A bomb cyclone of advertising

The “bomb cyclone” winter storm came, it saw, it conquered. With much of the Northeast locked down for the day, marketers saw an opportunity. A day when their target audience would be locked into their devices. On this long snow day, many campaigns were born.

Snow Day advertising

Brands seized the opportunity to sell under a very specific circumstance. Inboxes were full with emails marketing bomb cyclone sales. Snowed in, why not shop? Taking it one step further, there were also truly impressive, targeted sponsored stories on social media. Brands had the foresight to develop the creative and an offer, and the nimbleness of a social media ad platform allowed them to place the media and get it directly in front of their target audience.

And how great was it to have a snowed-in, captive audience? That opportunity is so rare in advertising these days. It’s why Super Bowl commercials are so incredibly expensive. They are paying for the built-in audience. While the storm didn’t guarantee that people would be tuned to a specific station, it did mean that audiences would be more inclined to be online for long periods of time. Recent data by analytics firm Flurry found that people spend up to 5 hours per day on their mobile devices. And that’s an average on a normal day!

The first mover advantage of online advertising is what allowed brands to pounce. Of course, the proof is in the pudding, and it’s too soon to know if clicks led to sales. But I am willing to bet it was a big day for online sales.