The Weather Company partnered with Lotame and AWS Clean Rooms to supercharge mobile data analytics, achieving a 98% faster insight generation and a sevenfold increase in query efficiency. Discover how this collaboration pushes the boundaries of data analytics, enhancing data privacy, and transforming ad targeting strategies.
Given the breakneck speed of digital innovation nowadays, publishers need a competitive advantage. Standing out comes from the power of rapidly and accurately analyzing data. Take The Weather Company, for example, the global titan in weather data and forecasting, is supercharging their mobile analytics game after joining forces with Lotame and AWS Clean Rooms.
This powerhouse collaboration has slashed insight generation time by an eye-popping 98% and boosted query efficiency sevenfold, enabling The Weather Company to deliver data that’s not just fast but razor-sharp and hyper-relevant to its clients and partners. AWS Clean Rooms facilitates this by providing a secure environment where companies can collaborate on datasets without sharing or copying the underlying data, enhancing data privacy and compliance.
But let’s talk specifics. By digging deep into the behaviors and preferences of their travel audience, The Weather Company unlocked insights that go beyond the surface, fine-tuning strategies for travel advertisers. For instance, by analyzing user interactions on The Weather Channel mobile app, they can distinguish between frequent and infrequent travelers and preferences toward air versus land travel. This granular insight has allowed The Weather Company to craft finely tuned, targeted, and effective advertising strategies that deliver exceptional results for their advertising partners.
In our exclusive Q&A, I spoke with Dave Olesnevich, Head of Data & Advertising Products at The Weather Company, to unpack the technical challenges and victories of the integration. We explored how AWS Clean Rooms enhances data privacy and compliance, tackles the unique hurdles of mobile data, and shapes the future of ad targeting and campaign efficiency.
Lynne d Johnson: Given the increased scrutiny on data privacy and compliance, how does the AWS Clean Room technology help The Weather Company navigate these complexities? How has this transformed your day-to-day operations?
Dave Olesnevich: AWS understood the assignment when it came to creating a privacy-forward environment where multiple parties can collaborate with data quickly and easily. CISO’s office is more amenable to the clean room environment versus moving data out of house for engagements.
The AWS Clean Room isn’t magic though — participants have to bring high-quality data to the table in order to create insights that become actionable. We can control what data is accessible on a case-by-case basis, which is a table-stakes feature. The Weather Company now has a new way of working with our customers to create value. We’re still in the earlier days of utilizing data collaboration platforms for advertising engagements at scale, and I expect a lot more usage in the future.
LdJ: With the new system reducing the insight generation time by 98%, could you discuss how this acceleration has transformed your approach to ad targeting and campaign efficiency? How quickly can changes in weather patterns now influence ad placements?
DO: Time to value is going to change when we fully operationalize the system. The value is first to our customer, we can help them achieve their desired outcomes with a reduced number of hops in the process. The LOE to produce actionable insights for the C-suite is at our fingertips, so it’s not just paid, but owned and earned for the CMO and BPO, with opportunities for the CFO and COO as well. As weather becomes increasingly more impactful to the bottom line, we can help leaders harness weather intelligence for use across their business.
LdJ: How have these faster insights already impacted a campaign or strategy? What have been the most significant impacts on your business and client interactions?
DO: Now more than ever, we’re able to develop what we call a Weather Strategy for our customers across the enterprise, with less time blocking and tackling and more time spent unlocking the value of the insights to drive desired outcomes for advertisers across their entire media mix. Like many in our ecosystem, we’ve been working with Lotame and AWS for a long time. We’re all leaning in to build the next generation of advertising.
LdJ: Looking forward, how does The Weather Company plan to further leverage this enhanced data processing capability? Are there new types of data analytics or services you’re aiming to explore that were not feasible before?
DO: We’re just getting started. Targeting, measurement, attribution. We’re working with our customers to help them understand how weather impacts their customer behaviors and their business operations. End-to-end weather impact in advertising, from planning through activation and measurement is the future state.