Social listening uncovered the insight that women in Canada weren’t simply struggling with the day-to-day of a routine Canadian winter, but their beauty routines were under siege.

Using inputs gathered from social listening, historical weather patterns and beauty product information, we planned and produced a library of short video videos and headlines that would run in various combinations in a hyper-targeted and hyper-contextual way.

Using data services and APIs directly from the Weather Network, we developed an algorithm that matched 50 atmospheric conditions to customized video messages. Over the course of 2 weeks, the digital billboard displayed 180 original video messages that provided real time beauty solution for real time weather problems.

Data was core to the campaign’s strategy. It was used at the briefing stage of the campaign as well as throughout planning and execution. At the briefing stage, a social listening audit helped to unearth the original insight as it applied to winter’s impact on women’s look and helped us identify areas of the country where sentiment and volume on the topic were strongest, which then helped to prioritize locations for OOH media purchasing.

From an execution perspective we worked closely with Canada’s largest weather media provider to identify the top winter conditions, their probabilities and regionality to inform the content creation. Further, a unique API was developed as well as back end delivery structure that would allow custom messaging to be displayed in real time based on current weather conditions at the site of the digital video boards.

This data driven execution, was a first for Canada’s largest outdoor video board, and the results were impressive. In the span of two weeks, the digital billboard generated over 20 million impressions and an impressive 92% unaided awareness for those who passed by. The real-time weather messaging caught the eye of passers-by and 73% of people said they were likely to visit a store, resulting in a lift in store traffic during the campaign of 40,000. From brand perspective, the results indicated that campaign achieved the desired emotional connection piece as well. Those who saw the digital billboard, 97% had a positive impression, and 3 in 5 felt that Shoppers was a brand that they trusted.