Ads that Changes with the Weather

HEMA is a Dutch retail chain with 32.000 own products and services, more than 750 stores in 10 different countries on 2 continents and more than 19.000 employees. All stores are connected by a single passion: to make daily life easier and more fun.

HEMA wanted to reach their customers with relevant offers based on the notoriously changing Dutch weather. Instead of focusing their message on reacting to current weather conditions, HEMA and their agency Merkle turned their eyes towards the upcoming forecast. This proactive approach would ensure the retailer could inform customers with plenty of time for them to adjust their plans.

As part of this campaign, HEMA and Merkle identified two types of products to advertise online: products applicable for cold weather conditions and those keeping people dry during rainy days.

Aligning Product Catalogues with the Forecast

Such a dynamic and predictive model required a social advertising tool that provided speed, agility and automation capabilities. HEMA and Merkle enlisted the help of Smartly.io to execute a campaign that utilized a 3-day weather forecast and a novel format: a weather-based collection ad on Facebook. 

With Smartly.io’s Automated Ads and Instant Experience templates, HEMA and Merkle connected their product catalog to the weather feed. They used the 5-day weather forecast for the Netherlands on Province level and connected ads to it. 

If the forecast was "rainy," an ad version with "rainy" products was shown.If the weather predicted a wintry blast of cold on the horizon, an ad version with "cold" products was shown automatically. The ability to promote highly-relevant products directly to consumers based on an ongoing flow of dynamic content established HEMA as a retailer who cared about its customers’ well-being. Further, by feeding real-time stock updates and pricing information into these ads, it helped HEMA ensure its customers always had the information they needed to make a purchasing decision.

Sunny with a Chance of Increased ROI

Compared to other weather-based campaigns HEMA and Merkle had been running in the past, Smartly.io helped them achieve 27 percent higher ROI, and a CPA 25 percent lower than previous iterations.

“At Merkle, we stand for people-based marketing. In order to generate the best business results for our clients, we focus on creating relevant ads for the right audience. By partnering with Smartly.io, we have been able to actionize our weather-based campaign and offer the most relevant ads to consumers in real-time.”

- Desiree Stroet, Online Marketing Consultant, Merkle