<nettime> FW: New Free Toilet Paper with Banner Ads

["Bruce Sterling" <bruces@well.com>]

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from: futurefeedforward@futurefeedforward.com
to: <bruces@well.com>
subject: New Free Toilet Paper with Banner Ads
date: Sun, Apr 1, 2001, 12:39 PM


December 13, 2013

New Free Toilet Paper with Banner Ads

CINCINNATI--Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble today announced trial
marketing in the U.S. of a new version of its classic Charmin bathroom
tissue displaying dynamically generated and updated ads for other Procter &
Gamble products.  The new ad-enabled Charmin will be free to consumers and
distributed through supermarkets and other large retail outlets for Procter
and Gamble products.  "We're very excited about the changes in the Charmin
line," explains VP of Bathroom Marketing Barry Oile.  "This is an
'attention economy,' as they say, and we're looking for new ways to
leverage our brands to generate attention-related revenue."

 The new Charmin is made of an ultra-thin, organic electroluminescent film
deposited chemically on both sides of a substrate of traditional
cellulose-based tissue.  Each perforated section of the tissue functions as
an independent 256-color, 480x480 pixel display connected through a
continuous, ultra-thin ribbon-wire "channel" to a system-on-a-chip etched
on flexible substrate and sandwiched between the layers of the roll's
cardboard "support cylinder."  The central system is equipped with nanotube
"ballasts" that orient the roll and enable it to determine which of the
tissue screens are facing outward.

 "One of the challenges we faced was how to cope with the fact that some
consumers are 'under-rollers' and some are 'over-rollers,'" explains Trish
Falt, director of the research team responsible for the new Charmin.  "The
system has to know whether the most out-facing square--the square with
optimum ad placement--is the leading-square, as it is with over-rollers, or
whether it is a higher or 'shoulder' square, as it is with under-rollers.
The real trick isn't getting the display and the tissue to work together,
but building a system capable of adapting to the variability of consumer
behavior."

 The first generation of the new Charmin will offer advertisements for
other Procter & Gamble consumer products tailored to individual users on
the basis of data gathered through bluetooth communications with the
packaging of other Procter & Gamble products in the vicinity.  Informed by
a nearby bottle of Tide that it is reaching empty, for example, the Charmin
roll will generate a reminder ad.

 "For this test phase, we are working with ads only for our existing
product lines," explains Marketing VP Oile.  "In the second phase we'll
begin selling ad-space.  We've already lined-up a number of big names,
including Ford, AOL, and the Gap.  In the third phase we'll be looking to
our content partners, including Yahoo and AvantGo, to help us increase the
stickiness of Charmin through the addition of customized news and
contentoids."

 Early results suggest significant public interest in the colorful new
tissue, and positive response to the price-point.  "People seem to be most
impressed by the display quality," notes Falt, "but, from an engineering
perspective, the real challenge was maintaining the softness and absorbency
for which Charmin is known."

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