Like spring
flowers, seasonal advertising is arriving later this year. How warm does it need to be in your
market for someone to buy a pair of shorts? Or crave a Frappuccino at
Starbucks? The answer varies in different parts of the country, and for a wide
portion of the country a harsh winter led to a cool spring. The result is not
unlike what’s going on with flowers in many gardens: spring advertising is
tracking later than a year ago. “It varies, depending on what part of country
you live in, but it does seem like we’re looking at a four-to-six week delay in
some places,” says John Acello, a radio veteran who is now a vice president at
Planalytics, a firm that works with marketers on fine-tuning their
weather-related advertising strategies. “We help companies manage the weather
and use it to their advantage when they can,” he explains. But there’s been a
shortage of management necessary during the past year. While half the country
learned what a polar vortex is, the other half has seen record wintertime
drought. “For the last year it seems like the weather is the news no matter
where you go and it’s really having an impact on the economy in a lot of
profound ways,” Acello says. Radio managers in several markets say they haven’t
so far seen the sort of spring-time blossoming in certain ad categories the
industry has grown accustomed to. Media Monitors data shows ad volume from
springtime advertisers like Scott’s and Allegra lags last year.
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