CollegeRecruiter.com goes mobile with job searches
By Mickey Alam Khan
April 20, 2009
CollegeRecruiter on a Nokia phone
CollegeRecruiter.com, one of the leading job boards for college students looking for internships and college graduates in market for entry-level positions, has gone mobile.
The Minneapolis, MN-based company’s mobile site athttp://collegerecruiter.mobi is being positioned as a fully functional job board with almost all the bells and whistles of the wired Web site. Being alert to the newest job postings on the site is one of the key benefits of CollegeRecruiter.mobi.
“We’re looking at our mobile site to build our overall traffic and enable us to continue our leadership role as the Internet continues to migrate from desktop computers to mobile devices,” said Steven Rothberg, founder/president of CollegeRecruiter.com.
Here’s what Mr. Rothberg had to say about his company’s mobile strategy and the opportunity ahead:
Why the need for CollegeRecruiter.com to go mobile? CollegeRecruiter.com is the leading job board for college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities, so virtually all of our users rely extensively on their mobile devices to connect with their friends and the Internet.
The internship jobs page
If we want to continue to be a leader for this audience, then we need to be mobile so that we are where they are.
Are we assuming that all college grads have smartphones?Definitely not. A higher percentage of college students and recent graduates have smartphones than the general population and the percentage who have smartphones is increasing, but our site is designed to work well with any Web-enabled phone.
How will the site work in terms of functionality?Unlike some other job boards which are going mobile, our mobile site is fully functional. You can search for and read any of the tens of thousands of pages of employment-related articles, blogs and videos.
The entry-level jobs page
You can also search, read and apply to any of the hundreds of thousands of internship and job postings on the site.
Most of the other boards require you to email a link to a job posting to yourself and then you apply when you’re at your computer. Seems to me that defeats the point of the site being mobile.
Who created the mobile site?We created the mobile site using in-house talent.
How do you send a resume from the phone? Or even fill in those fields?We only require three fields for the vast majority of jobs: name, email address and cover letter/resume.
It should be pretty easy for candidates to complete the first two fields. The last field they can complete by either copying and pasting a document saved on their smartphone, type in a URL to their online resume or type in a summary of their qualifications.
Realistically, very few will type in a complete resume.
How is it different from others in the market? Which other job boards have mobile sites?MJob.com is helping some other job boards go mobile. RecruitingNevada.com is an example of one of those.
A much higher percentage of overseas job boards are mobile than U.S. job boards because the use of mobile overseas is much further along than it is here.
How do you monetize the mobile site?The more visitors to our mobile site, the less advertising we need to pay.
Also, we’ll soon be launching a complimentary job match alert service via texting and we’ll generate revenues from candidates who want to subscribe to that premium service.
Who pays for usage – recruiter or applicant? And what are the listing fees?There are no additional costs to the recruiters or applicants. Virtually all of our job board services are free to candidates and employers pay to advertise their job openings. Their ads run at no additional cost on our mobile site.
So what’s your strategy with this mobile offering?We’re looking at our mobile site to build our overall traffic and enable us to continue our leadership role as the Internet continues to migrate from desktop computers to mobile devices.
How are you going to promote it?We’re working on getting listed in the mobile search engines. We’ve had some good press coverage so far, and we’ll be driving traffic using the texted job alerts.
What kind of traffic or usage are you expecting?We’re anticipating that within a year about 25 percent of our traffic will be to our mobile site.
So what challenge are you addressing with the mobile site?We want to remain relevant and prominent with the bulk of visitors to our Web site, the college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.
As they continue to migrate their Internet access points from desktop computers to mobile devices, we need to migrate with them.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
What can mobile do for your brand?
What can mobile do for your brand?
April 15, 2009
Dave Sloan is director of marketing at Avot Media
By Dave Sloan
The world of advertising is going through some challenging yet exciting changes. Budgets may be limited but everyone would agree that there are huge opportunities to reach customers in mobile.
While its no secret that mobile is important, brand managers and advertising agencies often lack experience in the mobile channel and are scrambling to understand this evolving and growing opportunity.
Let’s take a look at the opportunities that mobile has to offer.
What kind of reach does mobile have?
What are some mobile marketing best practices?
What are some examples of success in mobile marketing?
Specifically, how can a push to mobile give back a lift in brand awareness and sales?
Reach and engagementAlthough mobile is widely adopted at about 90 percent penetration in the United States, this does not mean that every mobile user is a prime advertising target.
The first question is how many users are really reachable?
Mobile services adoption statistics appear low at first glance.
Only 25 percent of U.S. subscribers use SMS, 18 percent use the mobile Web, and approximately 8 percent are on social networking sites and regularly watch mobile video.
Although the potential for mass marketing reach sounds relatively limited, its important to remember that mobile is the most engaging, personal and interactive media device.
You won’t reach every customer, but you will have the opportunity to create an compelling experience for specific target customers.
SMS has gone mainstream with 1 trillion messages sent in the U.S. in 2008. And, MMS has finally seen significant growth due to better bundled data plans with 15 billion MMS sent in 2008, up from 6 billion in 2007 (source: CTIA).
A well designed SMS or MMS direct marketing campaign could potentially be an elegant fit for your brand.
Beyond messaging campaigns, mobile has proven to be a powerful way to engage users, create interactive brand experiences, and reach users on their device of choice.
With the rapid improvement in mobile devices, improved data plan prices and adoption of mobile social networking, mobile has proven to be a powerful way to involve customers beyond traditional channels.
At the same time, the mobile ecosystem remains fragmented and extremely messy. Mobile marketers quickly find that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reaching their mobile audience.
There are hundreds of device types, limited data plan adoption, and spotty network conditions. The reality of a fragmented mobile ecosystem requires a well planned, targeted approach that may include SMS, WAP, apps and video.
Best practicesCommon first steps in mobile include experimentation with SMS marketing and WAP banner ads.
Although these models may prove to be worthwhile for customer acquisition, top brands have found that mobile creates an even richer opportunity to offer new brand experiences beyond customer acquisition initiatives.
SMS is great for voting and interaction. Some brands report that voting response rates are 10 times better than online voting.
As a rule of thumb, SMS marketing needs to be treated with care due to sensitivy around Spam, over-charging users, and complicated opt-in steps.
In general don’t expect a high rate of customer conversion via mobile since there are very few elegant click-to-buy models in mobile.
Mobile web sites (WAP) are a great start for a catch-all approach.
But, the user experience is problematic with awkward search, discovery, and usability.
Top mobile brands like MySpace have found that the mobile Internet can be the best way to let users with common feature phones access a portal.
Applications are great for creating custom user experiences. But, they can have limited reach. Not everyone has an iPhone. And, how do you measure the success of an application?
Counting app downloads is a useful metric but how can you drive repeated usage and stickiness?
Many brands have found success in iPhone application development by targeting iPhone customers that overlap their own target customer demographic, as well as by creating buzz in the market.
Mobile video has been growing in popularity with better content, higher quality, and newer video-friendly devices like the Blackberry Storm, Apple iPhone and T-Mobile G1.
Nielsen reports that as many as 11.3 million Americans watched mobile video in Q408.
In a Nielsen study, mobile video viewers said they were 3 times as likely to trust and respond to a mobile advertisement than regular mobile users.
If you have any doubt that mobile video is becoming a reality, consider that MTV delivered 100 million mobile videos in 2008. Wow.
Leverage mobile to improve your brandIf we look at successful brands that have already pushed to mobile, it is clear that mobile should not just treated as an additional revenue stream.
Mobile provides new and exciting ways to interact with brands.
Mobile lets users connect with their favorite content on their terms.
Brands have the opportunity to create new interactive experiences that leverage the power of mobile environments (like address book, camera, GPS, and the accelerometer).
Advertisers should not make the mistake of trying to recreate classic web advertising models that gather metrics like impressions and click-throughs.
A better strategy is to create great branded mobile experiences that drive interactive usage and brand awareness. Successful brands have leveraged mobile to extend their overall brand equity, not necessarily to turn on a new revenue stream in the mobile channel.
Brands often struggle with the question of “fit” for their brand. Successful brands like Mini Cooper that appear to have no obvious mobile fit have had success developing iPhone apps that associate their brand with positive attributes like fun and coolness.
Every brand can benefit from a mobile presence. The trick is determining how mobile can embrace and extend your brand.
Kraft, for example, offers an iFood iPhone application that targets key demographics, improves the lifetime value of a customer, drives innovation and increases brand awareness.
By now, the mobile marketing era is well underway. There are plenty of examples of first movers and fast followers who have already invested and succeeded in the mobile channel. We can all learn from these early successes.
Case studiesMTV’s goal is to drive revenue and create ubiquitous access to their content. As they launch in mobile, they must be able to track metrics and show value to advertisers.
For many of MTV’s brands, top mobile growth areas are mobile video, mobile web, and iPhone. MTV observed early on that their users are already on mobile. They have found that SMS increases engagement.
Text messaging is the best way to get votes (10 times better than online). Mobile allows them to offer multi-platform access and drive additional revenue streams through mobile video advertising. MTV streamed 100 million mobile videos in 2008.
BMW Germany saw a 30% conversion rate with a mobile video campaign. What’s interesting is that all the information was in the video.
There was no need to click through to a link, which is typical of most mobile advertising campaigns across categories and markets.
AdMob cited the results of a recent campaign for the Land Rover automobile brand: In addition to 45,000 mobile video downloads and 7,400 wallpaper downloads, the mobile effort inspired 1,100 wireless subscribers to contact their local Land Rover dealership.
ConclusionAll advertising and outbound marketing efforts need to show a strong ROI.
This is a great time to innovate, add new value to the brand, and find new revenue streams.
Many brands are finding that mobile is a great vehicle to extend their reach, increase engagement, and drive customer loyalty.
ROI in mobile should be a top goal, but this is an opportunity to raise the bar. The winners will be creative with the user experience design and great at execution. Mobile should not be treated as a stand-alone marketing channel.
Instead, mobile should be approached as an advanced tool for brand relationships that improve the end users experience and likelihood to stay loyal, recommend the brand, and generate more activity with the brand
April 15, 2009
Dave Sloan is director of marketing at Avot Media
By Dave Sloan
The world of advertising is going through some challenging yet exciting changes. Budgets may be limited but everyone would agree that there are huge opportunities to reach customers in mobile.
While its no secret that mobile is important, brand managers and advertising agencies often lack experience in the mobile channel and are scrambling to understand this evolving and growing opportunity.
Let’s take a look at the opportunities that mobile has to offer.
What kind of reach does mobile have?
What are some mobile marketing best practices?
What are some examples of success in mobile marketing?
Specifically, how can a push to mobile give back a lift in brand awareness and sales?
Reach and engagementAlthough mobile is widely adopted at about 90 percent penetration in the United States, this does not mean that every mobile user is a prime advertising target.
The first question is how many users are really reachable?
Mobile services adoption statistics appear low at first glance.
Only 25 percent of U.S. subscribers use SMS, 18 percent use the mobile Web, and approximately 8 percent are on social networking sites and regularly watch mobile video.
Although the potential for mass marketing reach sounds relatively limited, its important to remember that mobile is the most engaging, personal and interactive media device.
You won’t reach every customer, but you will have the opportunity to create an compelling experience for specific target customers.
SMS has gone mainstream with 1 trillion messages sent in the U.S. in 2008. And, MMS has finally seen significant growth due to better bundled data plans with 15 billion MMS sent in 2008, up from 6 billion in 2007 (source: CTIA).
A well designed SMS or MMS direct marketing campaign could potentially be an elegant fit for your brand.
Beyond messaging campaigns, mobile has proven to be a powerful way to engage users, create interactive brand experiences, and reach users on their device of choice.
With the rapid improvement in mobile devices, improved data plan prices and adoption of mobile social networking, mobile has proven to be a powerful way to involve customers beyond traditional channels.
At the same time, the mobile ecosystem remains fragmented and extremely messy. Mobile marketers quickly find that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reaching their mobile audience.
There are hundreds of device types, limited data plan adoption, and spotty network conditions. The reality of a fragmented mobile ecosystem requires a well planned, targeted approach that may include SMS, WAP, apps and video.
Best practicesCommon first steps in mobile include experimentation with SMS marketing and WAP banner ads.
Although these models may prove to be worthwhile for customer acquisition, top brands have found that mobile creates an even richer opportunity to offer new brand experiences beyond customer acquisition initiatives.
SMS is great for voting and interaction. Some brands report that voting response rates are 10 times better than online voting.
As a rule of thumb, SMS marketing needs to be treated with care due to sensitivy around Spam, over-charging users, and complicated opt-in steps.
In general don’t expect a high rate of customer conversion via mobile since there are very few elegant click-to-buy models in mobile.
Mobile web sites (WAP) are a great start for a catch-all approach.
But, the user experience is problematic with awkward search, discovery, and usability.
Top mobile brands like MySpace have found that the mobile Internet can be the best way to let users with common feature phones access a portal.
Applications are great for creating custom user experiences. But, they can have limited reach. Not everyone has an iPhone. And, how do you measure the success of an application?
Counting app downloads is a useful metric but how can you drive repeated usage and stickiness?
Many brands have found success in iPhone application development by targeting iPhone customers that overlap their own target customer demographic, as well as by creating buzz in the market.
Mobile video has been growing in popularity with better content, higher quality, and newer video-friendly devices like the Blackberry Storm, Apple iPhone and T-Mobile G1.
Nielsen reports that as many as 11.3 million Americans watched mobile video in Q408.
In a Nielsen study, mobile video viewers said they were 3 times as likely to trust and respond to a mobile advertisement than regular mobile users.
If you have any doubt that mobile video is becoming a reality, consider that MTV delivered 100 million mobile videos in 2008. Wow.
Leverage mobile to improve your brandIf we look at successful brands that have already pushed to mobile, it is clear that mobile should not just treated as an additional revenue stream.
Mobile provides new and exciting ways to interact with brands.
Mobile lets users connect with their favorite content on their terms.
Brands have the opportunity to create new interactive experiences that leverage the power of mobile environments (like address book, camera, GPS, and the accelerometer).
Advertisers should not make the mistake of trying to recreate classic web advertising models that gather metrics like impressions and click-throughs.
A better strategy is to create great branded mobile experiences that drive interactive usage and brand awareness. Successful brands have leveraged mobile to extend their overall brand equity, not necessarily to turn on a new revenue stream in the mobile channel.
Brands often struggle with the question of “fit” for their brand. Successful brands like Mini Cooper that appear to have no obvious mobile fit have had success developing iPhone apps that associate their brand with positive attributes like fun and coolness.
Every brand can benefit from a mobile presence. The trick is determining how mobile can embrace and extend your brand.
Kraft, for example, offers an iFood iPhone application that targets key demographics, improves the lifetime value of a customer, drives innovation and increases brand awareness.
By now, the mobile marketing era is well underway. There are plenty of examples of first movers and fast followers who have already invested and succeeded in the mobile channel. We can all learn from these early successes.
Case studiesMTV’s goal is to drive revenue and create ubiquitous access to their content. As they launch in mobile, they must be able to track metrics and show value to advertisers.
For many of MTV’s brands, top mobile growth areas are mobile video, mobile web, and iPhone. MTV observed early on that their users are already on mobile. They have found that SMS increases engagement.
Text messaging is the best way to get votes (10 times better than online). Mobile allows them to offer multi-platform access and drive additional revenue streams through mobile video advertising. MTV streamed 100 million mobile videos in 2008.
BMW Germany saw a 30% conversion rate with a mobile video campaign. What’s interesting is that all the information was in the video.
There was no need to click through to a link, which is typical of most mobile advertising campaigns across categories and markets.
AdMob cited the results of a recent campaign for the Land Rover automobile brand: In addition to 45,000 mobile video downloads and 7,400 wallpaper downloads, the mobile effort inspired 1,100 wireless subscribers to contact their local Land Rover dealership.
ConclusionAll advertising and outbound marketing efforts need to show a strong ROI.
This is a great time to innovate, add new value to the brand, and find new revenue streams.
Many brands are finding that mobile is a great vehicle to extend their reach, increase engagement, and drive customer loyalty.
ROI in mobile should be a top goal, but this is an opportunity to raise the bar. The winners will be creative with the user experience design and great at execution. Mobile should not be treated as a stand-alone marketing channel.
Instead, mobile should be approached as an advanced tool for brand relationships that improve the end users experience and likelihood to stay loyal, recommend the brand, and generate more activity with the brand
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Procter & Gamble’s Charmin brand runs first mobile sponsorship
Procter & Gamble’s Charmin brand runs first mobile sponsorship
By Mickey Alam Khan
April 10, 2009
To pee or not to pee, that's the question
Procter & Gamble Co.’s Charmin, the nation’s No. 1 toilet paper brand, has debuted its first mobile advertising sponsorship, working with global bathroom directory SitOrSquat Inc. on its Web site and mobile applications.
The consumer packaged goods giant is sponsoring SitOrSquat’s site and iPhone application to help consumers on the go find the cleanest public toilets worldwide. The site and application offer user-generated listings of bathroom locations and ratings, as well as details on hours of operation, handicap accessibility, showers and availability of changing tables.
“SitOrSquat is the perfect partner for us,” said Dewayne Guy, external relations manager at P&G, Cincinnati, OH. “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel by creating this application. We found somebody out there whose mission matches ours. It creates the perfect partnership.”
SitOrSquat is a New York-based user-generated service that lets consumers find bathrooms with myriad facilities including changing tables and handicap access across 55,000 bathrooms in 32 countries. It styles itself as “a place to find and record bathrooms anywhere in the world.”
Users who download the SitOrSquat application from the Apple iTunes Store to their iPhone can add their review when they have used one of the featured toilets. A “Sit” rating implies that the bathroom is clean and “Squat” means that it is not.
Charmin takes baby steps on mobile
Got your backThe Charmin sponsorship is currently live on the Web site and iPhone application. A presence on the BlackBerry application may follow, along with a presence on future Windows Mobile and Android applications.
In addition to images of its two bear-cub mascots, Charmin also gets a banner ad on the SitOrSquat iPhone application that says, “Gotta go? Relax … we got your back.” The banner features the red bear and the Charmin logo.
Clicking on that banner ad currently takes consumers to a mobile landing page with a big bear on it. Soon, SitOrSquat will introduce a more comprehensive brand image including the possibility of point of purchase and enriched content for Charmin once the ad is clicked on.
Action at the bottom
Another banner shows the blue bear with a thumbs-up sign. Copy reads, “Just like home.” The Charmin logo is adjacent. A click-through on that unit again takes users to a mobile landing page with a bear on it.
The banners occupy the bottom strip of every page in the iPhone application.
“What we get out of it is the impressions from that activity,” Mr. Guy said. “We’re really trying to support the effort that SitOrSquat is putting out there.”
P&G has typically promoted its Charmin tissue across television, print and in-store media. Online sponsorships, outdoor events and now mobile advertising are designed to keep the brand front and center of its target audience of moms and families wherever they are, at home or travelling.
P&G ad agency Publicis handles the Charmin brand. Media services shop Carat was responsible for the SitOrSquat media buy.
Creating buzz is a major offshoot of Charmin sponsorships.
For example, P&G took 4-wheel trucks to 15 state fairs and the Super Bowl. The Potty Palooza, as the effort was called from 2000 to 2005, offered portable toilets with Charmin toilet paper for use at these venues.
In fall of 2006, P&G inaugurated the first fully-staffed deluxe bathrooms in New York’s Times Square. Housed in a rented building, the 20 Charmin-sponsored bathrooms offered family-friendly facilities to more than 330,000 visitors during the busy holiday season.
That effort, which included flat-screen TV sets and a lounge area in addition to the bathrooms stocked with Charmin toilet paper rolls, continued through last year.
Not surprisingly, the “Charminized” Potty Palooza and Times Square bathrooms attracted considerable media attention and, consequently, substantial brand mileage.
Squat boxSitOrSquat offers similar appeal to P&G.
While the service’s Web site and iPhone application went live in October, the BlackBerry application mid-November.
As of April 9 morning, SitOrSquat has recorded 81,094 downloads for its iPhone application and 13,652 downloads of its BlackBerry version.
The number of total unique visitors to the wired Web site athttp://www.sitorsquat.com is estimated at 1.2 million since launch.
Also, the number of total searches across online and mobile platforms is estimated at 7.2 million.
Among the most commented-on bathrooms in SitOrSquat’s database? Don Giovanni, an Italian restaurant in New York’s Manhattan borough, and a pub called Pony House in Leeds, England.
The most popular area of search is New York's 34th Street and Avenue of the Americas, or the district around Macy's department store, Penn Station and the Empire State Building.
Jonathan Glanz and Danika Landers founded SitOrSquat. The idea was to offer a user-generated mobile service that targeted women with children and older people with continence issues to help them find clean bathrooms when they are on the move.
A key attraction of the SitOrSquat iPhone application is the consumer’s ability to save multiple searches, including two out of the box - one in the Open Now category and the other about availability of changing tables.
The iPhone and BlackBerry applications as well as SitOrSquat.com are designed to enable user feedback with ease.
“There’s one thing we know about our people who use our service: they are not techies,” Mr. Glanz said.
The only bathrooms that Ms. Landers uploaded in the SitOrSquat database were 140 public toilets that she personally visited in addition to the 4,000 bathrooms in the Starbucks coffee shop franchise.
Ms. Landers did not visit all the Starbucks bathrooms, which surprisingly don’t get a high rating from visitors.
Travelling consumers added the rest of the bathrooms reviewed and listed on SitOrSquat, including those attached to restaurants, bars, hotels, retail stores and movie theatres.
“We’re trying to build a community around this,” Mr. Glanz said.
Monetizing that community is how Charmin comes into the picture. Mr. Glanz hopes to parlay the popularity of SitOrSquat’s mobile and Web services into more advertising sponsorships.
“There’s a lot of opportunities like Purell to paper products to toiletry dispensers,” Mr. Glanz said about potential sponsors. “I think Charmin and the P&G products could be incredible sponsors.”
In a way, SitOrSquat is competing with services such as restaurant reviewer Yelp, but with the added advantage of a unique niche and an audience eager to upload comments to their iPhones and BlackBerrys.
“Looking for a restaurant is a luxury, but looking for a restroom is a necessity,” Mr. Glanz said.
Charming CharminThe Charmin sponsorship currently does not appear on the BlackBerry application. But that has to do more with the application’s format than anything else – the BlackBerry has five platform lines with different screen sizes that hinder application of a unified set of assets.
Still, the brand managers at P&G’s Charmin are watching keenly to gauge consumer response to its mobile overtures.
Like many consumer packaged goods brands, Charmin has to constantly generate ideas that attract new customers while retaining the loyalty of existing users of its line of toilet paper.
The Charmin line covers Charmin Ultra Strong, Charmin Ultra Soft, Charmin Basic, Charmin Plus and Charmin Fresh Mates. The rolls come with different strength, softness, weaves, lotions and sizes.
Charmin competes with Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s Kleenex Cottonelle and Scott and Georgia-Pacific’s Angel Soft and Quilted Northern brands as well as eco-friendly Seventh Generation and private-label toilet papers from retailers.
Mr. Guy did not specify the cost of sponsoring SitOrSquat on mobile and online. But he did confirm it was a paid sponsorship.
“For a brand like Charmin, we’re testing and learning about mobile,” Mr. Guy said. “What we do know is that we need to be in places that are relevant from a mobile or digital standpoint. That’s why this relationship with SitOrSquat is important – it’s relevant at a point of need.
“For us we’re learning and as long as we continue to look for those ways to connect with our consumers, mobile fits within that,” he said.
While Charmin has its own wired Web site athttp://www.charmin.com, it does not have a mobile site, mobile application or a common short code for SMS programs.
But there is no doubt that mobile has become an area of interest for Charmin, especially given that P&G is one of the largest mobile advertisers nationwide.
What’s the one thing that P&G keeps in mind with new outreach efforts, especially now that mobile is in the picture?
“Relevance,” Mr. Guy said. “We’re not out there to do stuff for the sake of doing it. It needs to fit within our consumers’ lives if we’re going to do things where it makes sense for her, whether it’s mobile, digital or any other aspect of our marketing mix.”
By Mickey Alam Khan
April 10, 2009
To pee or not to pee, that's the question
Procter & Gamble Co.’s Charmin, the nation’s No. 1 toilet paper brand, has debuted its first mobile advertising sponsorship, working with global bathroom directory SitOrSquat Inc. on its Web site and mobile applications.
The consumer packaged goods giant is sponsoring SitOrSquat’s site and iPhone application to help consumers on the go find the cleanest public toilets worldwide. The site and application offer user-generated listings of bathroom locations and ratings, as well as details on hours of operation, handicap accessibility, showers and availability of changing tables.
“SitOrSquat is the perfect partner for us,” said Dewayne Guy, external relations manager at P&G, Cincinnati, OH. “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel by creating this application. We found somebody out there whose mission matches ours. It creates the perfect partnership.”
SitOrSquat is a New York-based user-generated service that lets consumers find bathrooms with myriad facilities including changing tables and handicap access across 55,000 bathrooms in 32 countries. It styles itself as “a place to find and record bathrooms anywhere in the world.”
Users who download the SitOrSquat application from the Apple iTunes Store to their iPhone can add their review when they have used one of the featured toilets. A “Sit” rating implies that the bathroom is clean and “Squat” means that it is not.
Charmin takes baby steps on mobile
Got your backThe Charmin sponsorship is currently live on the Web site and iPhone application. A presence on the BlackBerry application may follow, along with a presence on future Windows Mobile and Android applications.
In addition to images of its two bear-cub mascots, Charmin also gets a banner ad on the SitOrSquat iPhone application that says, “Gotta go? Relax … we got your back.” The banner features the red bear and the Charmin logo.
Clicking on that banner ad currently takes consumers to a mobile landing page with a big bear on it. Soon, SitOrSquat will introduce a more comprehensive brand image including the possibility of point of purchase and enriched content for Charmin once the ad is clicked on.
Action at the bottom
Another banner shows the blue bear with a thumbs-up sign. Copy reads, “Just like home.” The Charmin logo is adjacent. A click-through on that unit again takes users to a mobile landing page with a bear on it.
The banners occupy the bottom strip of every page in the iPhone application.
“What we get out of it is the impressions from that activity,” Mr. Guy said. “We’re really trying to support the effort that SitOrSquat is putting out there.”
P&G has typically promoted its Charmin tissue across television, print and in-store media. Online sponsorships, outdoor events and now mobile advertising are designed to keep the brand front and center of its target audience of moms and families wherever they are, at home or travelling.
P&G ad agency Publicis handles the Charmin brand. Media services shop Carat was responsible for the SitOrSquat media buy.
Creating buzz is a major offshoot of Charmin sponsorships.
For example, P&G took 4-wheel trucks to 15 state fairs and the Super Bowl. The Potty Palooza, as the effort was called from 2000 to 2005, offered portable toilets with Charmin toilet paper for use at these venues.
In fall of 2006, P&G inaugurated the first fully-staffed deluxe bathrooms in New York’s Times Square. Housed in a rented building, the 20 Charmin-sponsored bathrooms offered family-friendly facilities to more than 330,000 visitors during the busy holiday season.
That effort, which included flat-screen TV sets and a lounge area in addition to the bathrooms stocked with Charmin toilet paper rolls, continued through last year.
Not surprisingly, the “Charminized” Potty Palooza and Times Square bathrooms attracted considerable media attention and, consequently, substantial brand mileage.
Squat boxSitOrSquat offers similar appeal to P&G.
While the service’s Web site and iPhone application went live in October, the BlackBerry application mid-November.
As of April 9 morning, SitOrSquat has recorded 81,094 downloads for its iPhone application and 13,652 downloads of its BlackBerry version.
The number of total unique visitors to the wired Web site athttp://www.sitorsquat.com is estimated at 1.2 million since launch.
Also, the number of total searches across online and mobile platforms is estimated at 7.2 million.
Among the most commented-on bathrooms in SitOrSquat’s database? Don Giovanni, an Italian restaurant in New York’s Manhattan borough, and a pub called Pony House in Leeds, England.
The most popular area of search is New York's 34th Street and Avenue of the Americas, or the district around Macy's department store, Penn Station and the Empire State Building.
Jonathan Glanz and Danika Landers founded SitOrSquat. The idea was to offer a user-generated mobile service that targeted women with children and older people with continence issues to help them find clean bathrooms when they are on the move.
A key attraction of the SitOrSquat iPhone application is the consumer’s ability to save multiple searches, including two out of the box - one in the Open Now category and the other about availability of changing tables.
The iPhone and BlackBerry applications as well as SitOrSquat.com are designed to enable user feedback with ease.
“There’s one thing we know about our people who use our service: they are not techies,” Mr. Glanz said.
The only bathrooms that Ms. Landers uploaded in the SitOrSquat database were 140 public toilets that she personally visited in addition to the 4,000 bathrooms in the Starbucks coffee shop franchise.
Ms. Landers did not visit all the Starbucks bathrooms, which surprisingly don’t get a high rating from visitors.
Travelling consumers added the rest of the bathrooms reviewed and listed on SitOrSquat, including those attached to restaurants, bars, hotels, retail stores and movie theatres.
“We’re trying to build a community around this,” Mr. Glanz said.
Monetizing that community is how Charmin comes into the picture. Mr. Glanz hopes to parlay the popularity of SitOrSquat’s mobile and Web services into more advertising sponsorships.
“There’s a lot of opportunities like Purell to paper products to toiletry dispensers,” Mr. Glanz said about potential sponsors. “I think Charmin and the P&G products could be incredible sponsors.”
In a way, SitOrSquat is competing with services such as restaurant reviewer Yelp, but with the added advantage of a unique niche and an audience eager to upload comments to their iPhones and BlackBerrys.
“Looking for a restaurant is a luxury, but looking for a restroom is a necessity,” Mr. Glanz said.
Charming CharminThe Charmin sponsorship currently does not appear on the BlackBerry application. But that has to do more with the application’s format than anything else – the BlackBerry has five platform lines with different screen sizes that hinder application of a unified set of assets.
Still, the brand managers at P&G’s Charmin are watching keenly to gauge consumer response to its mobile overtures.
Like many consumer packaged goods brands, Charmin has to constantly generate ideas that attract new customers while retaining the loyalty of existing users of its line of toilet paper.
The Charmin line covers Charmin Ultra Strong, Charmin Ultra Soft, Charmin Basic, Charmin Plus and Charmin Fresh Mates. The rolls come with different strength, softness, weaves, lotions and sizes.
Charmin competes with Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s Kleenex Cottonelle and Scott and Georgia-Pacific’s Angel Soft and Quilted Northern brands as well as eco-friendly Seventh Generation and private-label toilet papers from retailers.
Mr. Guy did not specify the cost of sponsoring SitOrSquat on mobile and online. But he did confirm it was a paid sponsorship.
“For a brand like Charmin, we’re testing and learning about mobile,” Mr. Guy said. “What we do know is that we need to be in places that are relevant from a mobile or digital standpoint. That’s why this relationship with SitOrSquat is important – it’s relevant at a point of need.
“For us we’re learning and as long as we continue to look for those ways to connect with our consumers, mobile fits within that,” he said.
While Charmin has its own wired Web site athttp://www.charmin.com, it does not have a mobile site, mobile application or a common short code for SMS programs.
But there is no doubt that mobile has become an area of interest for Charmin, especially given that P&G is one of the largest mobile advertisers nationwide.
What’s the one thing that P&G keeps in mind with new outreach efforts, especially now that mobile is in the picture?
“Relevance,” Mr. Guy said. “We’re not out there to do stuff for the sake of doing it. It needs to fit within our consumers’ lives if we’re going to do things where it makes sense for her, whether it’s mobile, digital or any other aspect of our marketing mix.”
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