Companies
Start Putting GPS Into Products To Track
Consumers To Their Homes
Unilever's
Omo detergent is adding an unusual ingredient
to its two-pound detergent box in Brazil: a
GPS device that allows its promotions agency
Bullet to track shoppers and follow them to
their front doors. Starting next week,
consumers who buy one of the GPS-implanted
detergent boxes will be surprised at home,
given a pocket video camera as a prize and
invited to bring their families to enjoy a day
of Unilever-sponsored outdoor fun. The
promotion, called Try Something New With Omo,
is in keeping with the brand's international
"Dirt is Good" positioning that
encourages parents to let their kids have a
good time even if they get dirty. Omo accounts
for half of Brazil's detergent sales and is
already found in 80% of homes there, so
Unilever's goal is more to draw attention to a
new stain-fighting version of Omo and get it
talked about rather than looking for a big
increase in sales. That made the idea of doing
a promotion where the prize finds the
consumer, rather than the consumer having to
look for the prize -- and maybe not bothering
-- appealing.