cmo.com
From snowstorms in the Northeast to heat waves in southern California, the topic of weather never grows old. And that's good news for AccuWeather, which has been reporting on the weather since 1962. As a result, the company has witnessed, and adapted to, many different stages of media platforms.
Like many media organizations today, AccuWeather is very much focused on mobile. “Weather is a must-have for mobile devices,” said John Dokes, CMO of AccuWeather, in an exclusive interview with CMO.com. “It has consistently held top ranking in popularity in the mobile news and information category.”But through it all, AccuWeather has aimed to stay true to its core mission: to help people “plan their lives, protect their businesses, and get more from their day.”
AccuWeather’s audience is truly global. Working with Facebook’sInternet.org initiative, the company recently launched in countries where fewer than half of the citizens have access to the Internet: Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, and the Republic of Colombia. Everyone needs weather forecasts, and in countries like these mobile is sometimes the only way to get access.
Mobile SuccessesToday, AccuWeather works with every major manufacturer of mobile and connected devices in the world, has more than 1.3 billion installed apps, and serves 8.5 billion data calls each day from its digital properties.
AccuWeather users tend to check the weather more than once per day; on mobile, according to the company, some people check the weather several times a day. AccuWeather’s mobile success has much to do with its unique offerings, such as the AccuWeather MinuteCast, which is aimed at the mobile audience, Dokes said. Not only is MinuteCast short enough to be considered snackable (and therefore mobile-appropriate) content, it also allows consumers to receive personalized weather information, which means up-to-the minute and down to their street addresses or GPS locations.
“The advent of the smartphone and the pervasive use of mobile apps has created an explosion of use and awareness of AccuWeather forecasts because our goals and strategic relationships were ideally aligned with the rapid developments in technology,” Dokes explained.
Another reason AccuWeather is seeing such large growth in mobile content consumption is due to its partnerships with some of the largest device manufacturers in the world. These have helped drive exponential growth in mobile traffic and application downloads and created new levels of global brand awareness.
However, mobile is not just a platform for distributing AccuWeather content; it is also an important marketing channel for the company, Dokes told CMO.com. In fact, every single marketing program the company runs has a mobile component.
“Mobile is always an integral part of our marketing strategy for any major campaign,” Dokes explained. “It’s an important way to reach our global audience, who, in many parts of the world, may be getting the majority of their Web access on mobile devices, and [it’s] a major driver for audience expansion. Every new innovation in forecasting we make is optimized to serve all mobile as well as Internet audiences. That’s why [content such as] MinuteCast and the 45-Day have been consistently available in our mobile products.”
Mobile MetricsAccuWeather, along with most other companies today, is grappling with mobile measurement. “It is a challenge, when covering over a billion devices worldwide, to know all of your diverse user groups, [which is why] metrics are extremely valuable to us,” Dokes said.
AccuWeather relies on a number of third-party metrics solutions, as well as partner-provided data, and its own numbers to get a clear picture of who is consuming its content and on which devices. Since AccuWeather content is inherently location-specific, the company has an advantage over many other enterprises.
“It allows us to optimize yield on driving engagement,” Dokes said. “Ultimately, our user may encounter AccuWeather on multiple screens throughout the day–her smartphone, tablet, work computer, digital display at the gas pump, in the taxi cab, or on his digital TV at night. All of this creates a great opportunity for AccuWeather brand awareness. We are a part of our audience’s whole day, helping to guide and protect their interests.”
AccuWeather’s mobile team is comprised of mobile leadership, marketers, solutions developers, and product and public relations managers. The company also has a dedicated social media team that monitors the trends in online and mobile social interactions and explores new platforms for both the Web and mobile. Social media compatibility is a key consideration in all of AccuWeather’s mobile and Web properties; a significant portion of interactions, such as likes and retweets, come from mobile devices.
“User-generated content is very important to AccuWeather, and mobile users are a great resource for on-the-scene images and observations,” Dokes said. “Often the earliest images and firsthand observations available from the scene of an extreme weather event come through people’s smartphones and other mobile devices, and we are able to use those images in our news and social media postings.”
AccuWeather’s Mobile FutureIt’s a very exciting time to be working at AccuWeather, as the meaning of mobile begins to shift in the industry, Dokes said. Gone are the days where mobile can be defined as just a smartphone or a tablet, which is why users will soon be able to access AccuWeather weather information via connected cars, wearables, and smart radios.
In 2016, Dokes said, consumers can also expect to access AccuWeather content via smart appliances and smart homes.
“The overall goal is to surround the user with reliable forecasts that will see users through every aspect of their days,” Dokes said. “They can wake up in the morning and check the day’s forecast on their smartphones, check their tablets, connected car dashboards, or smart watches for commuting weather updates, review evening weather from their computers and work, and check the weekend forecast on their connected TVs at home.”
Because weather affects every part of our lives and our economy, new technologies will always mean new ways to access weather content,he added.
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