Phones ads may adjust to weather

The next time you check a cell phone's Internet weather report on a cold and rainy day and see ads for umbrellas and Caribbean vacations, it might not be a coincidence.

Proving that not even Mother Nature is untouched in the online advertising boom, Atlanta-based Weather Channel Interactive plans to announce this week a mobile marketing technology that aims to match ads to the weather at a person's location.

The announcement of this "weather-triggering" technology is expected at the CTIA Wireless industry show in Orlando, Fla.

"Coca-Cola could advertise a hot beverage when it is cold outside and could advertise a new Coke Zero when it's hot outside," said Louis Gump, vice president for the Weather Channel's mobile division.

The technology relies on a system that labels and organizes every U.S. ZIP code, town and city. It delivers appropriate weather information and advertising when a person enters a location on a search form.

Location-based mobile services, such as shopping, social networking and wireless gaming with nearby people, are often seen in Asia but are relatively new in the United States.

Wireless carriers also have been wary of alienating consumers with advertising on phones and other gadgets, especially promotions that use collected personal information, analysts say.

But the Weather Channel is a special case, said Charles Golvin, principal analyst with Forrester Research.

"You have to tell the Weather Channel where you are, otherwise you can't get relevant weather information," Golvin said. He said the company has had a forward-looking approach to mobile and is "very good at leveraging that infrastructure for selling advertising."

Millions of users

About 22 percent of people who Web-surf on phones and other mobile gadgets visit the Weather Channel, making it the No. 2 online destination after Yahoo Mail, according to research by Telephia and comScore Networks.

Of the more than 200 million wireless subscribers, about 11 percent -- or 22 million people -- use mobile Web sites, Golvin said.

The Weather Channel began its mobile business in 1999. It now produces more than 4,800 video clips each day specifically for mobile users and provides an array of local forecast maps, the company said. The heaviest users include business travelers and parents.

The Weather Channel is still pitching its weather-based mobile marketing to advertisers, but consumers could experience it within months, Gump said. The ads will likely appear as small graphic banners atop weather forecasts on mobile Web pages.

Gump described the weather-triggering process as complex but said that ultimately, the automated decision-making is simple.

"If sunny, then fizzy drink," he said. "If rainy, then latte."

The Weather Channel has used similar technology at weather.com for desktop and laptop users.

"If you're sitting in Chicago in a snowstorm and you're checking your forecast, maybe you'll see an ad for Aruba or Jamaica," Gump said. "And even the copy will say something like: 'It's 15 below and snowing there, it's 85 and sunny here.' "

Virtual online world

The Weather Channel also has recently set up shop in Second Life, the virtual online world created by Linden Lab in San Francisco. More than 4 million "residents" in the 3-D environment use characters called "avatars" to experience dance clubs, shopping and a currency that can be exchanged with real dollars.

On "Weather Island" the big attraction is, naturally, the weather.

Besides showing off the channel's programming and offering sports games such as skiing and surfing, the island is home to what the company calls "dynamic weather effects, from blizzard conditions in the mountains to torrential downpours in the desert."