Spring is near – March, April, and May forecasts point to warmer-than-average temperatures for most regions outside the North  – bringing a powerful shift in consumer behavior that marketers can’t afford to ignore.

As temperatures climb, days lengthen, and the first blossoms emerge, something remarkable takes place in the human brain. Consumers don’t just feel different, they think, act, and spend differently. There’s a reason for this —  a distinct, neurological state we call the Creating Mindset.

The Creating Mindset: Why spring changes everything

The Creating Mindset – one of four distinct weather-driven mindsets – represents a powerful brand-consumer moment. In groundbreaking research conducted with a leading neuroscience firm, we discovered that this predictable, seasonal shift influences how people process information and make decisions. During spring’s arrival, consumers feel more social, spontaneous, and energized to tackle to-dos. People aren’t just open to new experiences — they’re actively seeking them.

For brands ready to align their strategies with this mindset, the payoff is significant: Campaigns can see ROI boosts of nearly 20%.¹

Make the most of spring’s marketing magic

When your campaigns align with the Creating Mindset, you’re not just reaching consumers — you’re connecting with them at a neurological level when they’re most receptive.

Here’s how to craft a spring campaign that resonates with consumers during this season of renewal.

1. Launch something new

Spring isn’t just about renewal — it’s prime time for product and brand launches. Consumers in the Creating Mindset are exceptionally receptive to trying new things and motivated to buy. This makes for an ideal moment to introduce your brand or your products to the market. Their brains are set for discovery, and their wallets usually follow suit.

This heightened openness to new experiences creates a powerful opportunity for conquesting. For example, when consumers are feeling optimistic, they’re more likely to consider switching brands or exploring alternatives they might have previously overlooked.

2. Embrace the fresh-start mentality

As colder, dreary weather gives way to sunnier skies, people emerge with renewed energy. They’re heading outdoors, resuming social activities, getting motivated to begin fresh health and wellness routines, and investing in products that support healthier lifestyles. Social activity and spontaneity spike with nicer weather, driving more people to make an impulse purchase, shop in stores, dine in restaurants, and explore the outdoors. Position your brand as the catalyst for their fresh start, and you’ll capture attention when motivation peaks.

Spring is also the top season for both indoor and outdoor cleaning projects.²  In fact, 76% of parents tackle major indoor cleaning during the season,³ with two-thirds planning their cleaning schedules around weather forecasts.⁴

Likewise, brands in the home care, wellness, and lifestyle categories have a clear opportunity to meet consumers exactly where their seasonal priorities lie.

3. Lean into brand storytelling

During the Creating Mindset, engagement and memory centers are also heightened.. This means campaigns that embrace compelling storytelling don’t just capture attention — they create impressions that outlast the season.

This is your moment to go beyond product features and connect emotionally. Share narratives that resonate with renewal and transformation. When the brain is wired to absorb and retain, the stories you tell today become associations consumers carry with them.

4. Connect at the moment of intent with Weather Targeting

Powered by AI, Weather Targeting makes it easy and efficient to align your brand when and where people are primed for your message. As the world’s most accurate forecaster,⁵ we identify the specific atmospheric conditions at the ZIP code level – like a warm, breezy spring morning – that are shown in research to be associated with a sense of optimism.

Spring on the brain

Activate the Creating Mindset in your spring strategy and align your brand with the moment the brain is wired to be inspired. Spring weather isn’t just a pleasant backdrop for your campaigns. It’s a catalyst — and mindset marketing is how you harness it.

A single misplaced ad can cost your brand more than just money – it can seriously erode consumer trust. In fact, 71% of consumers believe the content surrounding a brand’s ad is a reflection of its values.¹ That’s where The Weather Company’s digital properties, like The Weather Channel app and weather.com, stand apart.

Powered by the world’s most accurate forecast data,⁴ The Weather Channel digital ecosystem helps people live safer, smarter, healthier lives. That same purpose drives how we support brands. Through trusted, science-based insights and contextual precision, we create an environment that empowers both people and advertisers to make a meaningful impact, grounded in brand safety in advertising.

A must-have for millions = a must-have for marketers

We power over 25 billion personalized forecasts daily⁸ across 2.2 billion locations around the globe.⁹ As a result, our digital ecosystem attracts one of the largest weather audiences worldwide, but the real story is the depth of engagement. Our users spend quality time with our content, return daily, and almost 90% opt in to share their location data with us.¹⁰

Why The Weather Channel is brand safe

Science-first approach to content

Weather is uniquely safe because it’s rooted in science-based facts, not opinions. For decades, The Weather Channel has taken a science-first approach to everything we do. Our forecasts are built on real-time data from over 100 global models, powered by proprietary systems like GRAF^TMand our AI-optimized multi-model ensemble, WxMix. A rigorous process, augmented by expert meteorologists, allows us to create forecasts on demand tailored to specific locations and moments.

Privacy-forward

Our platform respects user privacy while maintaining the contextual relevance that drives performance. Premium Experiences are delivered based on real-time weather conditions through Weather Targeting, not intrusive tracking. This means marketers can align campaigns with the weather, not controversial or risky user-generated content. You can reach your audience in ways that feel timely, relevant, and genuinely useful.

Proven accuracy, transparent results

The Weather Channel’s forecasts are built on proof, not promises. Through Human-over-the-Loop (HOTL) intelligence and our proprietary Forecasts on Demand (FOD) engine, we combine human expertise with advanced AI to deliver hundreds of thousands of personalized, real-time updates every second – forecasts grounded in science and transparency.

Collaboration and innovation

Our partnerships with organizations like the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and technology leaders such as NVIDIA drive the future of AI forecasting and visualization. By sharing methodologies and advancing scientific understanding, we build the openness and trust that define our brand and the safe, reliable environment advertisers value.

Advertising safety by design

Brand safety at The Weather Channel doesn’t stop with our content. It guides how we review, manage, and deliver advertising across our digital ecosystem. In doing so, we support ad compliance and responsible advertising aligned with industry standards, such as those of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). With straightforward policies, trusted verification partners, and contextual intelligence powered by weather, we help your campaigns run confidently and safely.

Strict client-facing ad guidelines

Our Advertising Content Policies outline which ad categories are allowed, restricted, or prohibited across our platform. These rules protect both users and advertisers by keeping out high-risk categories such as violence, adult content, political advocacy, and misinformation. Sensitive categories – such as alcohol, financial services, or certain health-related messages – follow extra requirements and review so campaigns run safely and appropriately. Additionally, our Global Blocklist helps make sure your ads never appear next to content that could undermine brand trust

These exclusions apply universally across inventory to maintain a consistently safe environment.

Global Blocklist protections

Our Global Blocklist prevents ads from appearing alongside sensitive or unsafe content categories. The blocklist includes categories such as:

• Violence and weapons
• Politics and polarizing topics
• Adult or sexual content
• Misinformation and sensationalism
• Certain health claims
• Gambling, drugs, and other sensitive verticals

These rules are enforced across all placements to safeguard brand environments and user experiences.

IAS & DoubleVerify inventory filtering

We also work with Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify to add an independent layer of protection. These partners help review and classify our inventory in real time, giving advertisers more control over the sensitivity and risk levels their campaigns run against. It’s an extra level of transparency and confidence built right into the platform.

Contextual relevance without intrusion

We use real-time weather conditions – not personal identifiers or behavioral tracking – to make ads more relevant. Weather Targeting, a data privacy-forward messaging approach, reaches people based on mindset and moment, like getting ready for rain, heat, or seasonal shifts, without relying on intrusive data. It’s a simple way to deliver timely messages while preserving the trust users place in our platform.

The power of trust in brand-safe advertising campaigns

When campaigns appear in high-trust environments, they naturally see stronger engagement and deeper consumer connections. Studies show that advertising and trust are closely linked to consumer behavior:

By placing your ad on our platform, you’ll be present during critical decision-making moments entrusted to us – from deciding what to wear, where to go, or what to buy.

Marketers are also recognizing that same connection between trust and performance. Recent research highlights how it shapes media investment decisions:

• 96% of marketers evaluate a platform’s safety and data practices before investing in ads²²
• 78% say trust is now a true competitive advantage²³
• 60% let a platform’s core values guide where they spend²⁴

Trust is the new ROI, the defining metric for long-term brand growth.

Take the brand safe route to high-performing campaigns

Today’s advertisers need more than reach. They need the right balance of safety, performance, and trust at scale. With a foundation rooted in science, a commitment to user trust, and a proven ability to deliver opportunities in advertising that are both relevant and effective, The Weather Channel advertising solutions provide an environment where brands can grow with confidence.

A new year sparks a natural surge in consumer optimism and engagement. Luckily, you can ride the wave of that ‘Day 1’ receptivity and spend all year long.

How? Become a Mindset Marketer. This year, resolve to look past the January hype and adopt a mindset-first marketing strategy that taps into the ultimate year-round trigger for human behavior: the weather.

Predicting the next “fresh start”

The fresh start effect isn’t limited to January 1. In reality, human optimism is cyclical. According to ground-breaking neuroscience research, a change in season acts as a psychological reset button. A sudden stretch of spring-like warmth during winter months, or even the first crisp autumn weather in summer can influence mood and decision making. We call this the Creating mindset.

A window for brand discovery

During seasonal firsts, the brain’s engagement and detail-memory centers are at their peak. This isn’t just about consumers feeling happy; it is a state of heightened curiosity and openness. When people are in a Creating mindset, they are more likely to seek out new experiences and routines, process complex information, and — most importantly — try new brands. For a marketer, this is the ultimate fresh start moment.

This is the ideal time for “conquesting” campaigns, product launches, or any message that requires a consumer to break an old habit and start a new one. When the weather triggers a Creating mindset, your audience isn’t just listening — they’re looking for what’s next, and spending accordingly.

How Weather Targeting predicts and captures the Creating mindset

At The Weather Company, our AI-powered Weather Targeting doesn’t just react to the temperature; it anticipates these renewed moments of optimism. While your competitors are fighting the mid-winter slump, a mindset-first marketing strategy allows you to predict exactly when a local weather shift will reignite a consumer’s desire to invest in their wellness routines, home organization, or healthy behaviors.

By layering atmospheric science with sophisticated machine learning, we help marketers move from reactive tactics to proactive strategy. This approach allows you to reach consumers with a “fresh start” message precisely when their environment is signaling them to begin something new — often before that renewed motivation even consciously kicks in.

• Anticipating intent: We move past basic meteorology to understand the “so what” of the weather. Our AI models analyze how specific conditions correlate with shifts in consumer intent, giving you a blueprint for human behavior.
• Privacy-first relevance: In a landscape where third-party data is disappearing, weather provides a powerful, high-intent signal. You can deliver hyper-relevant ads based on a consumer’s current context without needing to track their personal identity.
• Maximizing receptivity: Whether it’s the first break of spring sunshine or a crisp autumn morning, our technology activates your mindset-first marketing strategy at the peak of the Creating mindset when consumers are most open to discovery.

The AI-powered difference: Context without intrusion

The future of marketing is less about knowing who a person is, and more about knowing what moment they are in.

Beyond January: The perpetual performance cycle

The weather-brain connection isn’t a seasonal gimmick — it’s a perpetual cycle. The consistent, predictable influence of weather makes our AI-powered targeting relevant 365 days a year.

How the cycle of weather influences continuous consumer action:

• Spring renewal: As temperatures shift, the consumer mindset pivots toward renewal and pollen relief. This is the moment for brands to meet the surge in health and wellness activity – from starting new fitness routines and seeking out fresh, healthy foods to organizing the home and filling up the social calendar. It’s the peak time for brands to help consumers refresh every aspect of daily life.
• Summer sneak peek: The debut of summer heat shifts cognitive focus toward immediate refreshment and preparation. Consumers begin swapping in seasonal foods and beverages, updating personal care and beauty routines, and refreshing outdoor living spaces to enjoy activities like grilling.
• First fall: The first signs of fall trigger a nesting mindset. Consumers become focused on preparing their sanctuary for cooler weather, getting back to routines that may have lapsed in the heat of summer, and pivoting their palate to seasonal foods and beverages.
• Winter preservation: As daylight dwindles, the mindset moves into a state of emotional and physical warmth. Consumers are more responsive to themes of empathy, nostalgia, and comfort as those first magical snowflakes inspire holiday shopping and festive decor.

The takeaway for a successful 2026

Keeping your marketing resolution to achieve truly relevant, privacy-forward connection requires moving beyond static demographics and focusing on dynamic human context.

The most powerful, universal trigger is the weather. It’s time to harness the neuroscience of weather with a mindset-first marketing strategy and AI-powered targeting from The Weather Company. Through this approach, your message can be delivered at the moment of highest consumer receptivity. Cheers to that.

In the scramble for consumer attention, marketers are always searching for the ultimate signal of real-time intent. The truth is, that signal has been outside the window all along.

Every day, the weather dictates millions of consumer choices — from what people wear and eat to how they travel and shop. For advertisers, understanding this constant environmental shift is the key to achieving perfect contextual relevance.

Weather Targeting is the sophisticated advertising solution – powered by AI and data from the world’s most accurate forecaster¹ – turning these shifts into predictive insights. It moves past calendar-defined seasons and static forecasts to decode the intricate, often subtle, relationship between climate and human behavior. The result: brand interactions that are meaningful and timely.

Here’s a deeper dive into how and what Weather Targeting can deliver for marketers.

Built to fit your existing media ecosystem

Weather influences every decision — from how people plan to what they buy. That’s why it works as a decisioning signal across your entire media ecosystem.

Weather Targeting is built to fit right in. It integrates with every major platform and channel you’re already using — social, CTV, your preferred DSP or SSP — so you don’t have to change how you work.

Whether you’re running campaigns on our properties or elsewhere, you’re tapping into the same reliable weather intelligence that helps your business perform better. It’s a complete solution designed for the complexity of today’s ad ecosystem, without the friction.

Maximize impact, minimize waste

Stop running irrelevant campaigns and start improving campaign effectiveness across all your digital destinations. Weather Targeting reduces the guesswork. It’s the dynamic intelligence that helps better position your brand at the moment of consumer intent — a moment influenced by the weather around them.

With the arrival of winter, the air turns cold, the days grow short, and heavy clouds prepare for snowfall. Wardrobes change from light jackets to heavy coats and sweaters. But that’s not all that’s changing. A new consumer neuroscience research study from Neuro-Insight reveals there’s also a predictable shift in the brain ignited by winter weather. We call this the Enduring Mindset, and it’s a critical lever for brands running holiday advertising campaigns.

Far from being a time to go dark with the early setting sun, the winter season is a prime opportunity for empathetic winter marketing campaigns that build lasting trust and drive conversions.

What is the Enduring Mindset?

The Enduring Mindset – one of four weather-driven mindsets – is triggered by cold, snowy weather or a wintry, rainy storm. The emotional effect is so strong that many of us are noticeably, consciously aware of its impact on our well-being.

When people experience this mix of winter weather conditions, several key brain systems go into overdrive: Emotional engagement, global memory, and imaginative thinking become more active. This heightened state fuels deeper emotional processing and a stronger appetite for meaningful content and connection.

In this mindset, consumers crave comfort, safety, and connection with friends and family. They’re also more sensitive and open to connections with brands that make them happier, remind them of fond memories, and help them connect with loved ones. This nostalgic, emotional state opens the door for brands to become part of the very magic that makes the winter holidays so special – and a powerful opportunity to introduce cold-weather marketing ideas that reflect how people actually feel.

Nostalgia marketing and consumer behavior

By leveraging holiday nostalgia and the Enduring Mindset in your holiday advertising strategies, you can help strengthen the brand-consumer connection by increasing the relevance and resonance of your message. The power of consumer neuroscience in marketing is undeniable: Ads that match the emotion can be more effective, improving ROI by nearly 20%.¹

The impact of weather on nostalgia is particularly strong during the winter holidays:

• 53% of people say cold, snowy weather during the holiday season makes them feel nostalgic²
• 51% say the weather makes some of their holiday memories even stronger³
• 1 in 4 people say holiday advertising that includes relevant weather feels more memorable and impactful⁴

Key insight: Gen Z’s emotional connection to the holidays

Gen Z is even more likely than the general population to connect winter or holiday weather with their enjoyment of the season:

• 64% more likely to say it impacts their feelings of nostalgia or memories about the holidays⁵
• 65% say the weather makes some of their holiday memories even stronger⁶
• 62% say some of their happiest holiday memories are even better because of the weather⁷

As a result, 40% of Gen Z says holiday advertising that includes relevant weather feels more memorable.⁸ By understanding Gen Z’s profound emotional connection to winter weather, brands have a unique opportunity to build lasting relationships with this crucial audience.

Tactics to tap into the cold weather vibe

The Enduring Mindset is all about emotional sensitivity and desire for connection. What better way to create those connections than through heart-warming, holiday nostalgia? Meet consumers in the Enduring Mindset to drive:

• Brand affinity and loyalty
• Replenishment purchases for favorite products
• Repeated engagements

Here’s how to craft a holiday advertising campaign that resonates with consumers this winter season.

1. Lead with heart

Let empathy guide your messaging. Instead of a hard sell, create a narrative that makes your brand feel like a supportive companion during a difficult moment. This is a time for storytelling that evokes feelings of safety and nostalgia, not urgency.

2. Help check off to-dos

With all the excitement comes a little stress. People’s focus shifts to holiday prep, shopping and caring for others. Your brand can become a trusted resource by providing helpful, actionable content in the moment to bring comfort and peace of mind.

3. Embrace nostalgia

Familiarity boosts affinity. Choose visuals that evoke fond family memories of the season. Use a warm color palette that offers comfort from the cold, gray outdoors.

4. Show Gen-Z lots of love

Young people’s emotional centers are especially active right now. Match the emotion of your messaging to their mindset with Weather Targeting to build loyalty with this critical segment.

5) Use Weather Targeting to match the moment

Go beyond the forecast; anticipate the mood across all of your digital media activations. Weather Targeting is a targeting layer that uses AI to put your brand in front of consumers when they’re most receptive. As the world’s most accurate forecaster,⁹ The Weather Company helps you go beyond the calendar dates to identify the precise weather conditions that are scientifically proven to trigger the desire for warmth and connection. It’s this industry-leading precision that can help reduce media waste in your holiday advertising campaign, so you can target mindsets throughout the season, not just dates on the calendar.

Turn a seasonal shift into a strategic advantage

As the season changes, so does the brain. Winter makes us feel more, remember more, and connect more deeply – not just with people, but with the brands that understand us. The smartest winter marketing campaigns aren’t those that shout the loudest. They’re the ones that listen to the weather.

What if the most influential marketing signal isn’t hidden in a dashboard, but right outside your window? For years, marketers have optimized for content, time of day, and audience segments. But they’ve been missing the one lever that truly moves the needle: the weather. Weather-based advertising powered by Weather Targeting can transform real-world weather conditions into a marketing superpower. It’s a strategy that delivers context, relevance, scale, and, most importantly, measurable ROI for your campaigns.

What is Weather Targeting?

As data privacy regulations fluctuate and consumer expectations shift, brands are searching for ways to deliver relevance without surveillance. At its core, Weather Targeting is an innovative, privacy-forward strategy that leverages hyperlocal weather data to anticipate human (and consumer) behavior. Instead of relying on identifiers or third-party cookies, Weather Targeting uses AI to personalize and contextualize ad delivery based on real-time and forecasted weather.

By tapping into environmental signals at the ZIP code or neighborhood level, brands can automate media buys for the micro-moments when people are most likely to click, engage, or buy. With Weather Targeting born from decades of forecast expertise, advertisers can deliver relevance without tracking, cookies, or profiles.

Privacy-forward, precision targeting with layered audience signals

Beyond just the forecast, Weather Targeting taps into a broader set of audience signals for deeper relevance, including:

• Relative conditions-based: Align ads with weather mixes like heat, humidity, pollen, or air quality.
• Activity-based: Connect with people during known conditions that align with desired behaviors, such as in-store shopping, outdoor activities, and food delivery.
• Product-based: Use third-party sales data from sources like IRI and NielsenIQ to identify the optimal mix of conditions that lead to incremental sales.
• Health and wellness-based: Leverage privacy-forward signals such as anonymized patient reports, OTC sales data, and prescription sales data from IQVIA, academic journals, medical reports, and medical claims data, to anticipate health-related needs.
• Emotion-based: Tap into the proven connection between weather, mood, and motivation to stimulate consumer engagement.

Each signal is strengthened with weather context and layered with trusted third-party data, making them smarter and more predictive.

Why is weather such a powerful signal in advertising?

So much more than the topic of small talk, weather is the ultimate contextual signal – measurable, scalable, and rooted in the real world. Unlike other contextual inputs, weather influences both emotion and behavior in real time. It universally shapes where people go, what they do, and how they spend.

In fact, weather actually rewires the brain at a subconscious level, where 90% of decisions are made. Four distinct weather-driven “mindsets” – creating, relishing, enduring, and cocooning – influence memory, motivation, and purchase behavior in unique ways. By aligning creative and messaging with specific Weather Mindsets, marketers can meet people where they are — emotionally and neurologically — and boost the effectiveness of every impression. For example, campaigns timed to sunny conditions can see a 10% lift in purchase intent, while stormy conditions can increase emotional engagement by nearly 29%.¹

Proven results and ROI

Marketers across industries are already seeing the power of this predictive data science, with measurable results, including:

With predictive weather-based advertising, brands can plan and launch campaigns before consumer intent spikes – reducing wasted spend and maximizing ROI. The scale is unmatched: The Weather Company delivers insights across 44,000 ZIP codes and billions of intent signals monthly. It’s no surprise that this strategy drives results across industries and advertising channels.

Why are retailers turning to weather strategies?

Retailers are increasingly investing in weather-based advertising because it delivers measurable performance without compromising privacy. Weather emerges as a future-proof signal – objective, real-time, and universally understood. In fact, the data shows:

• 40% of daily retail sales variance is due to weather⁸
• 50%+ of consumers say their skin and hair needs change with the weather⁹

For retail brands, weather adds dynamic, real-world context that explains shifts in demand and helps tailor promotions to local conditions. A grocery chain can spotlight grilling supplies ahead of a warm weekend, while a clothing retailer may drive outerwear sales during the first cold snap. Even home improvement and DIY brands see measurable lifts when campaigns align with rainy-day or storm forecasts.

Retailers also value the geographic precision that hyperlocal weather data provides. Messaging can be adapted across ZIP codes, cities, or regions, accounting for the nuances that national campaigns often miss.

Ultimately, weather strategies allow brands to market with relevance at scale. Effective campaigns focus on real conditions, real needs, and real results.

Real-time responsiveness: Adapting campaigns to changing weather

When weather changes, consumer priorities shift – often quickly. Businesses that build flexibility into their marketing strategy can adapt in near real-time, reaching consumers with contextually relevant messages precisely when demand increases. The key lies in using weather as a reactive tool and a proactive signal for planning, activation, and optimization.

Short-term weather events – like storms, heatwaves, or cold fronts – can have immediate impacts on foot traffic, product interest, and purchase urgency. As a result, businesses that connect marketing to these conditions can shift ad spend toward the highest-performing regions, adjust creative assets to reflect the moment, and emphasize products suited to the current environment – all automated by Weather Targeting technology.

For example, a national retailer aligned its store promotion strategy with regional weather shifts by deploying warmwear and hot beverage promotions ahead of a cold front. The campaign produced a 12.2% lift in foot traffic, amounting to over 94,000 incremental store visits.¹⁰

The rise of real-time, weather-based advertising allows for even more responsiveness. Brands can deploy creative variations tailored to specific conditions (humid, overcast, chilly) across ZIP codes, adjusting message and tone to match local experiences. It’s marketing that feels alive, because it is.

How weather amplifies your marketing calendar

Some of the most effective advertising campaigns connect with audiences during shared cultural moments, big and small. But what amplifies those campaigns isn’t just the calendar. It’s the weather. Weather-based advertising allows brands to align creative with the season and how that season feels in a specific location at a specific time.

Football season

From planning moments leading up to the game to tailgates and watch parties, fall football traditions are deeply tied to the weather. As temperatures drop, fan rituals shift toward warm food, seasonal apparel, and outdoor gear. Brands can activate campaigns when the first chill hits, serving ads for chili ingredients, fleece pullovers, or team gear.

Halloween

Halloween shopping is often driven by short-term weather conditions. A sunny weekend in mid-October may drive costume purchases and outdoor décor, while a soggy forecast can spike demand for indoor entertainment or candy.

Entertainment

Weather directly impacts what people choose to do in their downtime. Rainy days or chilly nights often increase interest in streaming services, movie rentals, or cozy at-home activities. Weather-activated ads that promote these entertainment experiences at just the right moment can drive engagement and viewing time without needing personal data.

Holidays

Holiday campaigns often follow fixed calendars, but consumer behavior doesn’t. A sudden cold front can kickstart interest in warm beverages, travel deals, and gift planning – well before traditional campaign dates.

Weather Targeting helps brands tap into cultural moments using real-time environmental context. This elevates seasonal advertising from reactive to anticipatory. It also makes brand messaging feel perfectly timed.

Activating weather data in your media plan

Brands and agencies are integrating weather-based advertising across high-impact channels like connected TV (CTV), retail media networks (RMNs), and programmatic curation.

Within CTV

CTV offers a high-attention environment where mood and timing matter. By using weather-activated ads, brands can tailor creative to match a viewer’s emotional state or physical environment – without relying on identifiers.

Within RMNs

RMNs are increasingly central to retail strategy, and hyperlocal weather data adds a predictive layer that enhances their power. Retailers and brands gain the ability to segment campaigns by location, weather condition, and season, offering meaningful experiences without user tracking. Easy integration through Deal IDs or programmatic platforms helps Weather Targeting scale quickly across campaigns, without additional operational complexity.

Within programmatic curation

Programmatic curation allows marketers to pre-package inventory with enhanced context. Adding weather data enriches curated deals with real-world signals so impressions reach consumers at the right moment.

Why The Weather Company?

When every marketing dollar counts, you want to know you’re getting the most accurate weather intelligence possible fueling your campaign. With decades of data and proprietary AI forecasting models, we are nearly 4x more likely to be the most accurate than our closest competitor.¹¹ As the global leader in contextual weather intelligence, The Weather Company powers over 2 billion daily forecasts across 178 countries, integrating into CTV, RMNs, programmatic platforms, and beyond. We forecast weather and help brands forecast demand.

Outsmart the competition with a weather-based strategy

As data privacy becomes the new standard, relying on outdated strategies is a risk. Weather-based advertising is the future-ready solution that lets you win on relevance, not personal data. Whether you’re planning for peak season or optimizing your always-on campaigns, The Weather Company can help you connect with consumers in the moments that matter most.

Fall is officially here, and with it comes our first taste of cool, crisp air and hotly-anticipated pumpkin spice lattes. Have you noticed that these seasonal rites also bring a feeling of optimism and new possibilities? This isn’t a coincidence – it’s a predictable psychological state we call the Creating Mindset.

In a recent, groundbreaking research study with a leading neuroscience firm, we found that pleasant weather triggers this mindset, where people are primed for optimism, discovery, and new experiences. For marketers, this isn’t just a good mood; it’s a golden opportunity to launch products, drive spontaneity, and significantly boost your brand’s ROI.

When the sun is shining and the air is cool, people aren’t just happy; they’re ready to say “yes” to new routines and aspirational purchases.

What is the Creating Mindset?

The Creating Mindset – one of four weather-driven mindsets – is an ideal state for driving consumer action. On sunny days when the temperature, humidity, and wind speed signal fall’s arrival, the brain’s engagement and detail memory centers ignite.

In this mindset, consumers are curious, confident, and motivated to act. It’s an ideal time for campaigns designed to inspire spontaneity. Tailor your campaign to this mindset and you could boost ROI by nearly 20%.¹

How to tap into spontaneity

The Creating Mindset is all about seizing the moment. Introduce something new and bold, tell a positive story, and create memorable brand impressions. Your audience is primed for:

• Product trials
• Product and brand launches
• Conquesting
• Full price or impulse purchases
• Campaigns that inspire and educate

Here’s how to craft a fall campaign that resonates with consumers on a beautiful fall day.

1. Use action-oriented messaging

Conditions are primed for conquesting. Go after new audiences and steal loyalty. Consumers in this mindset are motivated to act. Your messaging should reflect this urgency and confidence. Use phrases that encourage immediate action, such as “Start Your Fall Adventure,” “Try a New Pumpkin Spice Recipe,” or “Refresh Your Wardrobe.”

2. Embrace “fresh start” mentality

Position your product or service as the spark for something new this season. Whether it’s preparing your home for colder weather, starting a new wellness routine, or getting a head start on holiday planning, align your brand with the consumer’s desire for a fresh beginning. This is a prime psychological state for launching products or highlighting new seasonal features.

3. Go bold with your fall creative

Your visuals should reflect the optimism of the season. Use a rich, vibrant color palette. The imagery should evoke a sense of optimism and seasonal beauty. Ads that go bold visually can drive 13% higher visual attention² and 19% stronger global memory,³ as they mirror the consumer’s upbeat emotional state.

4. Forecast your fall funnel with Weather Targeting

Powered by AI, Weather Targeting makes it easy and efficient to align your brand when and where people are primed for your message. As the world’s most accurate forecaster,⁴ we identify the specific atmospheric conditions – like a crisp, sunny autumn afternoon with low wind – that are scientifically proven to trigger a sense of optimism. It’s about more than seeing the season on the calendar; it’s knowing the exact moment the brain is wired to be inspired.

Coffeehouse brand perks up purchase intent with Gen Z

Using seasonal first Weather Targeting solutions, a leading coffeehouse brand connected with consumers when they were most likely to try new products and seasonal flavors.

A harvest of opportunity

Beautiful autumn days are far more than just pleasant weather; they are a predictable psychological forecast for marketers. By understanding and leveraging the Creating Mindset, you can align your brand with consumer optimism and turn fleeting moments of fall beauty into lasting connections and profitable conversions.

During football season, the most valuable play for marketers comes long before kickoff. It begins with the fan’s planning journey in the weeks, days, and hours leading up to the game.

From choosing what to wear to planning a tailgate, every decision is informed by a powerful and influential force: the weather. For smart brands, these aren’t just gameday details; they’re golden opportunities to connect with a highly engaged audience at their most receptive moments.

The power of planning: from outfit to outcome

This pre-game fan behavior is a consistent and predictable pattern. Consumers are in a distinct “planning mindset” as they prepare for outdoor sporting activities, and they turn to a trusted source, The Weather Channel digital, for guidance. Our data shows that:

This pre-event planning window is a prime opportunity for brands to influence decisions and purchases with relevant, weather-aligned messaging. But that’s not the only opportunity to score.

The ultimate sports marketing play

Let’s take the recent Philadelphia Eagles season opener, for example. We captured digital traffic data from the Philadelphia DMA to The Weather Channel digital platforms³ leading up to, and on, game day. Interest in weather created a surge of audience traffic surrounding this major sporting event. Spoiler alert: It rained opportunity for marketers.

Traffic on The Weather Channel digital platforms saw a significant increase as fans sought real-time updates and game day planning information. Key takeaways:

• Weather is your game day assist: Traffic began climbing around 12 PM, informing game day garb and tailgating options.
• Mother Nature is the MVP for pre-game purchases: We saw 5X higher traffic compared to average during the 5 PM hour as pre-gaming activities peaked.
• A weather delay is “go time” for marketers: In sync with the rain delay call, we saw 4X higher traffic compared to average during the 10 PM hour as fans anxiously awaited the fate of the game.

Why this matters for your brand

This behavior isn’t unique to the Eagles season opener. It’s expected for any major events and activities that are influenced by weather. Consumers will actively seek out information to inform and influence their plans. For marketers, this represents a unique opportunity to:

• Reach a captive audience: The Weather Channel’s platforms aren’t just for checking the forecast; they become a critical tool for decision-making. Of our 130M+ MAUs in the U.S., 81M+ have watched a sporting event on TV in the past year, and 37M+ have attended in person in the last 6 months.⁴ This creates a highly engaged, focused audience that is receptive to relevant creative messaging.
• Align with a trusted authority: The Weather Company is the world’s most accurate forecaster.⁵ Aligning your brand with this trusted authority can help enhance your brand’s credibility and relevance.
• Leverage real-time context: By leveraging real-time weather data through Weather Targeting, you can deliver contextually relevant ads that resonate with the consumer’s immediate needs and mindset.

In the fast-paced world of digital advertising – as in football – timing is everything. Rely on universal and performant weather signals to call the right play.

Key takeaways:

• Real-time weather data analysis offers a privacy-safe alternative to traditional targeting signals in performance marketing.  
• Consumer behavior shifts significantly in response to weather, making environmental cues a powerful tool for campaign relevance.  

• Weather-based targeting increases marketing ROI by aligning messages with real-time conditions that influence consumer actions and drive revenue or reduce waste.

• The Weather Company’s forecast accuracy gives marketers an edge in capturing the precise moments of influence that drive campaign performance.

Performance marketing is moving fast. With new tools, stricter privacy rules, and evolving consumer habits, brands are evolving how they connect with people. Today’s marketers need solutions that can forecast marketing performance and deliver measurable ROI while maintaining privacy and trust. As third-party cookies become unstable and other signals prove unreliable, the search for powerful alternatives is on. So, where can you find the next durable signal to fuel your performance marketing strategy?

Performance marketing success hinges on precision: the right message, to the right audience, at the exact moment they’re ready to convert. Performance marketers need reliable signals that can drive campaign optimization without compromising user privacy.

The answer might be simpler than you think: Look outside.

Environmental conditions are some of the most predictive yet underutilized signals in performance marketing strategies. Unlike demographic or behavioral targeting that relies on historical data, Weather Targeting taps into real-time intent signals that directly influence purchase decisions.

Turn the forecast into a competitive advantage

It’s one of the most reliable truths in human behavior: The weather outside dictates our decisions. A sudden heatwave doesn’t just change the temperature; it immediately shifts search volume, increases mobile engagement with cooling products and activities, and drives urgent purchase behavior. This creates optimization opportunities that traditional targeting methods can’t capture. It’s not just an observation — it’s the science of weather-based marketing.

Through detailed Weather Targeting, brands can move beyond reactive messaging and start shaping demand. The Weather Company provides the tools to do exactly that, offering a rich spectrum of performance-driving signals:

• Current & forecasted data: Allows you to react in the moment or, even better, activate a campaign just before a weather event hits. Imagine launching a swimsuit sale before a warm spell arrives, reaching buyers right as they start dreaming of the sun.
• Seasonal & relative signals: Go beyond the immediate forecast. You can target based on unseasonably warm winter days (a perfect cue for iced coffee promotions) or the first signs of spring allergies (a key moment for pharmacies).

Using this multilayered data, you are no longer just guessing what your audience needs. You can anticipate their behavior and fine-tune campaigns to reflect their real-world environment. Imagine layering predictive pollen-level data onto your first-party CRM data to engage customers who buy allergy medicine. It’s how you stop reacting to the market and start predicting it, all guided by insights from the world’s most accurate forecaster.²

Optimizing campaign performance with weather intelligence

Real-time bid optimization

Weather targeting enables automatic bid adjustments based on environmental conditions. When temperatures spike, your cooling product campaigns can automatically increase bids, capturing high-intent traffic before competitors react. Conversely, when conditions aren’t favorable, budgets can be shifted to better-performing segments to maximize overall account efficiency.

Attribution window alignment

Weather events create compressed attribution windows – consumers move from awareness to purchase much faster when environmental factors drive immediate need. Performance marketers can adjust their attribution models to capture weather-influenced conversions that might otherwise be missed in standard 7- or 30-day windows.

Audience expansion at scale

Traditional lookalike audiences rely on past behavior, but Weather Targeting identifies prospects based on current environmental conditions that drive similar purchase intent. This creates scalable audience expansion opportunities without requiring additional user data.

These capabilities give marketers the precision and adaptability needed to increase marketing ROI across every weather-influenced touchpoint.

From insight to action: Activating your weather strategy

The true power of weather intelligence lies in its seamless integration across your marketing ecosystem. Smart weather data analysis reveals high-impact insights that forecast marketing performance, helping brands identify opportunities that traditional demographic signals often miss. The benefits of real-time data are most apparent here; this isn’t a siloed performance marketing strategy but a dynamic layer of insight that amplifies the channels you already use:

• Programmatic integration: Weather signals can activate across display, video, and social platforms simultaneously, allowing for consistent messaging while optimizing budget allocation in real-time across channels.
• Cross-channel orchestration: A single weather event – like the first 90-degree day of the year – can trigger coordinated campaign adjustments across search, social, and programmatic channels, with automated budget shifts toward the highest-performing placements.
• Performance measurement: Weather data provides clear test-and-learn frameworks. Compare campaign performance during similar weather conditions to isolate the incremental lift from Weather Targeting, building proof of concept for broader implementation.

Getting started is fast and frictionless

You can activate weather-based campaigns instantly through programmatic ad buys and APIs with partners like Salesforce and Meta, or by using Deal IDs in your DSP. This allows you to enhance your existing first-party data with powerful, real-world context. Imagine a customer in your CRM who previously bought hiking gear; you can now automatically send them an email about trail-ready apparel the moment a perfect weekend forecast appears.

This entire process strengthens your performance marketing strategy without complexity or compliance headaches. By layering weather signals onto your campaigns, you achieve powerful relevance and scale without ever relying on sensitive personal data.

Your foundation for a brighter tomorrow

Performance marketing strategy depends on data accuracy. The Weather Company’s proven forecast accuracy³ gives performance marketers confidence in their optimization decisions, providing a foundation for impactful, results-driven campaigns that justify investment and improve overall advertising effectiveness.

The future isn’t about relying on a single signal, but about creating a richer consumer context. The true innovation lies in how weather intelligence enhances other data sources. This fusion of environmental and personal data is where marketing becomes truly predictive.

The question isn’t whether weather affects your audience – it’s whether you’re optimizing for it.

After a summer that kept many of us reaching for the A/C, there’s a collective anticipation in the air. Will fall bring the relief we crave, or will record-breaking weather patterns continue to influence our daily lives? For marketers, this isn’t just about personal comfort; it’s about unlocking crucial insights into audience behavior.

In today’s attention-scattered marketplace, timing is everything. Finding the right moment to connect with your target audience can make your brand impossible to ignore. What if your fall marketing strategy and campaign could tap into the perfect timing shaped by something as universal yet dynamic as the weather?

The 2025 fall outlook: What marketers need to know

Forecasts aren’t just daily updates — they’re profound influencers of mood, mindset, and motivations. That’s exactly why staying ahead of consumer behaviors and weather trends matters so much.

Looking ahead to fall 2025 weather predictions: Early forecast indicators suggest that above-average temperatures will dominate most regions. The impact of these changes matters for every brand marketer and media strategist.

What makes these early forecasts so essential for your marketing strategy? For starters, these shifts in temperature, precipitation, and air quality directly influence people’s daily routines and purchase decisions. Imagine:

• Lower humidity levels that intensify allergens — signaling purchases of allergy, cold, and flu treatments
• A prolonged warm spell delays purchases of fall back-to-school apparel
• An early frost that drives key pre-game planning decisions for football fans (hats and hand warmers, anyone?)

When accuracy meets opportunity

The Weather Company is nearly 4x more likely to be the most accurate forecaster than the next closest competitor.1 It’s this precision — combined with advanced AI and deep behavioral insights — that delivers the most actionable intelligence for marketers. As a result, you can meet people exactly when the weather influences their daily decisions and behaviors. And naturally, this helps your message resonate when it matters most, ultimately driving more incremental success and positive outcomes for your campaigns.

Fall marketing strategy: How does weather influence industries?

Weather influences what people feel, try, and buy — opening up exciting possibilities for businesses. Explore how fall’s weather patterns can enhance your seasonal marketing strategy:

Fall health and wellness: allergy, cold, and flu season

Fall allergens like ragweed and mold thrive under specific weather patterns, amplifying  symptoms and driving demand for relief products. Meanwhile, cooler temperatures and lower humidity create ideal conditions for viruses to spread, marking the start of cold and flu season.

Back-to-school fall marketing strategy: Weather drives a second wave

Beyond the initial back-to-school rush, weather creates predictable shopping patterns, with sunnier days driving in-store traffic and inclement conditions prompting shoppers to go online. Discover how to align your marketing mix with weather signals that send shoppers to checkout.

Football and weather: A game-winning connection for fan engagement

For sports fans, weather isn’t just small talk. Wind, temperature, and precipitation impact everything from gameplay to betting decisions to fan experience —  from regular season all the way into the playoffs, even when games are held indoors.

From forecast to conversions: your fall weather marketing roadmap

Ready to transform your marketing as temperatures fluctuate and seasonal routines shift? That’s where we come in: The Weather Company empowers brands to connect with people at the most relevant moments. Whether it’s ragweed season or the first cold snap, your brand message will reach people exactly when fall weather influences their purchasing decisions.

Transform weather into your advantage for fall marketing campaigns with these weather-driven advertising solutions:

• Reach audiences on The Weather Channel Digital: Connect with 330M+ global monthly users5 through premium advertising experiences and high-impact creatives that deliver contextually relevant messages during fall planning routines. Our platform goes beyond the forecast to offer personalized tools, such as Allergy and Cold & Flu Forecasts. These experiences naturally integrate brands into daily health decisions when audiences actively search for trusted solutions. This strategic placement drives real-time brand awareness, purchase consideration, and action.
• Enhance relevancy and efficiency with scalable weather data across the digital ecosystem: Our advanced Weather Targeting, powered by AI-driven technology, helps align your messaging with local weather patterns. We analyze the impact of real-time and forecasted conditions on people’s emotional responses, activities, and purchasing behaviors. This intelligence helps brands activate campaigns when fall weather creates the most receptive audience mindset. This precision approach drives higher engagement, increased conversion rates, and more efficient ad spend for your fall marketing channels.

Time to weather-proof your fall marketing campaigns

When it comes to your fall marketing strategy, don’t let valuable marketing moments pass you by. While fall brings constant change, there’s one key to understanding shifting audience behaviors. Weather.