Jaffe Juice TV Episode #6 – April 21, 2009
I heart Charmin , I mean I really love what the brand is doing and I love the people behind Charmin. We’ve go to go back to 2004. Procter & Gamble the company, the parent company behind the Charmin brand, they had competition in the company to determine which brand was worthy of a Super Bowl spot. And it ended up being Charmin and you know, the effort in my opinion fell absolutely flat. Who cares? Who cares about toilet paper? It is as low involvement as possible, I mean some people do care about two ply versus one ply, but for the most part nobody cares. So they ran a Super Bowl commercial. I actually watched it on YouTube this morning. It was, it was kind of funny. On the day, it was really embarrassing. I remembered at the Super Bowl party I was at, people say, I don’t get it, why are they hear? But fast forward to two things that caught my eye, that makes such a huge difference and in my opinion guys you’ve redeemed yourselves big time. The first, was I was in Times Square over December January period, it was freezing cold. And I saw this massive experiential pop-up retail play. Essentially Charmin Restrooms in Times Square.
You can see some of the video associated with this, because people have actually gone and created photographs and video. Because what they saw was so exceptional. So what am I talking about? I’m talking about the fact that Charmin created a set of 40, 50, 60 restrooms, bathrooms. And then they decorated it with experience and with attitude. They had almost rappers or or as celebrities, host, hostesses, guys talking about welcome to the number one urination station in the nation. There was complete attitude, people were excited about toilet paper. I mean I remember seeing the snaked line and I was standing in the line and I took out my iPhone and I was taking photographs. And the kind of MC was going like number 42 number 43 number 44, he’s like, did that dude just take a photograph of another dude coming out of a toilet? And everybody laughed and I felt a bit embarrassed, but I was in on the joke. It was a terrific play. And apparently, you know this is a pop-up retail investment. It only pops up around the holiday period, when everybody is in Time Square looking for a toilet and sometimes just looking for an escape from the cold. What a great, nontraditional innovative way of breaking through the clutter. Forget the $3 million investment in a Super Bowl spot in 30 fleeting seconds on the Super Bowl. This is the kind of investment that gets people’s attention, that gets them to care about of all things, toilet paper.
Well, the other one that caught my eye just a couple weeks ago, was a new iPhone application called Sit or Squat. Again sponsored by Charmin, you can determine exactly or your iPhone will determine, based on GPS technology where the nearest toilets are to you at any given time, public toilets. For the most part, they’re gas stations, they’re public libraries, of course Starbucks. But now first time you can actually see where toilets are, proximity to you, probably put them on a map as well. You can determine whether they’re open or not. They’re even rated in terms of cleanliness, in terms of access, wheelchair access perhaps, changing tables for kids. What a smart brilliant idea, getting people to care about essentially, excuse my eloquence, taking a dump. It’s happening and a brand is behind it and a brand is 100% doing it in a smart, sophisticated, creative, warm and engaging way. That is the kind of stuff, you guys should be doing. Turns out, that Sit or Squat is an application that Charmin actually sponsored but I didn’t know that I didn’t care. As far as I’m concerned Charmin created that application. And as a brand, you have to think about two things right. One is find the App that exists already and then buy it, acquire it, sponsor it, own it for in indefinite period of time with the right of first refusal or go and create your own. There is a lot of talk right now about people saying we’re not investing in creating Apps. That is not the right approach. Sometimes it’s the right approach, but not always. So anyway, Charmin, I heart you. I love what you’re doing. Do more of it and to all the brands out there, if you think it can’t be done and you say, that could never, that doesn’t apply to me, not in our industry because we’re this or we’re that or we’re B2B or we’re industrial waste, I don’t care. If people can give a shit about toilet paper, they can give a shit about you.
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