The Weather Channel app leans into ’80s aesthetics for its latest feature

The feature is also available as an in-browser weathercast, where users can select a location and view local and regional weather data on a loop, rather than clicking through it — true to the television form. The retro aesthetics are even more on display through this function, which features even more aggressively 1980s Muzak-like background music that wouldn’t feel too out of place in a neon-colored shopping mall.

The Atlanta-based weather giant launched the feature to add some nostalgia to the digital experience and create a sense of emotional connection with its user base, said Rohit Agarwal, the CEO of the app’s corporate parent The Weather Company.

The Weather Company, which is owned by private equity firm Francisco Partners, is now separate from the Weather Channel cable network, which is owned by media entrepreneur Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group.

“Once upon a time, 40, 30, 20 years ago, we used to manifest ourselves in a different vibe and different way,” Agarwal said. “That was deeply emotionally connecting to our customers. I think our employees were part of that connection — it may have even been what drew them to the company.”

Credit: The Weather Company

Credit: The Weather Company

Nostalgia is a powerful force. Sights, sounds and smells from the past can evoke deep memories, whether happy or sad, and often remind people of what they view as simpler times. Just take a look at one of the comments underneath a YouTube video of a Weather Channel broadcast from the 1990s: “If I close my eyes I’m back in my childhood home.”

Marketers and brands have been tapping into this well for generations to create deeper bonds with their consumers and, ultimately, to move products off the shelf. Nostalgia is all over American institutions. In media and entertainment, it’s in television shows such as “Stranger Things” and “Happy Days.”

Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC

Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC

It’s in Super Bowl commercials, where advertisers rely upon the Backstreet Boys, 1980s Europop or “Clueless” to connect with a wide audience. It’s in big-box stores, where companies are relaunching long-retired product lines, like the once-ubiquitous Furby or Polly Pocket toys, or rebranding themselves with the aesthetics of yesteryear.

The idea to launch a retro feature had been bounced around for years before it was brought to life, Agarwal said.

“Success has many mothers and fathers,” Agarwal said. “In this particular instance, there was a team of people who brought this vision that I think has been sitting in the company’s binder of ideas to bring to life.”

The feature initially launched in the spring as a temporary experiment. The reception was overwhelmingly positive, more so than the company could have predicted, and users asked the company to make it a permanent feature.

The Weather Channel pulled the function to work out some kinks, including expanding the music library and building Android compatibility.

Since the relaunch this month, The Weather Company has seen active engagement jump and time spent in app increase. Nearly 1 in 5 users who turned on the retro mode created a new account — that’s an 18.8% new registration conversion rate across iOS and Android, according to data provided by a company spokesperson. About 27% of users authenticated their accounts to experience the feature.

The challenge now is to keep iterating on the feature without sacrificing its aesthetic charm, Agarwal said. But the company intends to keep the feature.

“I think this combination, this alchemy of what is an incredible experience that hearkens you back to a simpler time, it still has to connect with what makes us human,” Agarwal said. “That’s feeling and emotion, and it comes from things like the environment we experience, what we hear and how that makes us feel.”