Typically, allergy-relief brands begin marketing in late winter in anticipation of the onset of allergy season. But spring is also the start of baseball season, a time when millions of people are at stadiums breathing fresh-cut grass and pollen. Working in concert with the GSK marketing clients, our idea overtly linked allergies to America’s favorite pastime.

Leveraging our partnership with The Weather Channel, we provided real-time, geotargeted allergy data to the 10 most pollen-prone stadiums in the country.

Via electronic billboards, we served real-time pollen counts and drove viewers to The Weather Channel/Flonase Allergy Tracker, a first in providing a 5-day local allergy forecast.

By taking the guesswork out of a bad allergy day, the experience served as a daily reminder to use FLONASE and manage allergies proactively.

We supported this effort with social and display media, including a YouTube takeover on Opening Day of the 2018 Major League Baseball season starring World Series¬–winning pitcher Justin Verlander.

From a data standpoint, we targeted Major League Baseball stadiums in the 10 most allergy-prone US cities, flashing real-time allergy reports from electronic billboards to fans attending the games. We further supported the effort with geotargeted local display media featuring the Allergy Tracker.

On the Google front, two search terms peak at the start of spring: allergies and baseball.

With 300 million “allergy” searches and 1.4 billion “baseball” searches peaking (as measured by Google Analytics) in March 2017, the launch of baseball-themed allergy communications for the spring 2018 season was timed to work in concert with seasonal search behavior.

And, lastly, from a brand standpoint, we used this opportunity to address a common misunderstanding of FLONASE as offering immediate relief (as it takes 3 days to reach maximum efficacy). The pollen forecast served as a companion piece to reinforce proper adherence.

According to Google Analytics, so far in 2018, Flonase.com traffic is up 62% year over year, where a widget for The Weather Channel/Flonase Allergy Tracker sits. On The Weather Channel site, traffic to the FLONASE Allergy Tracker is up 6%.