Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel

In what could be considered an unorthodox marketing strategy, toilet paper brand Charmin’ came out with a mobile application that shows you and let’s you review/rate toilets in your vicinity. Says Adage:

Charmin can’t be accused of just trying to sell toilet paper: Unlike major rivals, it doesn’t have a commercial-bathroom business. Rather, it’s just another effort at nontraditional branding, a la the Times Square restrooms the brand has provided the past three holiday seasons; the mobile Pottypalooza program it ran from 2003 to 2005; or the “Charminizing” program in which it cleaned up public restrooms at state fairs starting in 2000.

To be honest, at first, I thought this is a bit of a desperate attempt to insert any type of “innovative/mobil/usergen marketing” into a brand, that’s just, well, toilet paper. But then I remembered that a) people online review just about anything these days and b) I remembered all those moments where I was walking through city centers, frantically looking for relief and wondering if I was gonna make it. This mix of facts is probably the reason why, according to Adage, the application “logged more than 52,000 toilets since launch.” I for one got the thought stuck in my head how it would be picking up an Effie award for “logging toilets,” but why not? Times are a-changing.

The fact is, however: people appreciate any act a brand undertakes to make a qualitative difference in their lives (however big or small, no pun intended), even when it comes to toilets.

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