Proprietary agency research confirmed that one of the top 3 triggers for soup consumption is cold weather: it’s the reason 21% of soup purchasers are triggered to buy.

Digging deeper under that data, we found our real insight: unlike any other hot food alternative for winter weather eating, people find it reassuring to open the same red and white Campbell’s Soup can their moms used to because those memories warm the heart, just as much as the tummy. Viola!

Digital: In an industry-first, Campbell’s partnered with IBM Watson and The Weather Channel to create cognitive digital display ads that dynamically served cold weather recipe suggestions when temperatures met storm parameters.

Television: TV ads ran only when a major storm was forecast. Plus, creative was customized in real-time: ‘Winter Storm Jonas hits tomorrow: do you have enough Campbell’s soup to make it through?’

Out of Home: To reach consumers stocking up on fuel before storms, gas station video screens served Campbell’s messaging when a storm was imminent, and helped people locate Campbell’s products nearby.

Search: Geo-targeted search ensured Campbell’s was discovered during searches for local storm or cold weather inquires.

Social Media: Real time keyword targeting across Twitter and Facebook ensured Campbell’s became a part of cold weather and storm conversations as they happened. Emoji targeting even intercepted people tweeting weather emoji’s like snowflakes and frozen faces!

IBM/Watson

• Watson’s results were genius: 14MM impressions were served in the first month of activity

• 10M one to on consumer engagements on the platform

• 7M recipes generated based on data triggers

Digital

• Since the launch of our weather-triggered campaign, mobile and desktop is outperforming engagement benchmarks by 9X

Gas Station OOH

• For those who recalled seeing a Campbell’s gas station ad, purchase intent increased 12%

Search

• Introducing weather keywords into our search campaign yielded an increase in CTR by more than 7%

Consumer response/Social Listening

• Dubbing storm names into TV ads surprised and delighted--creating extra attention and conversation by people as measured via social listening

When it comes to creative, smart media thinking, this Campbell’s plan sets a new standard (gold perhaps?).

Why? We found the key to selling more Campbell’s soup is to inextricably link it to winter weather. That meant adopting a storm chaser mentality: find storms before they start, then remind people to buy Campbell’s as they prepare.

To make unpredictable weather predictable, we injected cutting edge data and technology to ensure messaging was delivered in REAL TIME, AT SCALE, AND ACROSS CHANNELS whenever Mother Nature got nasty.

Hopefully you’ll agree, it’s certainly no run-of-the-mill ‘spots and dots’ approach…

The path became crystal clear: the key to selling more Campbell’s Soup is to inextricably link it to cold, wintery weather. As a planning team, that meant adopting a ‘storm chaser’ mentality: find winter storms before they start, then remind people to buy Campbell’s Soup as they prepare to hunker down.

The problem is, Mother Nature is unpredictable. And that makes planning media a challenge.

To make unpredictable weather, predictable, the team turned to real-time data, cutting edge media technology, and sophisticated software to ensure Campbell’s media reacted to weather changes IN REAL TIME, AT SCALE and ACROSS CHANNELS.

Here’s what we did…

It’s a no brainer that when it’s cold outside, people want something warm to eat. That’s why snowy weather is a universal trigger for selling soup.

But with so many hot, delicious food options today, how could Campbell’s Soups rise above all the rest and be the choice hungry mouths turn to first when the weather gets really nasty outside?