By Nick Coston,
You’ve heard me say it thousands of times, I love, love, love OOH. All of it, not just some. Even digital urinal screens.
Say what?
Yep, you heard me right. Digital Urinal Screens.
While reading a few of my peeps posts on LinkedIn, I came across a thread discussing a new digital product, digital screens on bathroom urinals. The thread only had two lines: “yes, this is an ad on a urinal. Yes, the advertiser is pi#$%ing away their ad dollars.”
Use your imagination.
Before I enlighten you with the next thirty or so comments following the post, let’s get something straight. This is a real company, and a real DOOH product. It’s produced by ECOPROD, short for environmental product applications. It is based in the United Kingdom. The urinals promise to “help you use less water, waste less water and reuse more water”. I can get on board with that.
They also offer other products besides little, cute digital screens on men’s room urinals, such as low flow taps, digital showers, smart water management systems and leak detection systems, something I could have used in my home July 4th weekend when our main floor powder room toilet tank ran consistently for over 54 hours causing a nice flow of its own on the bathroom floor and the basement below. I should have been arrested for destroying any carbon footprint I had going on my property after that weekend.
ECOPROD could have saved me.
But back to the topic, digital urinal screens. Their snappy website says these DOOH beauties will “dynamically deliver real time advertising messages to you customers via screens. The screen can be used to promote your own products (such as happy hour $1 light beer night if in a bar) as well as carrying independent paid for advertisers (such as plumbing needs or medical issues, like prostate awareness month).
But let’s get to the best part, some of the comments:
“Streaming TV”
“If it stops guys from texting while using the facilities, I’m all for it. Might help some of them aim too”.
“At least they’ll have good demographic data”.
“Watching the film “Odyssey as Nolan intended”.
And my favorite, “when the retail media product manager goes rogue”.
Ok, one more: “Just imagine – somewhere, months ago, in a boardroom marketeers were like “Hmmm I wonder where else we can put ads?” and then someone came up with this.”
And finally, a movie line “something came across my desk it is perhaps the best thing I’ve seen in the last six months”.
While chances are very good that the target audience is heavily male, like all male, I like it. The screens catch audiences (users) when they’re least expecting it, it’s eye catching, keeps you looking straight ahead, no wandering eyes, and whatever copy is running, you are guaranteed to remember it. Just keep the running time under (if it’s video) under 10 seconds.
Do these amazing digital urinal screens come complete with sound and or 3-D capabilities? Maybe, I’ve yet to see one. But I want to, they would be perfect for my “I SPY” posts.
Creepy, but perfect.
Oh, I almost forgot to ask: do they play sounds of trickling water or a waterfalls or damns breaking open when it flushes?
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Don’t forget the solid dwell times, better than most digital roadside units. And most definitely some serious though out one on one engagement.
At least I hope so.
Coming to a men’s room near you?
Insider’s Note: Nick Coston has been writing opinion pieces for the OOH industry for 10 years now. His weekly pieces also appear on Substack where you can view the last 2 years worth. Full-time, Nick is the VP, Sales and Sales Strategies for Moving Walls, the Singapore based media and ad tech giant, here in The America’s.
If you are interested, here is Nick’s Substack LINK
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