Firetop

So for a good few years we’ve known that the weather influences people’s search engine behaviour; when the temperature rises in summer, searches for ‘air conditioning systems’ increase. Conversely when the temperature drops below average in winter – these searches decrease in favour of ‘heating systems’. In addition, it doesn’t take a genius to surmise that when it’s sunny outside nobody wants to sit in front of a computer screen surfing or xboxing – most of us would rather be out enjoying the sunshine. It’s hardly surprising then that the months of June and July, with their record heat, saw record low online purchasing activity in most sectors (air con and water coolers excluded of course).

So it was with interest that I learned this week of ‘HotBlocks’ and ‘ColdBlocks’ – a new online marketing initiative from online aggregator Advertising.com to harness the power of the weather. When the temperature reaches a particular high, advertising.com will automatically adjust their network campaigns in peak hours to display more adverts for ‘customers selling ‘products to make them cold’ – such as ‘air conditioning’ or ‘ice-cream’. Predictably ‘ColdBlocks’ of course, does the same for ‘winter holidays’ and ‘electric blankets’ but in winter.

It’s relatively easy to think of other sectors where such behaviour might be of use to companies selling their wares online. However, what did surprise me a little was something I read in New Media Age – sourced from digital agency TBG. The agency found that campaigns for Dating Direct faired much better in poor weather, but campaigns for Ocean Finance actually improved in good weather. The logic for the improvement in finance conversions being put down to links between sunshine and feeling good - applicants being more willing to fill in applications. In my opinion that contradicts the ‘I’d rather be outside in sunshine’ research, I think they’re overlooking the ‘I’ve been out of the house burning money on new clothes and theme parks’ aspect a bit. Either way TBG will be sending out finance emails on days with blue skies for best results.

If you’re managing a global online marketing budget, putting something in place to reflect changes in the weather is not so easy; when it’s sunny in the UK it’s probably raining in Japan, if the sky is blue in California it could just as easily be blowing a gale in Manhattan. Clearly this means that global online advertising in sectors afflicted by weather and temperature trends should be controlled regionally, or at least, with one eye on weather.com from a central base in London.

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