The following is an short interview recently done via email with Terry Hambrick, Vice President of Operations for WeatherBug. His role includes direct sales of the company’s products and services to television stations - a skill in which he has 25 years of experience in.
I thought Terry Hambrick would make a great candidate to get some more details on, as his role at WeatherBug is directly related to the world of media - and I think this Q&A offers some solid insights into the company. One of the company’s current goals is to partner with local television stations to place WeatherBug technology, data, and branding into weather broadcasts, and we discussed that a bit.
TMD: Terry, I’ve read on the WeatherBug site that the company’s Media Services group reaches a huge number of households in the U.S., and works with one partner in each market. I believe WNBC is the partner in the NYC area. With regard to this, would it be possible to outline what products/services WeatherBug offers to the NBC station that are seen on-air by a viewer? Also, is there information that is provided *to* WeatherBug from the local partners that is distributed to WeatherBug customers/software users?
TH: The WeatherBug program for broadcasters is a comprehensive and fully integrated set of products, services and content for use on-air, on-line and on the desktop. WeatherBug also offers television partners extensive opportunities for community outreach.
For on-air, our Zoom state-of-the-art display system enables broadcasters to create a compelling, dynamic and highly differentiated show using live data and images from their local DMA as well as 7,000+ weather tracking stations and 1,000+ cameras located across the nation. This provides unique local coverage as well as the ability to cover severe and interesting weather activity anywhere in the country.
For online, we create a customized weather web site for all our television partners which extends the stations’ on-air content and look to their web page. This includes links to local and national weather stations, cameras and a variety of other meteorological information. We can seamlessly incorporate these pages into their existing web sites.
For the desktop, we incorporate television station branding, promotions and links to their content on 100% of the WeatherBugs in their DMA, driving page views to their web site or their sponsor’s web site.
For community outreach opportunities, we work with television stations to establish relationships with the WeatherBug schools in their DMA through local events, educational tools and assistance with placing weather tracking stations. For the community at large, we are encouraging submissions of weather and news photos that can be used on-air through Zoom, viewed online through the television station’s web site or accessed on the desktop through the television station-branded WeatherBug application.
TMD: On the same subject, are WeatherBug software users shown the logo of their “local partner” in-market everywhere across the country? Are there plans to promote WeatherBug on the local stations’ websites? I know, at least at first glance, that I don’t see anything specific on WNBC’s site (http://www.wnbc.com/weather/index.html).
TH: Our television partners have station branding and promotion on all the WeatherBugs in their DMA. Download buttons and links for WeatherBug are located throughout television partners’ web sites. Here is an example of what one of our partners is doing.
KOAA (http://www.weatherfirstnow.com/weather/weathernet.asp)
TMD: Are the cameras that are available on the software owned, partially or otherwise, by WeatherBug?
TH: We own the images from the 1,000+ cameras in the WeatherBug network and provide our broadcast partners with an exclusive license to access and use these cameras
TMD: I’ve also read that WeatherBug is collaborating with various television station partners to re-brand their weather broadcasts - I’m very interested in this, and would love to hear if there has been any success with this across the country.
TH: Due to the tremendous reach that the WeatherBug desktop application has achieved as an online information distribution channel, our broadcast partners have been receptive to the re-branding and we have been successful in implementing WeatherBug as the name for the live, local weather segment. This is a core component to the overall media program, since it unites the various elements under one unified brand with which users are already familiar. We’ve conducted a number of surveys with our desktop application users and the results show a strong tie-in between on-air weather preference and recognition of the WeatherBug brand. Our desktop users access WeatherBug throughout the day (at home and at work), value our data as the only source for truly live, local weather and trust on-air weathercasts that use the same information. Broadcast partners who have adopted this program to-date have seen more than a 50% increase in page views.
TMD: Besides the software and trying to gain visibility on television weather broadcasts, how else is WeatherBug keeping their customers “in the loop” on their weather needs? I believe I’ve read about AOL instant messenger being involved, and I’m wondering about SMS alerts on telephones as an idea.
TH: Our overall strategy encompasses a range of products. Currently, WeatherBug is bundled with the newest version of AOL IM and our data is offered to AIM Today users. Our content is also available to mobile customers, who can access any of our 7,000+ weather tracking stations and 1,000+ cameras for instant live, local weather conditions, check the forecast and view radar images. Soon we will offer severe weather alert options through SMS.
WeatherBug also offers high-end, commercial-grade products and services to businesses and the government sector.
TMD: Customer scale/sizing - I can see the “live counter” of how many downloads of WeatherBug there are on my software. Would it be possible to know the latest figure of ‘unique’ users? I know that I have three versions of the software myself, one at work, and one on each of my home computers.
TH: Glad to hear you use WeatherBug at work and at home! Many of our users do the same thing since they want to monitor weather conditions throughout the day. According to the latest comScore/Media Metrix figures (October 2004), WeatherBug has 20 million monthly unique users.
TMD: One of the big issues surrounding WeatherBug’s growth in recent times I’m assuming is the presumption that it was full of spyware - it’s prominently featured on the company’s homepage with details on why it is NOT. Is this something the company continues to have to defend itself on, especially when working with television networks?
TH: Desktop Internet applications have been around for years, but of late there have been some bad actors in the space — companies that have applications that snoop on user behavior (spyware) and/or do pop-ups based on watching where a user travels on the web (adware).
WeatherBug is certainly a desktop application, but is not and never has been spyware or adware. We are VERY careful to make sure people know that WeatherBug 6.0 has no advertiser pop-ups, and NEVER tracks where a user goes on the Internet. There are plenty of good desktop applications out there that do not deserve to be sullied by the actions of a few– WeatherBug has reached the 50 million download mark by being a good Internet citizen that is highly conscious of user rights.
TMD: Lastly, I’d be interested to hear about expansion into other media avenues - like radio - traditional radio broadcast obviously gets a ton of listenership from drivers going to and from work – has WeatherBug entered this market at all, even if just from an advertising/branding perspective?
TH: We are always interested in expanding our products and services. We are researching opportunities into other media outlets, including radio, but it’s too soon to talk details. In general, we believe that we have unique weather content and, therefore, opportunities in a number of verticals beyond broadcast TV.
Thanks to Terry Hambrick for taking the time to answer some questions. Feel free to leave any further clarifications or questions that you, the reader, might have after reading this, and I’ll do my best to get some answers, where possible.
As always, if you have any suggestions as to someone that should be interviewed or profiled on TMD, please let me know.
