The polar vortex is not a typical snow day in from work and school. The extreme and deadly vortex traveled to the Great Lakes states and its made the weather abnormally cold. The freezing, monster winds covered parts of the US ranging from West Virginia to as far north as the Dakotas. Those living in Minnesota are experiencing the worst temperatures—60 below zero. In response to this insane weather, some brands are using humor while others are offering helpful tips.
The Glenlivet used humor to get into the conversation and tweeted a gif of their scotch bottle being enveloped in snow with the words “Just chilling, hbu?” One user responded with a gif of a dog wearing sunglasses in a pool with the words “A bit cold.”
Chicago brewery Goose Island, made a campaign out of the situation. The Chicago Tribune explains:
Goose Island is back with another subject dear to [Chicago’s] heart: dibs.
“Dibs,” for those unaware, is the time-honored practice of digging out a parking spot on the city’s streets after a large snowstorm, then claiming the real estate in perpetuity with whatever junk is handy in the garage. Lawn chairs. Traffic cones. Plastic coolers. The more ridiculous the better.
Goose Island will honor both the tradition and the debate around it with a beer release at its taproom Saturday at noon. The beer, an ideal-for-winter porter clocking in at 6.5 percent alcohol, will be available on draft and to-go in 32-ounce cans, tagged either with an orange Pro Dibs sticker or a blue Anti Dibs sticker.
Goose Island is always cooking up ways to trick the Chicago media into covering the brand.
Touché.https://t.co/MZ9dBL2dV2 pic.twitter.com/aku8Wv2M4u
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) January 31, 2019
Baseball franchises with outdoor stadiums were also affected by the polar vortex. The Colorado Rockies got around 1.7K likes when they asked their fans to name their snowman. After the team got a few submissions, they posted the best and worst names suggestions. The Cleveland Indians asked fans for 1 million retweets to lick a foul pole. So far the tweet has only gotten around 40K retweets.
If we get 1,000,000 RTs, we'll lick the foul pole.
No, we're not warm yet.
Yes, we will do it. pic.twitter.com/aiykd0UpQV— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) January 30, 2019
The Broad, a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles, incorporated Ed Ruscha art with the cold weather in response to the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo.
To help our communities avoid the extreme cold caused by the polar vortex, we're providing Relief Rides to warming centers across Chicago, the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, Madison and Detroit until 2/1. https://t.co/nhOXdlN9rD
— Lyft (@lyft) January 29, 2019
Lyft went another direction and instead of offering some laughs, they offered help by providing “Relief Rides” to warming centers in Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities. The response was mostly appreciative, but also met with some concern. One user replied “Thank you for this. I hope you compensate the drivers for driving in such difficult conditions and really helping people in need.”
A report by Trailer Park and USC’s Annenberg Innovative Lab found marketers don’t want to just “share a voice” through various platforms, but getting a “share of cultural conversation” may just be as vital. The study found 73 percent of consumers surveyed say “news finds me, but then I validate it’s actually news by checking a credible source.” If a brand connects with a current event, it could gain more attention to their digital content.