McNeil Consumer Healthcare is partnering with The Weather Channel to provide allergy sufferers with relevant information about pollen levels in their area.

The cross-platform Pollencast information has been available from the desktop, on television and via the mobile Web in previous years. This year, it is also being made available on The Weather Channel?s mobile apps for the first time.

?The Weather Channel continues to look at how to improve the consumer experience across our platforms ? TV, online, mobile and tablet,? said Randi Stipes, vice president of client solution, The Weather Channel Companies, Atlanta.

?This includes offering the best content about how weather affects daily life and valuable information that can help encourage outdoor living in a wide variety of weather conditions,? she said.

Allergy preparedness
Spring is one of the worst times of the year for allergy sufferers as plants start growing again and giving off pollen.

The Weather Channel tries to help consumers protect themselves with pollen maps and forecasts in a service called Pollencast, which has been around for several years.

The Pollencast information will be accessible via a seasonal tab on The Weather Channel apps for iPad, iPhone and Android.

On the iPad app, the allergy-related data includes a national pollen map as well as an animated three-day pollen forecast for grass, weed and tree pollen.

Pollen push alerts for United States locations are also available on all mobile devices, enabling users to sign up to have pollen alerts sent directly to their devices from The Weather Channel.

The cross-platform program also includes ads for McNeil?s allergy medications Zyrtec and Benadryl. A banner ad in the iPad app encourages users to download Zyrtec's Allergycast app.

The Pollencast program is an example of how The Weather Channel continues to fine-tune its mobile app strategy. The publisher plans to introduce a revamped iPhone app in May.

Mobile weather
Overall, mobile is a strong category for The Weather Channel. The publisher reported that mobile Web usage outpaced traffic to its Web site this past summer and that its mobile Web site generates 32 million unique visitors per month and reaches 28 percent of the active mobile audience.

Last year, The Weather Channel integrated local, weather-related tweets across its television, Web and mobile platforms (see story).

While mobile is an important channel for The Weather Channel, an executive at the recent Mobile Marketing Day pointed to the importance of cross-channel efforts for driving results for marketers (see story).

In addition to mobile, the McNeil Consumer Healthcare Pollencast program is available on TV and online.

?Pollen allergies affects so many people, and it is certainly something they need to prepare for, whether taking an allergy medication or planning to stay indoors for the day,? Ms. Stipes said. ?This is where we come in ? The Weather Channel can help provide those details.

?We look to provide consumers not only information about what the weather will be, but how that will affect their day and their activities,? she said.