized advertising comes in: it allows retailers to use the weather to their advantage.

With digital signage and digital outdoor advertising (DOOH), retailers have the ability to change their ads instantly, whether in-store or in a DOOH network. With the help of programmatic and real-time data, advertising sales can be highly targeted and displayed only in certain weather conditions.

DOOH reacts to the weather

Weather-reactive advertising campaigns can be highly effective. Stella Cider, for example, saw a 65.6% increase in sales during a period when this technique was used. The Stella Cider teams had observed that people are more inclined to drink cider in hot weather. So they chose to run ads near retailers only when the temperature was two degrees above average. As well as increasing sales, this strategy also reduced advertising costs, as the company only paid to display the ads in optimal conditions. There were no unnecessary cider ads for cold passers-by who preferred a glass of red wine or a cup of tea.

Better promotion and analysis with weather marketing

Weather conditions have an impact on our habits, reactions, behavior and emotions. For these reasons, and with their potential for high promotional effectiveness, the use of weather is a key element in marketing and communication strategies. The combination of weather-marketing and digital signage is a major asset in the race for differentiation, and goes beyond the simple possibility of anticipating stock movements or forecasting sales trends, to contribute to economic over-performance. Indeed, over and above the strictly logistical aspects, digital signage meteo-marketing makes it possible to contextualize messages and concentrate their distribution at the best times, i.e. whencustomer attention for a particular type of message is at its peak.

Because weather-driven digital signage goes beyond anticipating sales flows, which are reactive to seasonality. Weather-adaptive campaigns have a direct impact on communications performance, and optimize marketing ROI. Thanks to the contextualization of broadcast messages, marketing teams can imagine complete brand stories rich in experience, encouraging discussion and engagement.

By transforming climatic constraints into opportunities, digital technologies add weather as an additional targeting criterion alongside widely-used geographical, temporal and socio-demographic conditions. Strategies and timetables based on the vagaries of the weather enable us to better anticipate and, ultimately, increase the reach of our communications. Although this approach is global and universal, it will have all the more impact on seasonal or weather-sensitive products, i.e. those whose sales volume varies with changing weather conditions.

Météo Marketing: Influencing sales through weather conditions

The use of the weather context in content planning means that the right products can be promoted at the right time (i.e. when sales are already strong), either because the context is already known, or because a sales analysis can identify it. For example, a ready-to-wear brand may decide to promote its swimwear frequently as soon as these conditions are reached, because a sales report shows that swimwear is best sold on sunny days with temperatures over 24°C. The brand will then pull back its communications to promote its products at the right time. It will then take a back seat to its communications for its hats, which are only (naturally) popular when temperatures are low. In this way, the brand takes advantage of the customer conditioning "offered" by the climatic environment (i.e. sun and heat). In the same way, agricultural products can greatly benefit from this type of promotion combining seasonality and weather conditions - because strawberries are more enjoyable on a sunny July day than on a rainy August noon! The impact of this precise, adaptive promotion on sales is non-negligible, as is the time saved by being able to anticipate such communications.

The theoretical model (graph), applied to the above example, represents the sales volume of jerseys in normal times (blue curve) and that of sales during weather-reactive campaigns (green curve).

Contextualized promotion (i.e. temperature-appropriate visuals) increases sales volume when sales are at their peak (the top of the curve is higher), but also reduces the threshold temperature, i.e. the temperature at which a certain sales volume is reached (shown in red on the graph). Here, for example, sales are high up to 20°C (previously 24°C).

But because each individual has his or her own sensitivity, not everyone will be sensitive to the same temperature threshold, and the brand will probably never be able to identify a single value as the critical threshold (24°C above) between sales and non-sales (or high/low sales). Dynamic weather-reactive displays can modify the frequency of broadcasts according to different temperature ranges, and increase the granularity of possibilities. Brands are thus able to extend the target temperature ranges of their promotions, at lower frequencies. The temperature range offering the best economic performance is then extended.

→ Each season has its own specificities, find out how to use the dynamic weather display according to the seasons.

Digital signage and in-store marketing weather

As well as using contextualized DOOH to drive sales, you can also run weather-reactive advertising on your own screens, whether in store windows or inside the point of sale. Using aneasy-to-use digital signage content management system, you can create a series ofads adapted to different weather conditions, and modify the advertising according to the weather. If it's hot, remind people that fans are discounted, and if it's cold, run your ad on blankets. 

Current weather is not the only factor that can be used as a trigger: forecast data can also be used. If the forecast calls for a heatwave over the weekend, create the right communication so that the public can be as prepared as possible. Retail analysts at HIM found that 58% of shoppers said they had been influenced by a sunny weather forecast before organizing a barbecue. Withdigital signage, you can take advantage of forecasts as soon as they are announced.

Discover the weather-sensitivity of products

While the weather-sensitivity of certain products is easy to intuit (swimsuits sell better in summer, for example), this may not be the case for other products. In this case, experiments can be carried out to identify or refine the weather-sensitivity of these products. For example, a ready-to-wear brand could plan weather-sensitive campaigns featuring, for example, different promotional codes for different temperature ranges (15 to 20°C, 21 to 25°C, 26 to 27°C, for example). Analyzing the use of promotional codes can complement the analysis of sales alone (as promotional codes give an indication of the moment of decision, more than the purchase itself). Mastering the weather-sensitivity of your products enables you todirect your marketing efforts, thus increasing theeffectiveness of your campaigns while saving (planning)time.

Many players are already applying the principles of meteo-marketing to their digital signage campaigns, reporting double-digit sales increases during targeted periods. Stella Cidre, for example, reported a 65.6% increase in sales during the test period compared with the previous year. (source: Nielsen Sales data 2013) La Redoute reported a 34% increase in traffic and a 17% increase in sales directly induced by weather-triggered digital signage campaigns.

Other types of contextualized advertising

Weather is one trigger you can use to boost sales, but other temporal or environmental triggers are equally effective. For example, allergy medication brand Benadryl used screens located near stores selling its products to indicate pollen density and transmit alerts when pollen concentrations were particularly high.

Although there aren't as many special dates in summer as at other times of the year (no Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween or Christmas), this season is rich in sporting and cultural events that can boost sales. Even must-see TV events can boost alcohol and snack sales. Digital signage is there to support all your ideas, and since the costs involved in creating digital advertising are low, experimenting with it is worthwhile.

The way retailers use digital signage during summer sales can have a significant impact on results. The combination of discounts and relevant additional triggers makes ads much more attractive and interesting. Customers are more likely to act on an offer if they see it at the right time. That's the difference between a really useful ad and a waste of time (and advertising spend).

These campaigns can also lend themselves to internal communication needs , for prevention campaigns for example.

Take advantage of the power of weather marketing applied to digital signage and contact us.

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Cenareo offers intuitive, scalable Saas software that contextualizes your communication. Our digital signage solution adapts to all sectors of activity: Point of sale, Internal communication, Hotels and Restaurants but also DOOH.