Unlock the Power of Weather-Triggered Healthcare Advertising: Boost Your Campaign Performance with Real-Time Weather Data

The Link Between Weather and Advertising for Healthcare Marketers 

Weather is always a hot topic, even when it’s cold outside.

Regardless of current weather patterns, the weather has thoroughly permeated our lives from water cooler small talk in offices to heated debates on climate change in the global arena.

Extreme weather events are increasingly impacting us, affecting our commutes, vacations, where we choose to live, and our health. Weather is also a proven predictor of consumer behavior and purchase intent. Different local weather conditions drive demand for specific products, even if it’s as simple as minimal temperature changes.

According to the British Retail Consortium, weather remains the most significant influence on consumer behavior, second only to the economy. It affects consumers’ emotional state, purchase decisions, and spending willingness. Even commonplace, minor fluctuations in weather can impact the food we buy, what type of clothes we wear, the car we drive, and even the homes we buy.

For example, supermarkets look at the forecast daily and alter stock requirements and pricing accordingly, knowing that a 1-degree rise in the temperature can lead to a 22% boost in demand for fizzy drinks, a 60% decrease in porridge, and a 90% increase in demand for garden furniture. Research by Weather Trends International found that by matching weather and sales history from the same period, they could quantify the relationship between specific categories and weather. For example, a -1°F YoY change in weekly average temperature would translate to a +2% increase YoY for cold and flu medication sales. 

Ad targeting based on weather allows advertisers to predict consumer needs and deliver timely, relevant messaging to target audiences. Real-time weather data can inform adaptive advertising campaigns, which have the potential to engage consumers and drive conversions by marketing specific products at optimal times for purchase. 

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What is Weather-Triggered Advertising? 

Weather-based ad targeting helps marketers optimize their campaigns by aligning ads with local weather conditions, enhancing ad effectiveness and ROI.

Weather-triggered advertising uses real-time weather data to place ads when and where they are most relevant. This strategy uses location data to influence contextual and customized  messaging that drives consumer engagement and purchase intent. By leveraging target ZIP code populations proven or predicted to be clinically affected by weather, marketers can reach healthcare providers (HCPs) and condition-relevant consumer populations when and where they’re likely to take clinical action triggered by weather. Targeted weather-based ads provide several critical benefits to pharma marketers, including: 

• Increasing brand relevance during clinically influential moments, as triggered by near real-time and predicted weather changes
• Maximizing hyper-local exposure and relevant reach before and when weather-related symptoms are triggered
• Customizing messages for HCPs and consumer populations without the use of digital identification, like cookies
• Boosting the likelihood of conversion, therefore improving campaign ROI

Weather-based ad targeting relies on symptom and activity triggers to determine when to target audiences in ZIP codes where weather conditions are optimal for causing specific behaviors. For instance, a pharma brand could use weather-based geolocation advertising to promote cold medicine in winter and allergy medicine in the spring based on local pollen counts. They could also use this approach to reach local doctors likely to prescribe a solution to symptomatic patients. Other weather-triggered advertising strategies include activity triggers, such as shopping outdoors versus online on a nice day, or increasing doctor visits and OTC treatment sales during weather-induced symptom flare-ups.‍

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Benefits of Using Weather Forecasting Tools for Advertising and Selecting the Right Solution

Weather forecasting tools help inform adaptive advertising campaigns that resonate with HCPs and consumer populations based on the weather conditions they experience. This is possible with predictive analytics underpinned by artificial intelligence, which enables highly personalized ads that more effectively engage consumers—several weather-targeting tools in the market use AI. However, marketers should consider certain features when looking for the best one for their business.

AI-powered weather data enhances campaigns' precision and marketing ROI, instilling confidence in pharma brands to make better data-driven decisions. When combined with accurate forecast data, AI helps pinpoint where, when, and how the weather affects health symptoms, purchasing habits, and prescription behaviors. It does this by predicting how the weather “feels” by ZIP code to determine how likely weather changes will trigger specific symptoms or activities.

Using AI tools to analyze weather data and predict consumer behavior, pharma brands can also overcome several advertising challenges related to weather-triggered advertising. These include adapting to fluctuations in seasonal norms and climate variability, ensuring accurate weather data to make informed advertising decisions, and accessing accurate location data crucial for effective weather-based targeting. 

The best weather-forecasting tools possess strong capabilities in these areas: 

• A data foundation that combines real-time weather data and anonymized health information to determine the weather by ZIP code and how changes impact symptoms and clinical activity
• Artificial intelligence modeling that anticipates when consumers may be likely to need symptom relief or medical aid based on real-time weather influence
• A future-proofed solution not reliant on third-party cookies, but first-party data

PulsePoints’ Weather Triggers

Pharma brands can partner with PulsePoint for near real-time weather-triggered advertising solutions. Our Weather Triggers solution leverages The Weather Company's most accurate forecast data and industry-leading AI to pinpoint where, when, and how the weather affects health symptoms, purchasing habits, and prescription behaviors. 

With PulsePoint, you can reach HCPs and condition-relevant consumer populations when and where they’re most likely to take clinical action due to the weather. For HCP targeting, Weather Triggers can help brands reach local doctors who will likely prescribe a solution to symptomatic patients. For DTC targeting, brands can reach consumer populations before and while they may be symptomatic. 

Marketers can then activate campaigns against these triggers in an omnichannel way across display, TV/ video, DOOH, audio, social and EHR. 

The overall benefits of using these weather triggers in advertising campaigns include increased brand relevance during clinically influential moments, maximized hyper-local exposure, and relevant reach before and when weather-related symptoms are triggered, as well as customized messaging for HCPs and consumer populations (no cookies required!).

In beta tests, we’ve seen a 66% TRx (total prescription) increase for exposed prescribers using Weather Triggers and a 30% TRx increase for exposed HCPs using Clinical Behavior bidding optimization, demonstrating the proven success of partnering with PulsePoint for weather-triggered advertising campaigns.

Our Weather Triggers include:

• Health Symptoms: Considers an optimal mix of weather conditions that cause symptoms like cough and cold, migraine, allergy, dry eyes, acne, and eczema
• OTC: Factors in an optimal mix of weather conditions that drive incremental OTC category sales, such as cough and cold or sinus remedies
• Predictive Health: Forecasts illnesses like flu and allergy to rise based on real-time weather data and anonymized health information
• Prescriptions: Considers an optimal mix of weather conditions that drive incremental sales for prescription categories, such as asthma, psoriasis, and depression
• Allergens: Prioritizes weather conditions, such as pollen or grass count, that appear above average for that geo and season
• Watson Health: Determines consumer populations more likely to visit doctor offices due to weather-induced symptom flare ups, such as dry skin, diabetes, migraine, or arthritis

Below is a high-level view of how the data methodology behind Weather Triggers works:

The platform-accessible data segments contain unique insights, such as The Weather Company’s first-party weather and geo-based historical and seasonal averages, anonymized medical claims, licensed prescription sales data, and five years of in-store OTC sales data provided by Nielsen. 

AI technology backed by advanced modeling and machine learning combines this data to predict how the weather “feels” by ZIP code and determines how likely weather changes will trigger symptoms. By combining real-time weather data with other health-related insights, the model can anticipate when consumers are likely to need symptom relief or medical aid based on real-time weather influence.

The data in each segment is refreshed every 15 minutes to accommodate changes in weather by ZIP code and how those changes impact real-time symptoms and clinical activity. By leveraging this enhanced first-party data for campaigns, brands don’t have to rely on third-party identifiers, making the solution future-proofed and not reliant on cookies.

Conclusion

Weather-triggered advertising offers significant opportunities to deploy more relevant and engaging marketing when pharma marketers seek more advanced ways to reach HCPs and consumer populations without needing third-party identification.

Since localized weather data can serve as indicators of purchasing habits and online behavior, personalized ad strategies using weather marketing stand to play an influential role in the future of healthcare advertising. With performant, privacy-forward, and first-party weather data, marketers can drive advertising effectiveness and consumer engagement now and in the cookieless future.

If you want to partner with PulsePoint on effective weather-triggered advertising campaigns, contact us to learn more.