Opportunopoly

Online media opportunities abound if publishers are but willing to look beyond their traditional definitions. Opportunopoly examines emerging technology and market game-changers, thought leaders and, well, opportunities that may lie beyond the usual newspaper comfort zone.

To hear Jeff Berardelli tell it, he’s just the CBS weather guy in Miami. But his passion for weather information, combined with the localization of the Internet, made him wonder: why can’t Web users zoom in and out of Doppler weather information the way local weathermen can? This turned out to be a surprisingly challenging question, but a couple of years later, Berardelli’s investment in a solution has delivered the right answer: now they can.

His company is called “ZoomRadar,” and it offers any local website the ability to frame a zoomable weather map that users can center on any ZIP code, city name, street name – virtually any searchable geo-term anywhere in the U.S. and the Caribbean – and see weather maps in real time. Says Berardelli, “The thing about Florida weather is that it can rain on one side of the street and not another.” It could be raining at home, but not on the golf course. This is useful information, but users can’t always get it just by turning on the TV because the local news isn’t always on; but the Internet is.

ZoomRadar launched first at Berardelli’s home station, WFOR-TV/CBS4.com. (Also check out the WFOR-TV Miami video demo.) At the literal nadir of online advertising – mid-March – the station monetized it with a healthy, mid-four-figure monthly sponsorship. Weather is among the most heavily trafficked content on the site, but ZoomRadar increases visit length as well, as users check out not just their work address, but their home address, and where they’re eating dinner that evening – and, yes, the golf course. Users can also click to find forecasts for 100,000 cities worldwide and temperature for 10,000 cities in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Without much effort, he convinced stations in Rochester, Indianapolis and Albuquerque to try it out, perhaps owing to the simplicity of the business model: it’s free. Drop him an email and he’ll send you the code to frame the map (which can be centered to your local area) with your site wrap, and just split the sponsorship revenue. He’s currently using Lat49 to embed an ad in the map itself as his portion of the rev-share (the company calls it "mapvertising"), but acknowledges that taking a second “big square” in the right rail under that of the host site would likely be more profitable for all concerned. He’ll be tracking snow storms, hurricanes, and other severe weather everywhere it breaks, giving people a real-time, breaking news reason to go online -- not to mention a great place from which to link hyper-local news and events.

So, if you see the sky darkening over your neighborhood and want to know how heavy the rain will be and if there’s hail – turn to your local online ZoomRadar. Coincidentally, the same response seems to offer one solution to black clouds on the balance sheet. Contact: Zoomradar.com, jeff @zoomradar.com or call 917- 734-8831.
 

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