Kathmandu is a well-regarded outdoor brand for travel and adventure gear in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, with four stores plus an online presence, within the UK region.
Challenge
The outdoor travel brand challenged The Weather Channel to devise a campaign which would reach its target audience of 18-44 year-old active adventurers, who check the weather to plan their days ahead.
Solution
In response, The Weather Channel proposed the brand and its seasonal gear be promoted to its target audience at the most relevant time, across mobile and tablet, using its pioneering weather-intelligent marketing platform, WeatherFX.
This activity formed part of a wider campaign Kathmandu ran to raise awareness of the brand across the UK.
Process
By using its award-winning native advertising platform, Branded Backgrounds, The Weather Channel delivered Kathmandu’s creative that defined current weather conditions for sun, rain, cloud, winter.
Through this, The Weather Channel promoted Kathmandu’s seasonal clothing lines at a time when the consumer was experiencing weather conditions that were most relevant to the brand’s products, therefore making Kathmandu brand top-of-mind and the gear relevant.
Results
The campaign was successful and delivered consistently throughout. In the final week of the campaign, maximum impressions delivered were at 40,000 compared to the campaign average of 8,000.
There was a significant difference between how each campaign creative performed during the different weather conditions. Each creative did resonate with consumers during snowfall and strong winds which are seen as the most influential factors in the period. The colder weather was relevant to the seasonal products of down and rainwear being promoted and supported the gear’s technical quality.
Sun creative:
This creative’s performance was the most affected by the weather. CTRs increased significantly with the rise in windchill and fall in temperature suggesting not only that the brand’s message resonates more as temperature falls but also how the temperature feels to consumers.
Rain creative:
The strongest consumer engagement with this creative is during days of snow and relative humidity. High humidity in this period are highly likely to present days of mist, drizzle and fog. Weather best suited to the rainwear gear.
Cloud creative:
The strongest correlation with this creative and weather are with strong winds and snowfall. Engagement did increase on days of low UV Index, suggesting dark, cloudy days, evidently reflected in the creative imagery and relevancy of the gear.
Overall campaign ad engagement peaked during the coldest periods of the campaign and during days visibly and obviously unpleasant, weather applicable to gear designed to perform in colder weather conditions.
The Weather Channel Branded Backgrounds were an effective component of Kathmandu’s online activity, driving engagement with average CTRs of 0.72% vs 0.5% planned, and helping to strengthen the brand perception for quality adventure gear in any weather conditions.