ITV has announced this groundbreaking innovation exclusive to users of their self-service programmatic platform, Planet V.
Weather Targeting enables the automation of campaigns to go live, pause, or adjust creative copy on ITV Hub the moment their specified weather criteria is met across any one of ITV’s 22 broadcast regions and features real-time options to target a range of weather conditions, from temperature and rain to pollen.
“We’ve developed Weather Targeting in response to growing demand from advertisers seeking trusted, real-time signals to improve their advertising effectiveness. Adding these real-time automated weather triggers to Planet V allows advertisers to activate or adjust their marketing messages based on a user’s local weather. It is an exciting time for Planet V with more features and data innovations due to hit the platform in the coming months.” – Alex Maison, Head of Advertising Development at ITV
ITV has partnered with leading global weather metadata provider tomorrow.io, providing ITV with a rich library of parameters covering every weather condition. Their exclusive API offers both numerical data and map layers with minute-by-minute weather, including historical, real-time, and forecast weather data.
ITV is the first broadcaster in the UK to launch such a feature, citing feedback from advertisers in the fashion, retail, and DTC sectors as instrumental in the decision to develop the product. This feedback was further supported by joint research carried out by the British Retail Consortium and the Met Office, which cited differences in temperature as a strong predictor of sales growth. Furthermore, during the current Autumn transition, over half the variations in weekly retail sales growth are attributable to changes in the weather.
The launch follows a period of rigorous testing with pilot advertisers including a pharmacy brand that trialled high pollen tactics to promote over the counter allergy relief. Weather targeting is already attracting interest from a number of advertisers, notably online food delivery companies, grocery advertisers, and energy companies.
It comes one year on from the launch of Planet V, ITV’s self-service programmatic platform. The first broadcaster initiative of its kind in Europe, Planet V now has more than 800 individual users, comprising all the major media and digital agency groups, independents, and a growing number of advertiser in-house programmatic teams. Since its launch, Planet V has grown rapidly to establish itself as one of the UK’s largest programmatic video advertising platforms in the UK. The innovation forms part of an expanding pipeline of ITV digital and data innovations which will be available via Planet V.
“More than ever, advertisers need to be able to adjust in real-time based on what’s happening in their target geos and across their target markets. Applying cutting-edge hyperlocal weather intelligence at scale is enabling advertisers to reach target demographics in advance and in real-time. With weather and climate in the news on a weekly basis these days, we are already seeing brand leaders utilize new ways to incorporate weather parameters such as precipitation or air quality into their go-to-market strategies, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.” – Dan Slagen, CMO at Tomorrow.io
