NEW YORK, June 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Weather
Company, an IBM Business (NYSE: IBM), announced today the launch of
the first cognitive ads for the auto industry. Toyota and The
Weather Company have teamed up on a new Watson Ads experience to
introduce the Prius Prime. Watson Ads for the Prius Prime are
available in The Weather Channel App and weather.com.
Watson Ads are an industry-first cognitive ad format that
enables consumers to organically connect with brands, and allows
marketers to have a personalized, one-to-one conversation with
their audiences at scale. The cognitive ad format combines machine
learning, natural language understanding, and integrated dialogue
tools designed to deliver a personalized user experience. Through
Watson Ads, Toyota is harnessing the power of AI to engage and
educate consumers about Prius Prime - addressing consumer
questions, sharing new car information, and guiding decision making
during the purchase consideration stage.
"Toyota has an organized system for their data management along
with internal processes, which allowed them to recognize and
leverage Watson innovation in
advertising. They were quick to recognize the benefits of
leveraging Watson Ads to not only engage consumers, but also
extract valuable insights gained from those interactions," said
Sarah Ripmaster, head of
automotive sales, The Weather Company. "Because Watson Ads
learn over time and get smarter with every interaction, this not
only helps educate consumers and ultimately help them make more
informed buying decisions, but it also helps the brand itself to
understand consumer questions, concerns and interests. Those
insights can then inform overall planning and strategies - from
product to supply chain management to marketing."
"In the competitive automotive market, the ability to showcase a
helpful and beneficial customer experience is invaluable. We are
entering the next frontier of marketing, with cognition and AI
poised to take consumer engagement to the next level, and Watson
Ads is a prime example of that shift and the great potential we
have," said John Lisko, executive
communications director, Saatchi & Saatchi. "We have
leveraged IBM Watson in other areas of our business such as the
programmatic video campaign of 300 custom pieces for Toyota RAV4
and most recently, the Mirai campaign on Facebook in which the tool
wrote thousands of ads and we continue to uncover valuable
insights."
Saatchi & Saatchi handles creative as well as media planning
and buying for Toyota.
In 2017, eMarketer expects the U.S. automotive industry digital
ad spending to reach $10.66 billion
dollars. Automotive will continue to rank as the
second-largest industry segment in the U.S. for digital ad
spending, keeping it near the forefront of digital marketing for at
least the next several years. (eMarketer)
Learn more about Watson Ads at watsonads.com.
The Weather Company, an IBM Business
The Weather
Company, an IBM Business, helps people make informed decisions and
take action in the face of weather. The company offers the most
accurate, personalized, and actionable weather data and insights to
millions of consumers, as well as thousands of marketers and
businesses via Weather's API, its business solutions division, and
its own digital products from The Weather Channel (weather.com) and
Weather Underground (wunderground.com).
The company delivers tens of billions of forecasts daily. Its
products include a top weather app on all major mobile platforms
globally, a network of 250,000 personal weather stations, a top-20
U.S. website, one of the world's largest IoT data platforms, and
industry-leading business solutions.
Weather Means Business™. The world's biggest brands in aviation,
energy, insurance, media, and government rely on The Weather
Company for data, technology platforms and services to help improve
decision-making and respond to weather's impact on business. For
more, visit theweathercompany.com.
Toyota
Toyota (NYSE: TM), creator of the Prius and
the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to advancing mobility
through our Toyota and Lexus brands. Over the past 60 years, we've
produced more than 30 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14
manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than
44,000 people (more than 34,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North
American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold almost 2.6
million cars and trucks (2.45 million in the U.S.) in 2016 – and
about 85 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 15 years
are still on the road today.
Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and
governmental organizations to address our society's most pressing
mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive
know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to
assist more people move more places. For more information about
Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.
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SOURCE The Weather Company