The new functionality means that advertisers can “target programmatic buys using a variety of pre-bid weather data attributes including temperature ranges, presence of various weather events, current conditions, flu severity and, soon, pollen counts”.

Sizmek says that weather data is “easily layered” with other types of targeting, including geography, demographic, interest, behavioural and content-based data. “It also allows for a granular form of location-based targeting that does not require selection of specific regions/DMAs,” the company says.

Alex White, vice-president of product strategy at Sizmek, says: “Given the effect weather has on consumers’ immediate plans and activity, as well as purchasing decisions, properly aligning ad creative to current weather conditions is an especially powerful and relevant way to target audiences.”