We wanted to remind visitors that in the Pacific Northwest, you don’t have to go very far to feel like you’re somewhere new. We reminded Oregonians and tourists that if you don’t like the weather where you are, you can just head in the direction of better weather immediately. It attempts to solve the problem of the lack of Winter visitors to Oregon in a fun, shareable way that, as far as we can tell, has never been done before. We hoped some people will see that there’s sunshine just an hour away and start driving in that direction (and they did!), but this tool ultimately served to inspire people in Oregon to think about traveling around our state when the weather is getting them down.

The Weather Compass launched 12/1/2016 and had paid media support driving to the mobile experience through January. We designed the mobile interface as a simple, fun and friendly tool, because we realize visitors to Oregon might be in a panicked state about their wet vacation. The site loads on users’ smartphones to show them where they can find sun, snow or rain anywhere in Oregon. It works just like a compass, because that’s what it is. We’ve added three icons that tell users in realtime the direction of the weather you’re seeking, along with what you’ll find there, activity suggestions and driving directions, as well as a 7 day forecast in that location.

People were interested! Travel Oregon’s most clicked tweet during the Winter Campaign was about the Oregon Weather Compass.

People actually used it! Oregonweathercompass.com had 44,000 sessions in the first month with a total of 79,000+ page views

And when they used it, they really used it. Engaged users spent an average of 7:48 on the site, with an average of 8.36 pages per session (from the first 2 months of launch).

People were inspired to use it and told us about it on social media. “I had friends coming through from Texas when we (Portland) got hit by snow...I went to the site and figured out where to get out of Portland - somewhere with better weather so I didn't scare them into never visiting again.” - Ghada, real life user