From next week comes the reality that your soap powder can stalk you.
According to the Advertising Age, 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.
It will be interesting to follow the campaign on the web site as this is the case of the a prize finding a consumer rather than the other way around.
Because of the high crime rate in Brazil the promoters are concerned that the lucky prize winner may not open his of her door to the team who are tasked to deliver the prize.
To avoid such an eventuality they "can remotely activate a buzzer in the detergent box so that it starts beeping. And if the team takes too long to arrive, and the consumer has already opened the box to see if she's a winner or just do laundry, she'll find, along with the GPS device and less detergent than expected, a note explaining the promotion and a phone number to call."
It begs the question though, will this lead to increased sales? Omo's brand recognition is already high within the country where is has 80% of the detergent market
In some countries issues of privacy might prevent such an initiative, but seemingly not in Brazil. being tracked from the store to your home might not be everyone's cup of tea, or in this case, box of soap.
