Floods, hurricanes and record-breaking heatwaves aren’t usually seen as marketing opportunities.
But for Science Moms, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization composed of climate scientists who are also mothers, these moments are key.
Their goal of raising climate change awareness hits home especially hard during extreme weather events.
People tend to seek out information about a weather event right before it happens, explained Nicole Dorrler, global head of marketing and brands at Potential Energy Coalition, the nonprofit organization that launched Science Moms.
So Science Moms focused on those moments in its recent partnership with The Weather Company for a campaign that used The Weather Channel app to spread awareness about climate change.
App imitates life
The campaign, which ran last year from mid-July through the end of September, delivered ads to app users based on real-time weather events happening near them.
Science Moms targeted six states that experience extreme weather events – Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina – ranging from flash floods to extreme heat.
The ad creative was dynamic, meaning that the messaging (including the homepage of the app) would change to reflect real-time weather conditions in a user’s location. What always stayed consistent, though, was the campaign’s objective, which was to spur more people – specifically parents – to take action against climate change.
The spike in people’s interest in weather around the time of severe events informed the decision to run advertising on contextually relevant platforms, like The Weather Channel app.
“It’s our mission to provide the facts,” said Randi Stipes, CMO of The Weather Company, “and then let people make their decisions.”
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Riding the (heat)wave
The campaign reached more than 1.3 million users – roughly 500,000 more than Science Moms anticipated.
Beyond just reaching people, however, it also shifted their perspectives. Science Moms saw a significant increase in its desired KPIs, including a nearly 8% uptick in “extreme support for action on climate change” among women ages 25 to 44, Dorrler told AdExchanger.
Part of the campaign’s success was due to filling in what Dorrler described as knowledge gaps. Although 73% of Americans agree that the world is seeing a rise in extreme weather patterns, about 50% of Americans believe that the increase is from natural causes, according to a study conducted by the Potential Energy Coalition in 2024.
Love in the time of climate change
There’s no question that weather patterns aren’t what they used to be.
“When we look at the science, it’s indisputable,” Stipes said. “We’re seeing a changing climate.”
By highlighting the link between extreme weather and climate change, she explained, Science Moms is encouraging people to engage with climate change on a more personal and less abstract level.
According to a 2022 WAWX study, 85% of parents of children under 18 say that the weather is a crucial element of determining their day-to-day plans. One-third of The Weather Channel’s monthly online visitors are parents, making them a natural target for the campaign.
But the other main reason that parents were the target audience was based on empathy. Research from Science Moms shows the No. 1 reason people care about climate change isn’t frustration about hot days or even concern for endangered species.
Their concern is a function of generational love, Dorrler said.
As a neutral organization, Science Moms targets parents across the ideological spectrum and frames climate change as a personal rather than political issue, highlighting its immediate effects and how it will impact the next generation.
Dorrler cited a 2024 Pew study that found the majority of Americans have confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests – a higher percentage than police officers or public school principals.
This is true across political parties.
And this trust in science, combined with the trust we have for moms – the “center of our universe,” as Dorrler put it – can be an impetus for real change.
Science Moms has found that the right marketing “can change not only the attitudes but the behaviors” of its audience, she said, and in turn help advance the climate change movement.
