- IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced the launch of Watson Advertising Weather Targeting — which is a new suite of triggers designed for marketers to help them make the connection between weather and product sales actionable at scale without the use of third-party cookies or identifiers
IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced the launch of Watson Advertising Weather Targeting — which is a new suite of triggers designed for marketers to help them make the connection between weather and product sales actionable at scale without the use of third-party cookies or identifiers. This offering supports new advertising targeting triggers powered by Nielsen Holdings PLC (NYSE: NLSN).
The new triggers — which are facilitated through the Nielsen Connect Partner Network (the largest open ecosystem of solution providers for retailers and manufacturers in the consumer packaged goods industry) — utilize IBM Watson to aggregate and analyze large and complex data sets like weather and product sales to create more effective and efficient targeting opportunities while addressing new privacy standards. And as part of their collaboration, IBM and Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) — through its Global Consumer business — will work together to combine the power of weather insights from The Weather Company with Nielsen’s Retail Measurement Services (RMS) data to generate future reports for marketers.
Watson Advertising Weather Targeting utilizes enterprise-grade AI to analyze over 500 advertising triggers with up to six variables per trigger across 42,000 zip codes every hour, increasing the amount of actionable insights the company generates for brands. And with this collaboration, IBM Watson Advertising will introduce a new suite of triggers and insight reports that will harness Nielsen’s RMS data and weather from IBM’s The Weather Company to provide brands with actionable advertising solutions that do not rely on personally identifiable information, third-party cookies or identifiers.
This solution was designed for helping brands: 1.) Anticipate and activate digital campaigns based on weather’s influence on consumer behavior and emotion based on zip code. 2.) Improve effectiveness by automatically serving meaningful, relevant ads to consumers. 3.) Reduce media waste by triggering messages only when and where consumers might appreciate the brand message and find it to be relevant. 4.) The targeting solution will be available across the digital advertising ecosystem, including programmatic, display, social, search, video, email, and digital out-of-home.
The Weather Targeting data tool is part of a suite of AI-driven targeting services. And most recently, IBM Watson Advertising used the technology to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic by enabling brands to run relevant and locally sensitive digital ads based on fluctuating infection rates. This effort was done in combination with The Weather Channel’s COVID-19 tracker, which was distributed across properties to provide Americans with general public health and safety information in the face of the global pandemic.
KEY QUOTES:
“As we prepare for a future without third-party identifiers, it’s critical that the industry put consumers at the center and rely on advanced technologies like artificial intelligence to help make sense of massive amounts of structured and unstructured data with a privacy-first mandate.”
“IBM and Nielsen have long been guided by the trust we build between clients and customers. We open up our technologies to make the ecosystem work for consumers and now more than ever, we must come together to help brands effectively leverage the medium while doing right by their audiences.”
— Bob Lord, SVP, Cognitive Applications, Blockchain and Ecosystems, IBM
“IBM has long served as a leader in driving value from advanced technology, and in joining forces, we are further strengthening our Nielsen Connect Partner Network as an ecosystem of tech-forward partners to empower our CPG clients. The combined weight of IBM’s weather intelligence and actionable AI with our expansive read into consumer purchasing habits will provide marketers with a clearer roadmap in the face of ever-changing patterns.”
— Johan Sjöstrand, Global President, Retail Intelligence, Nielsen
