Mindshare and The Weather Company Partner to Bring Weather Insights to Real-Time Marketing

Partnership Brings Actionable Insights for Mindshare Clients

NEW YORK--()--Mindshare North America and The Weather Company announced today a formal, non-exclusive partnership whereby The Weather Company’s WeatherFX data platform is leveraged by Mindshare to inform media decisions with real-time weather insights and triggers.

“There is a clear correlation between weather and purchase decisions in many categories. Every day, people make a myriad of choices based on current and forecasted weather conditions, from what type of food or drink to consume, where to shop, to planning vacations,” said Bob Ivins, Chief Data Officer, Mindshare North America. “Linking TWC’s current and predictive data with algorithmic research findings related to weather-related behavior allows us to shift relevant media to the right person in the moment it will resonate most. This gives us and our clients a clear edge in real-time paid media.”

Weather Data and THE LOOP

WeatherFX, The Weather Company’s weather-informed marketing platform, allows the agency to anticipate and react to dozens of local weather conditions across thousands of locations throughout the country simultaneously.

The data is plugged into “THE LOOP,” Mindshare’s proprietary operating system that serves consumer insights in real time that teams act on to “close the loop” of owned, earned, and paid media. Weather data fed through “THE LOOP” spans all weather conditions, as warm, sunny days can move business as much as inclement weather–albeit in different ways and for different products or services.

“We know how frequently weather is a story or plays a role in a story, and are looking forward to partnering with Mindshare on media planning via weather. We know this is a proven strategy and that brands will see significant results from this effort,” said Curt Hecht, Chief Global Revenue Officer, The Weather Company.

Mindshare experts analyze the impact of weather factors on marketing to shift paid, create owned, and amplify earned media in order to put brand messages in front of consumers when they are most apt to be receptive to a marketer’s message. This includes guiding Mindshare clients’ spends across The Weather Company platforms, including The Weather Channel, weather.com, Weather Underground, and The Weather Channel apps for smartphone and tablet. Weather conditions play a uniquely important role in marketing plans and the partnership promises to bear strong marketing outcomes for the brands in Mindshare’s client roster.

The Weather Company’s success with WeatherFX as a key platform for marketers was substantiated when Weather was recently named to Fast Company's list of “World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Big Data.”

“THE LOOP” is the physical manifestation of Mindshare’s new way of working and thinking about building brands. It is the first tool of its kind to impact not only earned and owned but paid media, as well, whereby media dollars can be quickly shifted and redeployed to leverage opportunities uncovered by the data.

ABOUT THE WEATHER COMPANY: Where the World Gets its Weather

Through The Weather Channel, weather.com, Weather Underground, Intellicast.com, and third-party publishing partners, the company provides millions of people every day with the world's best weather forecasts, content, and data, connecting with them through television, online, mobile, and tablet screens. Through WSI and Weather Central, the company delivers superior professional weather services for the media, aviation, marine, and energy sectors. The Weather Company is owned by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. For more information, visit www.weather.com/press.

ABOUT MINDSHARE

Mindshare is a global media agency network with billings in excess of US$29.2 billion (source: RECMA). The network consists of 113 offices in 82 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, each dedicated to forging competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands. Mindshare is part of GroupM, which oversees the media investment management sector for WPP, the world’s leading communications services group.

ABOUT GROUPM

GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation. It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, and Mindshare. Our primary purpose is to maximize the performance of WPP’s media communications agencies on behalf of our clients, our stakeholders, and our people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development, and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, to bring competitive advantage to our clients and our companies.

Contacts

Mindshare North America
Wendi Smith, 212-297-7148
Managing Director, Agency Communications & Content
Wendi.Smith@Mindshareworld.com

Release Summary

Mindshare NA and The Weather Company have formed a partnership in which Mindshare leverages Weather's data, real-time weather insights and triggers to inform media planning decisions.

Contacts

Mindshare North America
Wendi Smith, 212-297-7148
Managing Director, Agency Communications & Content
Wendi.Smith@Mindshareworld.com