• by February 28, 2003

This is ingenious! Having served for such temperature sensitive clients as Totes Umbrellas and shoes, Roto-Rooter (winter freezes drove business faster than any advertising campaign) and Cepacol throat lozenges, we made some attempt to target by weather. We had loose agreements, primarily with radio stations, to “start the schedule at the first snow; double the money when it rains; call for additional funds when flu season hits. Oddly enough, it was the Weather channel (cable version) that was the most accommodating with our wacky requests. While I give us an “A” for effort, creativity and ingenuity, we had no way of tracking how often these requests were actually honored. I remember double checking flu reports w/the CDC (all phones; no internet or email then); and calling local papers for snow fall info. What we did know, is that when the elements all came together the client usually hit a home-run. We’d see product spikes on Cepacol and inventory shortages on umbrellas that were high, even given the elements natural lift. Now look how far we’ve come in less than 10 years. Online, targeting with immediate results. Now that is targeting!