Retailers have not had problems blaming poor results on the weather in the past. Now, they have the opportunity to give the weather some credit for moving their business in a positive direction. According to an Adweek report, Ace Hardware and others have tested using mobile ads that vary offers based on local weather conditions.
For Ace, that meant pitching snow removal products before and after this winter's storms. With the weather turning friendlier, it will now deliver ads based on the best time to make use of fertilizer and other products.
"We want to reach folks in real time and help them deal with the weather as it's coming," Jeff Gooding, Ace's marketing director, told Adweek. "Helping has traditionally been part of our brand, and it's becoming a part of our mobile strategy."
Seeing an opportunity in the social arena, Twitter and The Weather Channel announced last week a new joint initiative that that will include the use of video for local forecasts, coverage of local weather as well as user-generated content. Twitter members, using the company's Cards technology, will be able to see the local weather content within their personal Twitter streams. With this feature, Twitter and The Weather Channel are betting that big ad dollars will follow.
"The media buying community will see this as a different kind of innovating, leveraging another platform," Curt Hecht, chief global revenue officer for The Weather Company, told AllThingsD.