The next bathing season is coming for sure
In summer 2021, we tested situation-based targeting with weather data for our client Schiesser together with the agencies Resolution Media and Cynapsis Media. The goal was to find a data protection-compliant and cookie-independent targeting approach that optimizes the performance of a display campaign for beachwear.
Weather – the ideal sales signal
Anyone looking for alternatives in the face of the upcoming end of the cookie era cannot avoid using situation-based data such as weather. The reason is that weather effects play a role wherever people act – in everyday life, when planning leisure activities, when shopping. Thus, weather has a real and quantifiable influence on the sale of products. This means that those who know about the connections between buying behavior and weather significantly increase their chances of reaching potential buyers in the appropriate situational context.
Product weather indices predict purchase probability
Weather targeting per se is nothing new, but the success of this campaign management tool has been relatively limited so far. One reason is that the right weather triggers are only vaguely known, or even not known at all. And that’ s because not all weather is the same: depending on the product category, either temperatures or sunshine hours or a combination of weather parameters are more likely to be the decisive factors. In addition, weather-related consumption effects vary greatly from region to region: for example, Hamburgers get into the ice cream mood at around 20 degrees, whereas it has to be at least five degrees warmer in southern Germany.
So what does this mean for optimizing marketing with weather data? And how does well-done weather targeting work? The key is to translate the buying behavior for each product by location, day and weather into an index that automatically indicates where, when and in which weather conditions sales of certain products develop positively or negatively. The data basis for this is the combination of weather data and sales data from the GfK Consumer Panel.
Sunscreen and beachwear – the perfect match
For the beachwear campaign with Schiesser, we worked with the product weather index for sunscreen. Because after all, there are close parallels between the sales of both products, which are needed at the same time in the best case. The sunscreen index therefore provides an ideal sales signal for beachwear. In the test, ads were only played when the index met a certain value.
And the results were very impressive: Compared to the control campaign running in parallel, we achieved a 70 percent higher click-through rate (CTR).
Ines Geistmann Project Manager Online Marketing & E-Commerce at Schiesser: “At a time when tracking with cookies will no longer work in the foreseeable future, we are very happy to have found a new and versatile approach with situational tracking to optimize our online advertising successfully and in compliance with data protection laws.”
You can also download a short summary of the case study here.
About Cynapsis Media GmbH
Cynapsis Media GmbH, based in Münster, Germany, offers advertisers, publishers and media agencies programmatic advertising without cookies. The self-developed situational data management platform (sDMP) enables targeting not via users’ personal data, but via data on the situation in which the advertisement is seen. In addition, Cynapsis Media also offers individual retailer campaigns in which several thousand products are automatically advertised in combination with the sDMP. More info at www.cynapsis-media.de.
About Resolution Media GmbH
Resolution Media GmbH is a performance marketing agency and part of the Omnicom Media Group. At its locations in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Munich and Ludwigsburg, it serves the entire value chain of digital performance marketing (e.g. SEA, social media advertising, affiliate marketing, media / programmatic, digital analytics, etc.) and serves a three-digit number of well-known clients. More info at https://resolutionmedia.de/.
About SCHIESSER GmbH
SCHIESSER GmbH, based in Radolfzell on Lake Constance, is one of Germany’s largest underwear and nightwear brands. For more than 140 years, SCHIESSER has stood for the highest quality, classic cuts and beautiful designs. The SCHIESSER cult classics – original fine and double rib – delight fashionistas around the world and enjoy cult status. To the website: https://www.schiesser.com/.
