Background

The Dolfinarium is the largest marine mammal park in Europe. Located in the heart of the Netherlands, it is a popular family and tourist attraction housing dolphins, walruses, sea lions and other animals. The Dolfinarium has various indoor and outdoor areas as well as on-site cafes, restaurants and shops.
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Challenge

Since the weather in the Netherlands is changeable, the reasons for going to The Dolfinarium can vary from day to day. For example during hot and sunny weather, the outdoor water park provides excellent fun for families looking to make the most of the sunshine. If the weather is cool, overcast or rainy, visitors may be tempted by the indoor amusements.

In the past, The Dolfinarium’s marketing agency, Red Online Marketing, would manually adjust Display ads based on the weather. This method proved both time consuming and not very accurate. Red Online Marketing began looking for a fully automated solution that could activate Display ads based on predicted weather over the coming 24 hours.
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Objective

The primary objective of the campaign was to drive website visits (and bookings) through customized weather-activated ads on Google Display Network (GND). As such, the main performance metric for the campaign was ad Click-through Rate (CTR). The target was to increase the CTR by 25% compared with the previous year.
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Strategy & Execution

Keeping the target audience and all other variables constant, Red Marketing partnered with WeatherAds for the weather activation piece. Together with The Dolfinarium, Red Online Marketing came up with 4 weather scenarios that would most resonate with their audience:

• Hot (25°C+)

• Warm & Dry (20-25°C and sun or dry)

• Warm & Rainy (20-25°C degrees and rain)

• Cool & Rainy (below 25°C and rain)

The 4 weather scenarios were then matched with corresponding creative and ad copy promoting the relevant USP for that condition. For example, the 'Hot' scenario ads promoted the water park, the 'Warm & Dry' ads drew attention to the other outdoor attractions, and the two sets of 'Rainy' ads focused on performances and indoor activities.

Results

The results of the campaign are summed up by Red Online Marketing in one word: “awesome!”

• 260% YOY Increase in CTR

• The WeatherAds GDN campaigns smashed the targets by 10X

• They saw a 260% increase in CTR, compared to the previous year, for the same budget.

• In total, the ads received almost 3.5 million impressions and over 18.5K clicks.

• The campaign saved Red Online Marketing hundreds of hours of manual ad management.

• Furthermore, the subset of the audience who did not click, still received a more relevant and memorable message. This added spin-off is not visible in the results, but still holds value.
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“Through the efforts of WeatherAds, we know that we can respond quickly and correctly to the needs of the target group with the uncertainty of the changing weather conditions. This is not only an improvement of the campaign result, but also an improvement for the image of our brand.”

- Cathelijne Benckhuijsen – Manager Marketing & Sales at The Dolfinarium

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