When you gotta go!
Here is a fun marketing example of “thinking out of the box”. Proctor & Gamble’s Charmin brand is sponsoring a new website and an app for both the iphone and the BlackBerry called SitOrSquat. Yes, you can now download a free app to find out where the closest public restroom is. I am not kidding on this one. Not only will it tell you where to find a restroom quick, but it gives you review rankings. Users of the app can rank the public bathroom on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. I love this marketing tool. Even better for the brand, I remember who sponsors it. Charmin doesn’t make any direct money from this. They list all public restrooms they know about (not just ones using their product). With this app you can search for nearby restrooms, search by address, rate the restroom, and you can add a toilet to the list. This could be a great form of marketing for any establishment looking to promote it’s self. Check it out at www.sitorsquat.com.
Even better then the app is the Charmin Bathroom Experience they created in New York City. Just click on the link and see fun experience marketing at its best http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwPYdgjnzxs.
They win my “out of the box” marketing award of the week!
Newspaper ads don’t work: fact or fiction?
As I continue to work on events and meet with event marketers across the country I hear the same response about newspapers. Every time I discuss the marketing plan I hear “and we don’t plan to run newspaper ads. They don’t work”. Is it true that newspapers ads don’t work or is it a perception problem? As with anything, are we like sheep and just follow the herd? If I was in the newspaper business I would try and do something about it quick. Marketers now have it locked in their brain that newspapers don’t work. If I ran a newspaper ad department I would put together a whole marketing campaign to get advertisers back. Create excitement! Do something! Make them try you again! Lower your ad rates! If newspaper ad departments continue to sit back and do nothing then I guess the grim reaper will continue to stop the presses.
Question of the day
Why doesn’t the NCAA do more to promote women’s sports? I think it’s really sad when you see hardly anyone in the stands watching.
Have a great weekend!
