When the temperature outside is changing, brands in the know are changing along with it. Not with drastic shifts in branding, but in subtle turns of phrase and aesthetics. Just like Midwesterners slip on wool coats to defend themselves from the cold or pop open the sunroof when the summer sun climbs high, marketers can lean into the turning seasons by adjusting key marketing elements, too – and the return on investment for making these small geo-targeting changes might be even bigger than you think.
The Power of Contextual Triggers in Geo-Targeted Marketing
Weather is often a huge determining factor in a consumer’s purchase decisions. External temperatures affect where people spend their time, and in turn, where they spend their money. Here’s a snapshot of why weather-triggered advertising and location-based marketing should be one of the sharpest tools in your brand’s toolbox:
- 78% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase
- Location-based marketing campaigns have a 45% higher engagement rate compared to their non-location-based counterparts
- Real-time information, including weather-related events, have higher levels of engagement
- Weather is the second-largest influence on consumer behavior – just observe any weather-related event, from sweltering Los Angeles days to dangerous Louisiana storms
- Weather changes affect nearly $3 trillion worth of business in the U.S. private sector
Weather-Triggered Advertising and Location-Based Marketing: The Dynamic Duo of Seasonal Ad Spend
As summer leaves fall or as winter holidays approach, target audiences respond. Brands have the opportunity to harness weather-triggered advertising to drive even greater sales. To prepare for weather events and seasonal shifts while keeping pace with your audience’s needs and expectations, be proactive in your marketing approach:
- Consider the types of products and incentives a consumer might turn to as the weather around them changes
- Think about the types of locations where they’re likely to spend more time
- Large reach of more than 100,000 followers
- High product and brand visibility
- Ideal for elevating brand awareness across a wide audience
- Higher costs for your brand
- Potentially lower engagement rate
- Lack the personal connection needed to build strong customer relationships
- Tend to work best for campaigns that have large budgets and need to quickly develop mass awareness
For instance, hot soup sounds best on a chilly winter evening and cute new heels are most appealing to wear on a warm summer date. A walk in the park with friends sounds lovely in the springtime, but a cozy dinner at a trendy restaurant might be best in the fall.
Creating Successful Geo-Targeting: Client Case Studies
Like any campaign, the success of geo-targeting depends largely on finding the right audiences – but this isn’t the only contributing factor. It’s also critical to pair relevant messaging with those campaigns that will resonate with those audiences.
Consider what shoppers truly want based on where they live and the weather they’re dealing with: Is the pollen count exceptionally high and they’re in need of kid-friendly indoor activities, or are they perusing restaurants for free delivery so they don’t have to go out on a rainy day?
Understanding how weather and location affect consumers’ buying choices can help marketers personalize their digital campaigns even further based on their audience’s location and current weather events.
At Leap Group, we have extensive experience developing weather-triggered advertising campaigns and location-based marketing. To illustrate how our media team leverages weather-triggered advertising and location-based marketing for our clients, let’s take a closer look at our work with Fair Harbor, True Food Kitchen, and Pinstripes.
01.
Fair Harbor
As an established swimwear brand with sales spikes only three times per year, Fair Harbor approached Leap with one massive problem: They didn’t know how to convert consumers consistently throughout the year. Fair Harbor recently expanded their product line to include clothing beyond swim apparel, hoping this diversification would increase sales, but they didn’t have the digital marketing infrastructure in place to reach this goal. Our team came on board and optimized the brand’s Google Ads account and made enhancements within the Google Merchants Center.
Results: Our geo-targeted adjustments led to a 758% increase in campaign clicks, a 192% increase in e-commerce purchases, and a 228% increase in revenue.
02.
True Food Kitchen
An award-winning, seasonally inspired restaurant focused on chef-driven, culinary menus rooted in nutritional science, True Food Kitchen was already making waves and winning over investors. But every company, no matter how successful, needs to continually demonstrate growth to its constituents, so TFK reached out to Leap for a helping hand. We narrowed our focus to TFK’s key markets – Austin and Los Angeles – and developed geo-targeted campaigns to keep the restaurant top-of-mind, highlight specific menus based on local events, and engage the audience based on their shared values of nutrition and great taste.
Results: Using a micro-targeted bottom-funnel strategy, leveraging audiences from YouTube, Google Display, Partners, and Google Search, and steering Maps users via real-time searches to TFK locations, we generated a healthy 427% return on ad spend.
03.
Pinstripes
An innovative “eater-tainment” venue that’s growing in popularity, Pinstripes bowling and bocce ball with four-star Italian cuisine for a once-in-a-lifetime customer experience. The trouble was, Pinstripes was struggling to gain consistent bookings during summer months, which should be the time of year when people are primed for dinner and entertainment opportunities. Our team jumped in to optimize seasonal and geographic targets and highlighted Pinstripe’s unique value proposition of indoor fun in fully air-conditioned spaces to fight the hot and humid Southern climate.
Results: After our interventions, Pinstripes saw a 50% increase in events booked from leads and a 38% increase in events revenue.
Challenges of Weather-Triggered Advertising and Location-Based Marketing
Weather- and location-based digital campaigns clearly perform better and lead to higher conversion rates, but they’re also quite complex to execute. With decades of experience under our belts, we know that setting brands up with high-performing campaigns is only part of the puzzle; compliance and privacy laws are also an important consideration.
While these campaigns make use of consumers’ location, you want to make sure your creative and messaging doesn’t veer into the “creepy” or intrusive category, where your audience feels like they’re being watched, rather than offered a timely deal or consideration. There are other reasons consumer privacy needs to be given top consideration: to keep your business from incurring federal fines, to maintain customer trust and loyalty, and to grow your brand with the integrity it deserves. At Leap, we always strike a balance between leveraging key consumer insights to help our clients and giving consumers the privacy they deserve. (After all, we’re not just media specialists, we’re consumers, too!)
Prepare For Changing Weather – and Marketing Campaigns – with Leap
Weather-triggered advertising and location-based marketing campaigns can be a highly effective and cost-efficient way to reach your target audience. We’re the first to acknowledge, however, that these campaigns can be complex to set up and monitor. Marketers also need to take great care to meet privacy regulations when using location data to ensure compliance and avoid alarming or intrusive marketing.
Our team has extensive experience setting up these complex campaigns, monitoring their progress, optimizing them for maximum performance, and making sure they respect consumers’ privacy. If you’re curious about weather- and location-triggered ads but need a helping hand to get started, we can guide your brand toward highly successful marketing campaigns. We’re experts at creating personalized, impactful experiences in real-time, and we’ve got the results to prove it. Contact us today to see how we could enhance your audience engagement and drive higher conversions with a bespoke geo-targeted marketing strategy.
