You Can’t Plan the Weather. You Can Plan How Your Brand Reacts to It

As Britain swelters through its fifth heatwave of the summer, the same thing is happening again.

We lose the ability to sleep. Supermarkets run out of fans. TikTok fills with increasingly elaborate cooling hacks. And in marketing teams across the country, someone asks: “Should we post something?”

The resulting work is sometimes funny, but much of it is interchangeable. Swap one logo for another and nobody would notice.

That’s the problem with a lot of reactive advertising. It may have been produced quickly, but that doesn’t make it a good response. Speed is useful, but an idea is better.

This summer, got2b found one. Its Cool Color campaign started with a genuinely interesting question: can lighter hair keep you cooler?

The brand tested wigs in different colours under direct sunlight and used thermal imaging to show the results. It worked because it connected the weather to something got2b could credibly talk about, and it gave people a new reason to think about hair colour.

Greenpeace took a different approach, temporarily renaming London Underground stations during the June heatwave. Baker Street became 'Baking Street', Tottenham Court Road became 'Hottenham Court Road' and stickers announced: 'Heatwave - brought to you by Shell.'

Again, there was a reason for Greenpeace to be in the conversation. The weather wasn’t a convenient backdrop for a topical gag - rather it was part of the organisation’s argument.
That’s a useful first test for any reactive idea: could another brand replace your logo without changing anything else? If it could, it probably isn’t the right idea for you.

At Ourselves, we faced the opposite weather problem with Cotswold Outdoor. Britain had endured what felt like several years of rain before January had even finished. Instead of pretending it wasn’t happening, we created Pouring Promos.

Every consecutive day of rain unlocked a new Instagram promotion, with the discount rising as the downpour continued. The idea belonged to a brand that helps people get outside whatever the weather, while giving customers something useful in return for the misery.

It looked reactive because the campaign changed each day. But we weren’t sitting around every morning staring at a blank page and praying for inspiration.

The rules had already been agreed. We monitored the weather daily, had assets ready to adapt and could reach the people making decisions directly. Creative was approved through WhatsApp in hours and sometimes minutes.

The campaign generated more than 93,000 views and 2,700 interactions. More importantly, it showed that the best reactive work is rarely improvised from scratch. It is prepared spontaneously.

You need freedom within a framework. Without the framework, the moment is lost in meetings. Without the freedom, the campaign feels as spontaneous as an office fire drill.
A good reactive set-up needs four things.

First, the brand needs a right to respond. The re-activity should connect naturally with what the business sells, does or believes. A pun about being 'hot stuff' is not a strategy.

Second, the idea needs a mechanism. 'Let’s post something when it rains' is a topic. 'Every consecutive day of rain unlocks a larger offer' is a creative system. The weather should change what the campaign does, not just embellish it.

Third, the approval chain needs to be brutally short. There is little point spotting the perfect moment on Tuesday if the work emerges from legal the following Monday. Budgets, boundaries and decision-makers need to be agreed before.

Finally, reactive work still needs craft. Fast should not mean careless, generic or visually cheap. You’re competing with the news, memes and everyone else who has noticed that it’s hot outside. The idea must still reward people’s attention.

There is also a point when brands should put the gag away. Extreme heat can mean illness, fires, travel disruption and real danger for vulnerable people. As the situation becomes more serious, the bar for joining the conversation rises. Brands need to ask whether they are helping, informing or adding something worthwhile - or simply using somebody else’s difficult day to shift a few products.

Sometimes the best response is practical. Offer water, shade, useful information or access to something people genuinely need. Sometimes it is better to say nothing at all.

Brands cannot predict every downpour or temperature record. But they can decide what they have a right to talk about, establish the rules for responding and trust people to act while the moment still matters.