After mastering the ability to use climate as a trigger to target digital advertising, IBM plans in 2018 to focus on the integration of "weather analyzes" into ERP technologies from companies such as SAP, which offers a product forecast replenishment engine.
"You are creating a virtuous circle that takes advantage of the weather," said Paul Walsh, director of climate strategy at IBM.
Now that platforms can forecast and target advertising and marketing messages through mobile, social and other digital media, he said the next step will be to ensure that brand manufacturers have enough products and have the staff available to meet the demand. of consumers.
IBM will teach brands to build forecast models that take temperature into account, so that when they fall between 15 degrees and 20 degrees, brands will have enough product to meet the demand created by marketing through advertising and marketing. . That demand is also identified by searches on engines such as Google and Bing.
"We discussed with retailers the impact of Google searches on weather patterns and, as expected, searches for specific categories and brands follow climate trends," said Walsh. "If it's colder than 'normal,' you can see how search trends, when people search for different product categories, assign the same seasonality of buying patterns."
Marketers will spend much more time depending on weather triggers for ad targeting in 2018, especially since recent data shows that during the 2017 season, clouds and rain "activated the spirit of Christmas shopping," Walsh said.
Off-season and seasonal weather influence the amount consumers buy, along with the types of products they buy, how consumers buy and the price they are willing to pay. Since the colder weather moved earlier this year, compared to the last two winters, consumers began Christmas shopping in November.
Walsh said that weather has a lot to do with when people start buying Christmas presents. Not only for Christmas and Hanukkah, but for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and others. He said the weather typically "lights up" Christmas shopping.
"When the weather changes to a new season, it triggers what we call seasonal novelties," said Walsh. "Unleash the initial demand and feel that, oh my God, Christmas is just around the corner, and I have to go shopping."
Walsh said the same thing happens in New York during the spring. Temperatures reach 60 degrees in March and people begin to worship the sun. In California, a climate that rarely has a major change in temperature, then suddenly sees a day of 49 degrees, can have a more profound impact than a five-degree turn in Minneapolis.
