Where Data Meets the Forecast: Randi Stipes on Storytelling at The Weather Company

0:00Hey, welcome to the CMO Whisper Show. I'm your host Steve Olenski. Part marketing practitioner, part ad agency veteran, part journalist. I was a writer for Forbes for 10 years. I've had so many insightful conversations over the years with business leaders, to athletes, to celebrities, to, of course, CMOs. The only difference now is instead of sharing those insights through written form, I'm doing it this way. My guest this week is Randy Stipes, the chief marketing officer at The Weather Company, one of the world's most trusted brands and most accurate forecasters. No stranger to marketing transformation, Randy challenges marketers to think differently about the weather and its business implications for every industry.

0:43Randy's career has been as straight as a circle. I've heard that before. With nearly three decades in media and marketing, she has served in a variety of functions across product, editorial, sales, and marketing, all providing her with a unique experience to unlock creativity and high performance on the teams she manages. In her previous role at IBM, She led developer marketing and brand advertising, where she was instrumental in launching IBM's brand platforms, Let's Create. She has received the industry's top recognition and awards from Cans Lions, Drum, Festival of Media, Global Awards, and many more.

1:18She is proud to be part of the 2024 award-winning Weather Kids Global Campaign, created in partnership with the United Nations Development Program, World Meteorological Organization, organization, and the Weather Channel, which calls for urgent climate action for future generations. And finally, as an advocate for positive industry and societal disruption, she sits on the boards of the Ad Council, Bridge, and the OAA Brown Council. She is also a mentor at the Marketing Academy. That's a mouthful, Randy. Welcome to the show. Thanks so much, Steve. Long-time listener, first-time caller, so thanks for having me.

1:55You were the first guest to say that, and my respect or you just went way up? Well, I mean, you are the CMO whisperer. Come on. You know, and for those who we just met for the first time, like less than a month ago, and it seems like I've known you forever. Yeah, I feel like we hit it off immediately. So I've been looking forward to the conversation. I cannot wait to jump in. I know my listeners are going to learn a lot from someone like you. It's going to be a great call. Okay. So let me start with the growing influence of weather in business and how marketers can leverage weather driven insights into their marketing strategies.

2:28That's a lot, right? And I think there's some disconnect. Like, wait a minute, why do I care about the weather if I'm a marketer? So let me start with CBG brands. Why should CBG brands consider a weather driven marketing strategy? Yeah. Well, first, before we even get to the brand implication, let's just talk about the weather for a minute. Let's do it. I think we need to put this in context. Perfect. Not saying it like, let's talk about the weather like we would as casual dinner party conversation because the weather has become, I feel like, anything other than casual dinner party or cocktail conversation.

3:01You know, extreme weather is the world's number one risk, according to the World Economic Forum. Just recently, the UN reported that the top 10 hottest years on record have actually happened in the last 10 years, including 2024, which was the hottest year ever recorded. And so weather is becoming, I could go on with a lot of the stats, hurricanes, you know, forming earlier and intensifying more rapidly. Bottom line is that weather is becoming more and more volatile and more and more pronounced and influencing our lives, I feel like in a way that we have never seen before. And so it is paramount for every brand across every industry to have a weather strategy.

3:49When we think about it, and I'll bring this back to CPG, but it really goes deeper. Why a brand should have a strategy is that weather I'd like to think of is it's the ultimate contextual accelerant. When we think about it, number one, it's local, right? It's emotional and it's constantly changing. And so I feel like savvy marketers, CPG and beyond, recognize that weather has a very nuanced impact on consumer behavior and emotion. So as weather patterns are becoming more erratic, their impact on consumer behavior is intensifying, and that makes weather-based marketing even more crucial. And so we've seen time and time again that brands that are able to come in and leverage this real-time kind of granular weather data and understand its nuanced influence on consumer choices, they're the ones who are creating campaigns that really connect meaningfully with consumers and deliver those tangible business results.

4:52So do you think there's a misconception, misperception that brands agnostic of industry don't feel like they don't have to really quote unquote worry about the weather per se? So it's a good question. I think that everyone recognizes that weather impacts their business. It's not like we that that's really debatable. But I think that there's two areas where brands where I've seen successful brands really lean in. And that is number one, recognizing that they can actually get ahead of this. I think a lot of brands right now and businesses tend to be more reactive to the weather. But how can brands get ahead of it and kind of understand historically how different weather conditions have impacted consumer behavior so that they can use that intelligence to drive future decisions?

5:39And then I think the second aspect of that is that even though brands might have a recognition that weather impacts their business, they're not really sure how to activate on it. We're all swimming in data right now, right? Probably no debate about that. I'm up to my eyeballs in data. I don't want more data. But what I need is to be able to extract the intelligence from the data so that I can actually activate on it. Like how can brands take more than just weather data? How can they go beyond the forecast and really extract those insights and apply them to those business through their business?

6:17So I would say, one, it's being able to get ahead of the weather and then being able to actually action on it. So what do you say? I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a second. Sure. My brain is only online. Why do I care about the weather? As long as someone can get on the internet, why do I care? Your brain is only online? Say more. Say more, Steve. My brand. Oh, your brand. Excuse me. Sorry. It's okay. So I'm an online only brand. Yeah. Right. Do I necessarily care? It doesn't matter. Yeah. It doesn't matter where your brand is. And that's because purchasing decisions, no matter whether someone is just online or they're in store, it's still impacting consumer behavior and how we feel and when we're going to be more receptive to certain messages.

7:00It really is agnostic of where your brand might be if it's online. But you see my point, though. I could see some brands thinking that. Certainly. What I would say is that the brands that we work with, which is really across all different types of verticals and industries, again, there does seem to be a recognition that whether it impacts their business. And what they're looking for is, and where we can help is when we take someone's sales data. So again, whether they're online or whether they're in store, no matter where they're showing up, we correlate that sales data with weather data that begins to unlock the intelligence that I'm referring to of what types of conditions are going to prompt certain behavior.

7:43And it used to be, right, it used to be when kind of going back to my earlier comments about how our weather is changing and the world is changing, where it used to be, I feel like, a lot more predictable. We had seasonal norms where we'd say, all right, we're going into the summer season. And so this is triggering a certain type of consumer behavior. I'm going to plan my media accordingly. Now, number one, those seasonal norms are out the window. Two, weather is incredibly relative. And so where are you sitting right now? Where are you based? Philadelphia. Okay. So how would 60 degrees in Philadelphia strike you?

8:1860 degrees right now? If it were 60 degrees in Philadelphia right now. Oh, yeah. In the middle of February, it would be very anomalous. Okay. So warm, right? People might be starting to go and dine al fresco or putting on different clothes, buying different products. So I'm in Florida right now. 60 degrees, according to my bones, it's a little bit cold. That's a very different behavior for me than for someone sitting where you are. And so understanding that it's also not a one size fits all equation, that weather is relative and therefore in turn makes people behave differently and be receptive to different types of things depending on what their internal temperature is telling them.

9:01So there's definitely a psychological and emotional side to this. Yeah, no question. Really interesting. Okay, I want to get back to it. I got a little ahead of myself earlier because I was so interested to talk about CPG brands, right? And I noticed a couple of great case studies we're going to get into. But just agnostic of the case studies for now, just CPG brands in general, if you're talking to them and why they should consider creating this, as you call it, weather-driven marketing strategy. Again, I think it goes back to because we can help them understand the consumer behavior and what's going to prompt that behavior.

9:33Let me give you an example of a brand that we're working with. So take off insect repellent. So right now we are working with them to use AI. We're probably just counting the seconds to when did AI enter the conversation, but here we are. We're working with them to use AI to help understand weather's impact on mosquito activity. And what they're doing is using this intelligence in their marketing to educate and keep people informed during peak mosquito times. Again, that's changing now because the physical weather conditions are changing. And as a case study, they are seeing tremendous results.

10:15You know, they are on all of their key brand lift metrics. Those are up. They're seeing increased favorability among those who are spending more than eight hours outdoors during the summer. And the other thing that they're able to do, and I think other brands are doing, is it might start with marketing. It might start with understanding how the weather conditions are going to impact and influence certain marketing decisions. But as marketers, we can bring that intelligence to the rest of the other functions within our business also. because the same insights might go ahead and help you determine when do I need to have more product on shelf?

10:54What should my pricing strategy be? Looking at supply chain. And so I feel like marketers have a real opportunity to kind of be a hero within their organizations, or at least be a uniter within their organizations. Going back to the point that we're all swimming in data, if it can start with a marketing use case, and you can kind of prove that out, you then have the ability to go ahead and bring that same intelligence to the rest of your organization to drive business results. Yeah, it totally can permeate other departments for sure. That's where I think it gets really interesting, right? Beyond, above and beyond just marketing.

11:28Yeah, you know, last year we announced new research. We released a report called Weather Means Business. And it found that, no surprise, 100 % of executives agree that weather intelligence can assist in getting the competitive edge. And the other, again, not hugely surprising, but that went well beyond marketers. And I think the other interesting stat that came out of that research is that half of those executives acknowledge that the impact has grown in the past five years. And it's not just severe weather. It's recognizing that all types of weather can impact someone's business. Like you need to get the sunny day strategy too, right?

12:12Of course. But by the same token, it's the proverbial rainy day. Yes. Right. And anywhere in between. That's right. So you mentioned the mosquito, S.E. Johnson. I know that was one. The other one I know I want to ask you about was CeraVe. Yeah. Yeah. So CeraVe has done some really interesting work. So for people not familiar with Cerebee, you know, parent companies, L 'Oreal, by the way, I feel like I'm still remembering the Cerebee Super Bowl commercial from 2024. Oh, yeah. That still left a lasting impression. But Cerebee was really working with us around this core insight that more than half of millennials, Gen Z and multicultural audiences, that was really their target.

12:55They change their personal care routine as the weather changes because their skincare needs change. When we look at those, that demographic, and I feel like in particular, you know, Gen Z paying more and more attention to personal care and beauty and skincare. And so therapy really took a prescriptive look at what is this consumer behavior and how does it shift according to the seasons? And they were able to leverage that insight that people were changing their behavior along with the seasonal changes. They leveraged that to reach consumers while they were considering a change in their skincare routine as spring turned into summer.

13:35So how did we work with them so that they could use this intelligence and reach people when it was clear, warm, sunny, cloudy and high UV? And the thing about the intelligence is, yes, like the weather company, we own the Weather Channel digital properties. You can activate that intelligence on the Weather Channel app and with us. But where we've seen brands really harness the true intelligence to its fullest is not only when they're running with us, but also when they're taking that intelligence and they're applying it full scale to their marketing campaigns. We don't believe in walled gardens.

14:11We certainly have a great trusted environment that you can run within the Weather Channel app or on weather.com. But how can brands use that on social? How can they use that to drive their search campaigns, digital out of home? It's really taking the intelligence and applying it across a fully integrated campaign. That's where brands are seeing the impact. Yeah, it's a fascinating case study. It really is. I mean, and that's just one of so many. But I got to move on to, you touched on it, and you know, we're going to get to it. That's AI. Yeah, let's talk about AI. And I love how you and I both, we usually, I usually, like you did, it used to be the elephant number.

14:47Yep. If anybody looks at it that way, you're way out of touch. Because if you still look at it that way, it's a whole other story. It is, as the word you told me was, essential. Yes. And then it comes down to, okay, how? Now, obviously, the how is going to be different for each brand when you get granular. For the Weather Channel and what you guys do, it's really fascinating stuff. and you just kind of tip the iceberg for me when we talk. And I really want my listeners to hear what you do with it. And you call it the augmented intelligence. It's really interesting stuff. And it's the secret sauce that you put it.

15:18So let's go there. Let's talk about AI. So first of all, in our business, as much as we like to think, I feel like right now, AI is this new kid on the block. It's anything but for the weather company. We've been using AI and more specifically machine learning in the development of our forecasts for decades. I'm going to start here kind of as a baseline with forecasting, and then we can talk about other applications. But we have over 100 meteorologists on our team. They are truly the foundation and the bedrock of our business. It starts with them. We can't do what we do without human expertise.

15:56That said, they analyze over 100 different weather forecasting models every day. They can't do their jobs effectively without AI, without technology to look at all of those models and ultimately kind of come in over the top with the human expertise and determine the most accurate forecast. We're not the most accurate forecaster by accident. There's a lot of human and machine kind of working hand in hand. That's why we like to think of it as augmented intelligence. How can it augment the human expertise? And so it's something that we have been very familiar with and that we have been using actively in our business for decades.

16:34I think going beyond that, what we're doing now is using AI in a few different levels. First of all, we're using AI to like the going back to unlocking the intelligence. We're using it in our own consumer properties. So when we think about the Weather Channel app, for example, we're using AI to create more relevant and engaging experiences for the 360 million people who come to us in any given month. Steve, your experience when you come to the Weather Channel app should be very different than mine. And that's not just because the forecast is different, but based on your preferences and your behavior, how are we using AI to look at all of those different patterns, the things that you've explicitly told us, but also implicitly looking at your behavior so that we can offer a more personalized experience?

17:29And then like we were talking about, how are we partnering with brands to help them extract that intelligence beyond the forecast so that they can more effectively and efficiently connect with their consumers? And so it really is about whether it's for our consumer audience, whether it's for our customers, it's about extracting the meaning from the forecast that's going to help a human or that's going to help a business make a better decision. Yeah, I mean, I know one of the lines you said to me is the weather intelligence that you're able to generate. It's scalable and personal at the same time.

18:08That's right. Yeah. I mean, when you think about the fact that AI plays a key role in helping us generate forecasts for over 2 billion locations every five minutes, like that in and of itself is staggering. That's a huge scale. But it's also very personal because of how local and how nuanced it is. And I think that's what we're doing today, where I get really excited. If I can just geek out for a minute, where I get really excited is when we look at the potential and some of the work, for example, that we're doing with NVIDIA to get even more granular. You know, the ambition is, can we get it down to even a more granular level forecast going, well, right now, you know, you can forecast at a zip code level, but how can you even get it down at a more finite, granular level, knowing that what happens in a given zip code might vary pretty dramatically.

19:01And so we pride ourselves on being the most accurate forecaster. But listen, we're not sitting on our laurels. We're constantly pushing ourselves to innovate and to work with partners who can help us innovate to knowing that the weather is becoming increasingly volatile, increasingly impactful is going to have this influence. We can do even better. And so we're continuing to hold ourselves to a really high standard, knowing the influence that weather has on so many. It really does. I mean, I use an example of where I am in Philly, I'm pretty far away from where the sports stadiums are. Okay. Well, if I know I'm going to a game, it's an outdoor game, obviously, if it's indoor, but either one, but I don't look at my forecast for my neighborhood, per se.

19:46I want to know what the forecast is there, even though it's technically the same city. That's right. I mean, it is so incredibly nuanced, and I think we're going to continue to see that terms. Exactly. And I want to pivot to your career. And I love that we both have that straight as a circle. Yeah. And we also share the broadcast journalism, or the journalism, mine's not broadcast, but background to what you and I eventually did or are doing in your case, the marketing side. I'm curious for my own benefit, what were you doing in broadcast journalism? Well, I, I was dreaming. I mean, these were, these were early days.

20:23But listen, like, I'm in a completely date myself here, but I broadcast journalism was how people were getting the news when I was starting my career, you know, in the mid 90s. And so I had this fascination, I think it was less that like, I was into broadcast journalism, I just had a fascination with being near information and news and being aligned with how people, you know, disseminating that information. And so I also saw women at the time like Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer, like Connie Chung. I'm guessing like so many people listening are probably like, who are those people? I can Google them.

21:03Right. But they were incredibly inspiring to me in that they had influence and how they were providing valuable information to millions of people. Kind of sound familiar? No, not coming from me personally, but like always been attached to information as a service. And so, you know, Steve, I did all the right things, you know, because I thought I was going to be a broadcast journalist. I went to school for it. I did all the internships and it was my first paid job out of school where I was working in a newsroom in an affiliate in Sacramento, California. And, you know, I was junior most person on staff and that was fine.

21:42Like you had to start somewhere. And the news director said to me, I need you to figure out how to build a website for the TV station. Now, today, that would be like, no big deal. Great. Like, we'll stand something up pretty quickly. But in the mid-90s, when we were all learning about the internet, you know, that was a pretty tall order. But what it did is it fundamentally, one, I would say, like, life lesson taught me, like, the great gift that you can gain and having that big challenge and getting comfortable with getting uncomfortable. But number two, it completely changed the trajectory of my career and kind of catapulted me out of a broadcast space and more into a digital era.

22:20And that has, you know, continued to be very exciting because I think what we've seen is a continuous trend and evolution in terms of how people are consuming information. Like, you know, as we're looking at mobile and we're looking at social and we're looking at gaming. And so there's I sort of became a marketer by accident in the latter part of my career, if you will. But the one thing that's been consistent is of my huge fascination with information and wanting to be on the side of figuring out how to get information to people in a way that they can trust. I will take it a step further. Yeah.

23:01And go on a limb that you're going to agree with what I'm about to say, because I agree with everything you said and I have the same path. But one of my strengths, and I know it's one of yours, too, is not only having an information, Rani, but being able to put it and tell a story around it. No question. Bringing it back to weather for a minute, like you can get a forecast a lot of different places. it's how we're contextualizing information the story that we're building around it to make it relevant and interesting and compelling and by the way like for some people that's giving you a radar map for other people that's kind of an call it i was gonna say old-fashioned but i won't judge but like woman or man in front of a map but now you know how a lot of people are getting their weather information probably won't come as any surprise like they're searching for it on social platforms.

23:49They're on TikTok and using TikTok as a search engine. And so that's why also we're trying to modernize our approach by partnering with TikTok, for example, where if you go in, and right now we have a beta with them, where if you're in Australia, New Zealand, or Canada, we'll soon be coming to the US, and you're searching for your local weather, if someone goes in and they type in New York weather, it's our weather that comes up because we're cognizant that we've got to meet people where they are. And we've got to contextualize the story in a way that's going to be appealing and interesting to them.

24:26Especially, especially juxtaposed over what you just said not long ago. And it's so, right, there's so much data. Oh gosh, yes. And we're just in a tsunami and it's growing and it's growing and it's growing. And then it's very easy for a consumer because, oh, by the way, and I always like to not so gently remind us marketers, We are consumers too. Sometimes we forget. You can get overwhelmed with all the data. Yeah. I mean, and again, it's not a one size fits all. And we're really trying to be mindful that whether we're building a new feature in our owned and operated properties or doing these partnerships, like it's going to sound incredibly obvious, but it's worth, you know, we can't overstate it, that we need to listen to our customers.

25:09We need to listen to our consumers and be able to give them the information in the way and the stories in a way that is going to be relevant to them. What a novel idea. Listen to you. I mean, listen, we all say it. We all try and preach it. I know. I know. I know. How many of us are actually doing it? You're right. We all claim to be customer focused, customer first, blah, blah, blah. I know. You're right. That's a whole, that's a part two for our conversation. How's that? I want to be respectful of time. And before I get to my random five, which if you're a listener, you know, I end every episode with some five fun random questions.

25:44But before I get to that, I want to give you the platform to talk about what you do at the Marketing Academy and empowering the next generation of female marketers, because that's more than anything that you're doing. And I'm highly impressed by all that you've done. I am such a big believer myself of paying it forward. And I absolutely want to give you the platform to tell my listeners about what you're doing with the Marketing Academy and why it's so important to you. Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk a little bit about this. And so I had the great fortune of participating in a program, a fellowship program through the Marketing Academy.

26:20If people aren't familiar with the Marketing Academy, I would strongly encourage you to take a look. It is now a global program started in the UK, but now has presence certainly in the US and Australia, EMEA. And there is both fellowship program that is geared more towards CMOs, as well as a scholarship program that is geared for, I would say, aspiring CMOs. And what it is, is really, it's a development program that is based on both curriculum, textbook curriculum, guest speakers, and really a phenomenal network that the Academy has brought together to help further develop emerging marketers and leaders.