AccuWeather.com is one of the top 10 mobile Web content sites, indicating that weather continues to be one of the most popular forms of content across online and mobile.

Not surprisingly, advertisers are anxious to reach weather-conscious consumers, particularly the more affluent audience on the mobile Web. Targeting this consumer segment, AccuWeather.com has seen significant interest from mobile advertisers in categories including home improvement, insurance, travel and tourism. Mobile Marketer's Giselle Abramovich interviewed AccuWeather's Dave Mitchel, director of wireless services, and Robert Shaffer, director of advertising sales, to better understand the weather content provider's mobile strategy. Here goes:

What is AccuWeather's overall mobile strategy?
David Mitchel: Our objective is to continue to grow our mobile presence which includes our top-10 mobile Web content site, downloadable subscription-based applications, ad-supported applications, widgets and mobile video.

We strive to be present on all mobile platforms and make our content easily accessible to all kinds of users on all types of mobile products. To that end, we need to support all platforms -- Java, BREW, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, Flash and more.

We are also moving towards breaking our mass audience into key consumer segments so we can serve them more closely -- the business traveler, smartphone users, supermoms, and so on. It's all a matter of meeting consumer needs as closely as possible.

We take a position of leadership in monetizing mobile Web because we are an early leader in both subscription and ad-supported business models in the U.S.

We are happy to work with our partners with whatever model suits them best, but I believe advertising-supported content will be the real growth driver in terms of wireless data and mobile Web.

Can you talk about some of your recent mobile initiatives in detail?
Robert Shaffer: Our advertisers take advantage of a wide range of post-click actions. AccuWeather.com mobile campaigns have included dealer locators, click-to-call, click-to-mobile Web site and more.

These programs have experienced performance that has really lived up to the potential of mobile Web, delivering high response rates and showing returns for advertisers that exceed their investments.

Advertisers turn to mobile Web because they see the space as an opportunity to reach a new audience and reinforce their message with existing audiences.

It's the next step for interactive marketing -- reaching consumers in a way that is totally immediate, timely, location-sensitive and personal through a device that is always with the individual.

They want to find new digital opportunities that deliver engagement.

In the traditional online world, interaction often ends with a click. New post-click actions like click-to-call deliver a whole new level of trackability, sending calls to specific 800 numbers, for example, which allows for some really robust reporting. Advertisers can measure their engagements in a totally new way.

I think advertisers really respond to AccuWeather.com because we have an established brand that's known internationally and we give advertisers the opportunity to extend their campaigns across multiple platforms. We provide the recognition, the audience, the technical knowhow and a single point of contact to make campaigns easy and successful.

Why is mobile a good extension of what you are already doing?
Mr. Mitchel: Because weather is relevant when you are on the go. Consumers can check the weather before they go but then they can also keep that information with them to stay updated. In that way, users are more able than ever to stay on top of severe weather and bad weather and how it will impact their day.

The fact that weather is useful to people is not new, but mobile presents a whole new dimension of how people can use weather.

When Nielsen Mobile ran a study on our AccuWeather.com and AccuWeather.com Mobile audience overlap, it actually gave us a 43 percent boost in overall audience because we are reaching whole new layers of audience through mobile Web.

Mobile is the future of weather information. The growth of the Web site shows that people appreciate having access to weather through these devices -- still very relevant going to check it in the morning, check it on the PC.

Traditional Internet weather on AccuWeather.com remains a great and useful source of information, but the tremendous growth of our audience on AccuWeather.com Mobile -- averaging 250 percent month-over-month between 2007 and 2008 -- shows that people are really excited about the value mobile weather brings them and AccuWeather.com is happy to be at the forefront.

What are your future plans pertaining to mobile?
Mr. Mitchel: Our strongest initiative is to continue to grow our global weather focus. That means increasing language support. We already support 20 languages and intend to support over 50 by the end of 2008. But it also means offering more global content.

Look for global weather alerts and more global imagery, including satellite and radar images. We are also refining our GPS products, delivering LBS [location-based] services for current conditions and severe weather on a global basis.

Mobile video is also a great strength for AccuWeather.com that we will continue to explore.

Our mobile videos don't rely on text-to-speech. We offer over 500 new videos every day that feature nationally known, on-air personalities. It's a great way to reinforce the user relationship with our brand for consumers that already know us from TV, and traditional Web and mobile video creates high-value opportunities for our advertisers.

What challenges has the mobile channel addressed for you?
Mr. Mitchel: Mobile Web has helped AccuWeather.com serve a whole new audience and create new revenue streams for our company and our advertisers. It's allowed us to extend relationships with advertisers and with end users.

The majority of our traffic is off-deck -- meaning that mobile Web users consciously selected AccuWeather.com as their weather site of choice.

We believe that's a testament to the focus we have on our user and we want to reward that consumer loyalty by continuing to improve and rollout the best wireless weather products available anywhere in the months and years to come.