Wired for Weather

How Mother Nature impacts emotions, shapes memories, drives action, and boosts marketing success.

The universal power of consumer mindset marketing

Imagine if you could predict people’s emotions, behaviors – and purchases. You can. To get inside your audience’s head, start with the forecast. By understanding how weather affects the brain, you can also predict the impact of weather on buying behavior. We call this Mindset Marketing. And we’ve got it down to a science.

We partnered with a leading neuroscience firm to map what happens to the brain under different weather conditions. The findings are striking: Weather rewires emotions, memory, and decision-making at a subconscious level, where 90% of decisions are made.¹

By examining both conscious and subconscious responses to weather, we’ve identified four distinct weather-driven mindsets with unique moods, motivations, and behaviors: Creating, Relishing, Enduring, and Cocooning. These mindset marketing insights are essential for a truly effective weather marketing strategy.

Weather’s impact on behaviors and decisions

notice a difference in their mood due to the weather³

say their desire for change is inspired by the weather⁴

notice a change in their spending habits as the weather changes⁵

Mother Nature’s marketing superpower

Weather in all its forms is one of the most powerful – and potentially overlooked – signals in marketing. A weather marketing strategy provides the context for optimal consumer engagement including message content, timing, tone, and imagery. Leverage weather-driven mindsets and you can help boost your ROI by nearly 20%.⁶

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Mindset quick-takes for marketers

By aligning creative with specific Weather Mindsets, marketers can meet people where they are — emotionally and neurologically — and boost the effectiveness of every impression.

Creating: Bright skies, bright ideas

When the sun is shining, people are more receptive — and more likely to remember product details — if the brand’s tone matches their upbeat mood.

Weather marketing strategy: Campaigns timed to sunny weather can see a 10% increase in purchase intent.⁶

Relishing: Overcast days, introspective moments

Cloudy, neutral weather may slow down the brain’s engagement, but not its memory.

Weather marketing strategy: When brands break through the monotony with high energy or weather incongruent creative d, there is a 10% increase in detail memory — the driver behind purchase decisions.⁷

Enduring: Cold fronts, warm connections

When the weather turns stormy, the brain’s emotional and memory centers surge.

Weather marketing strategy: Brands that offer comfort, safety, or support can boost the engagement area of the brain by 29% and and global memory 25%.⁸

Cocooning: Hot temps, harder to focus

In hot, humid weather, cognitive functioning decreases significantly, making it harder to learn, recall, focus, and control our emotions.

Weather marketing strategy: Brands should lean into humor, entertainment, and keeping things clear and simple.

Weather Targeting

Market with emotional intelligence

We help you reach consumers when they’re most primed to engage, based on the actual weather they’re experiencing. AI-powered Weather Targeting advertising analyzes current and forecasted conditions to predict how people feel, what they’re doing, and what they’re likely to buy, ultimately driving weather-driven marketing ROI.

Explore Weather Targeting

The cost of weather-mindset misalignment

Brands often advertise with a seasonal ideal in mind. But weather changes daily, and with it, so do people’s emotions. This means the same ad won’t resonate with people in the same way every day. It also means you want your weather data from the world’s most accurate forecaster.⁹

less memorable message¹⁰

decrease in purchase intent¹¹

Let's talk

What’s your weather marketing strategy? To learn more about harnessing the power of weather to increase engagement and drive growth, contact our advertising experts today.

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_{^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11}Impact of Weather study, Neuro-Insight on behalf of The Weather Company, April 2025. Metrics are based on calculations from the NI study and actual ROI metrics may vary.}

_{⁹ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2021-2024, commissioned by The Weather Company}