Whole Brain Weather Communication
The secret to communicating more effectively with consumers lies between the ears. Stimulating the neurons that fill that space with a message that is both intellectual and emotional can establish trust, inform, inspire, persuade, and ultimately elicit a reaction.
We learned in grade school that there are two sides to the brain. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and handles reasoning, prefers numbers, facts, data, and logic. The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and processes intuition, thinks in words and responds to stories, music, and art.
Scientists initially believed that we are either left-brain or right-brain individuals, and the hand you wrote with indicated which side of the brain dominated.
Further studies reveal we aren’t one or the other: we’re both. We are scientific and creative. We think with numbers and words. We use logic and intuition. We respond to analysis and imagination. Although we might have a strong preference for using one side, we are left-brain AND right-brain individuals.
Understanding how people process information can help us communicate more effectively. We can make a stronger connection and increase the possibility that our message is understood if we intentionally deliver it in a way that appeals to both sides of the brain.
Consider the presentations you’ve seen at conferences that were all facts and figures. Fifty slides later, most people in the audience were no wiser than before. Perhaps you’ve sat through other presentations that were all fluff, lacking data, numbers, facts, and substance. That’s another twenty minutes of your life you’ll never get back.
The best presentations are a bit of both: some facts and data that challenge our intellect, presented in a way that appeals to us emotionally. Because they engage our whole brain, these types of presentations are more apt to be understood. These are the ones we talk about afterward. This is how something goes viral.
Aim to engage both sides of the brain
For broadcast meteorologists, whole-brain weather communication means producing hits that appeal to viewers and followers on an emotional and intellectual level. Deliberately create content that connects. Produce and publish with a purpose. Engage the consumer. That’s the objective behind a strategy I call, Meteorology Marketing.
Weathercasts filled with data and analysis but lack creativity and personality don’t appeal to both sides of the brain, especially the 10-13% of people who are left-handed and prefer that way of communicating. The opposite is also true. Weather presentations that are all show and no substance alienate about 90% of viewers who are looking for the numbers and facts.
READ MORE: DON’T TELL VIEWERS A WEATHER STORY. DO THIS INSTEAD.
The weather data and numbers in the weathercast are primarily food for the left brain. To engage the whole brain, we must also focus on how we present the data, what we say about the data, and the context we provide.
Talk like a caveman
Graeme Newell studies behavioral science. He believes we need to communicate on a more primitive level. Numbers and data alone are not enough to get people to notice and respond during dire weather situations.
“One of the things that we know, as we study the brain science of how people take weather messages in, is that it’s an incredibly instinctual thing,” he says. “You got to remember that our brain was hard-wired out on the African savannah, at a time when our biggest survival worries were things like natural disasters and starving to death. Probably one of the biggest threats we had was the weather.”
Newell points out that our response to the weather is often fear, and we kid ourselves into thinking we’re responding to that fear intellectually: There’s a storm coming, and I must stay safe. But what’s really happening at that moment is more of an instinctual experience.
“We don’t realize it because it’s happening at a deeply subconscious level. But this is where most of our decision-making comes from,” Newell says. “It’s important to realize that all communication is instinctual and not to kid yourself that it’s purely intellectual. That’s why weather forecasts have got to be clearly created where broadcast meteorologists are going to talk to that caveman brain that we have.”
That doesn’t mean dumbing down the weather content. Cave dwellers were smart. They invented bacon, after all.
Broadcast meteorologists must recognize that consumers have strong instinctual reactions to the weather (usually fear) and we must communicate on both an intellectual and emotional level so our viewers and followers thoroughly understand the threats and impacts and respond appropriately.
The wrong response to rising floodwater
I realized this first hand during the continuous coverage on KTRK-TV of Hurricane Harvey and the widespread flooding that covered almost all of Houston in 2017. During the early morning hours of August 27, Flash Flood Emergencies were issued for several counties. About that time, we started getting photos from viewers who had climbed into their attic to escape the rising water inside their home. That was their instinctual response to the weather at that moment.
But it was the wrong response. Since we didn’t know how much higher the water could go or how long homes would be flooded, it was possible people could become trapped inside their attic with no way for rescuers to reach them safely. At the urging of local emergency officials, we advised viewers to seek shelter outside on top of the roof, in the pouring rain, rather than inside their dry attic. We had to communicate the facts clearly and calmly, intellectually and emotionally, to help people overcome their instinctual response.
Instincts kick in during all types of weather
It’s easier to identify the instinctual responses people might have to severe weather. But consumers are affected by all types of weather. Storms that are strong but not classified as “severe” can still be disruptive. Even isolated, short-term, inconvenient weather affects people.
If the objective is to keep people safe during severe weather and help them live a happy, healthy life, we must work to make sure the meteorology is accurate, the message is clear, and it’s always delivered in a way that connects with the consumer and empowers them to respond appropriately on an instinctual level. And we must do it every day, on every platform. That’s how broadcast meteorologists can establish themselves as the go-to weather expert in their community.
Tim Heller is an AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist, Talent Coach, and Weather Content Consultant. He helps local TV stations and broadcast meteorologists communicate more effectively on-air, online, and on social media.