Sit or Squat Squanders Opportunity

In case you missed it on this week's episode of The BeanCast, didn't catch the story on Ad Age last week or (God forbid) don't listen to marketing podcasts or perhaps even read, you may have missed that Charmin has a new app in the iPhone App Store.

Now on the surface this is a clever idea: Leverage a social network for finding clean public toilets, tie it to location-based services and give people a service for free that enhances perception of the brand. And certainly both Ad Age and the commenters on the story seemed to think this was an especially good example of social marketing through a mobile application.

However, as we mentioned on the show, there were a couple big problems with the execution. And a simple visit to the App Store revealed them.

The Danger of Not Being Transparent

While the app name was engaging (being named after the social network it was associated with, Sit or Squat), and while the description made a good case for how this app was relevant to user "needs," nowhere was the name "Charmin" mentioned.

In fact, it isn't until the app loads on your phone and you start using it that you are suddenly bombarded with Charmin ads. And while the difference is subtle, the approach takes away all of the social marketing value of the effort and turns it into nothing more than a paid endorsement.

Now there is a place and value for paid endorsement in apps. I'm not saying that in itself is bad. But saying this is a social effort now is incorrect. It's an ad on a social network and that's a big difference.

But it doesn't end there!

Know Your Permission Level

It isn't enough that this seemingly useful app has suddenly turned into adware. When someone tries to actually use the software and access the netwrk, they are bombarded with the need to register for the service. Now I can get past that. Some can't, but I at least realize the needed to have a name and a password for participation in a service like this. But my name? My sex? My age? My email?

The point of social marketing is to gain trust. Yet, here they violated trust and then trampled all over the trust issue again by asking for personal information. I don't even know to whom I am providing this information, because I can't even be sure if Charmin is anything more than a sponsor. Who are these "Sit or Squat" people?

Reviews are Social Too

But here's the kicker. And this reveals both the advertisers ineptitude in the space and the industry's ignorance as a whole: No one considered that when you market socially, people talk back. The advertiser obviously didn't, because this entire effort is now being undermined by the comment section in iTunes. And Ad Age, as well as the people who commented on the story, didn't because a simple trip over to iTunes to actually look at the app before talkings about the story would have revealed the general vilification of this effort by users.

Which highlights a key point: The commentary on your effort -- planning for it, participating in it and following up on it -- is every bit as much part of a social marketing effort as the effort itself.

The Changed Paradigm

In advertising, we like to gripe about the meters that measure ad popularity. Bill Green griped a lot about that on the show this week, in terms of the Super Bowl Ad Meter. And perhaps he's right that such measures are patently unfair in that context. But we can't assume those same standards apply when it comes to these new media efforts. The commentary is an integral part of the marketing effort itself and it can never be forgotten when evaluating the true effectiveness of a program.

I want to make clear that I think this was a great idea and could have been an outstanding example of social marketing with a mobile app. Clearly it was visionary. My harshness is borne out of disappointment. Like we asked on the show, "What possible reason could they have had for not at least including the Charmin logo in the App icon?" Even disclosure in the description would have been acceptable. But this lack of transparency led to a cascading situation of failures of trust in the end-users eyes. And ultimately this effort will remain an abysmal failure until it is fixed.