Weather.com's partnership with online marketer CoolSavings this week is its latest marketing effort to boost consumers' use of Weather.com's Desktop Weather application and let advertisers present targeted offers to those who download.
Weather.com said this week that it would give site visitors who download its new Desktop Weather 4.0 application the choice to opt in for samples, trial offers, travel brochures and free newsletters from CoolSavings Inc., Chicago.
The company signed similar arrangements with RealNetworks, for people who download RealPlayer, and with Netscape, for those who download its Netscape Browser, as part of seven distribution agreements it will announce this year.
“We are growing very rapidly [with Desktop Weather]. We're looking to double, if not triple, those numbers this year,” said Matthew deGanon, vice president of consumer application, Weather Channel Interactive, Atlanta.
Weather.com's current Desktop Weather application is used by millions of site visitors. Weather.com is marketing aggressively to expand this user base exponentially in 2005, according to a statement from CoolSavings.
Weather.com said the partnership with online coupon firm CoolSavings adds a new revenue source from its Desktop Weather application and offers advertisers another way to reach site visitors. Advertisers can target offers based on consumers' registration information, provided as part of the download process.
“We're dynamically presenting targeted offers in the software as opposed to the Web site, targeting offers based on gender, age and ZIP code,” deGanon said.
The CoolSavings Marketing Network includes more than 100 publisher sites and more than 250 lead generation and coupon offers from top advertisers.
CoolSavings' partners have delivered offers only during their site registration processes or through contextual placements throughout their sites. Making offers available during the download process, as in the case of Weather.com, is a new venture.
Christine Blank covers online marketing and advertising, including e-mail marketing and paid search, for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
