[TryingHard]

I want to get a feel for the general consensus with regards to "Indoor" or toilet stall advertising. The idea occurred to me that the inside wall of a toilet stall (the one that you face while seated) is great ad space that can be sold at a premium in high traffic areas. Well, low and behold, there are a number of companies doing this in specific geographic locations. But.. they're all making fortunes it seems. After doing a little research I'm very interested in this niche and unexploited market and wondering if anyone else has looked into this?

[HotSizzles]

What about graphiti and stuff. I know that the public toilets I go to there are a lot of graphitiing and vandalism. How much would repairing and maintaining a clean advertising space be.

Other than that I think it is a good idea. They also have these where I am. Not exactly in the toilet booth. They have placed them about head height where the troughs (cant think of the exact name ATM) are where you stand and .......... you get it.

[akula]

Originally Posted by TryingHard

I want to get a feel for the general consensus with regards to "Indoor" or toilet stall advertising. The idea occurred to me that the inside wall of a toilet stall (the one that you face while seated) is great ad space that can be sold at a premium in high traffic areas. Well, low and behold, there are a number of companies doing this in specific geographic locations. But.. they're all making fortunes it seems. After doing a little research I'm very interested in this niche and unexploited market and wondering if anyone else has looked into this?

Ok...let's think this through because what you have now is less than valuable. You have no intellectual property.

1) Think up a place where there is no advertising now and then stick advertising there- that's pretty stupid. We have enough advertising, what we need for it is to get smarter. There is no reason I should see ads for women's clothing on TV. It's a waste of my time, and the advertiser's money. The future of advertising is in getting the right ads, to the right people. try to figure out how to do this.

2) With your current idea, you have no IP. It's little more than a crew going around putting up posters in toilets. Be smarter than that, find a technology which you can supply to the advertising industry.

e.g. Shopping malls have food courts. Food courts have tables. Tables have tabletops. Tabletops are seen by a lot of people who eat in food courts.

I know of a company which has designed special tabletops where a sheet of advertising copy is inserted between two transparent plastic panels so that advertising could be placed on the millions of tabletops in American malls. Again, the interesting bit is their technology.

Try to take the time. Don't just copy people. Find an original answer and you will appreciate that your time doing all of these ventures is going to be better spent.


Good luck



Yes yes....you have an idea, there is nothing wrong with it, but if you want a successful large business- consider investing in intellectual property which you can supply to the rest of the advertising industry.

It could be a lot of things....like you could work out a formula which ranks how appealing each celebrity is to each age group. Advertisers could then use this "Q factor" to better choose which celebrity they get endorsements from- and if you're spending up $10 mill on endorsements, this is one decision you want to get right.

Be creative.

[nado]

I think it's an awesome idea... it's an area which doesn't get much advertising (apart from graffiti), and yet as you said it gets a lot of traffic.

If you could work out a way to deter or stop grafiti then the options would be endless.

You could have flat screens which show video ads and could show movie clips or TV!

You could even include options for gaming and interactivity... although it would need to be a hands-free thing.

[hudson hawk]

with just sub contract people or a cleaning service to have each area cleaing weekly or twice a week.

[kotor]

flat screen tvs in a bathroom stall? what companies have money for that?

At the college I went to we had advertisements in every stall (not for business buy for college events). They would put ads for the career fair or basketball game or student government elections. Things like that. You wouldn't see a pepsi ad in the stall.

And guess what, everyday they would be ripped down or written on. You can not place paper ads in a stall. It won't work.

Now you could try to implement that table top idea to the stall doors, by putting a sheet of plastic on the door and placing the ad behind plastic. but people will still be able to write on it, or scratch up the plastic. Face it, people get bored while on the john.

Keep your mind open because bathroom advertising is something people can take advantage of. Bathrooms in Chili's restuarants have ads above the urinals. It's out there, you just need to perfect it.

If you found a high class place like new york city offices or trump towers or somewhere real nice, You might get away with putting ads in the stalls. Higher class people won't carry magic markers in their pockets and deface property.

[tinobuntic]

Originally Posted by akula

The future of advertising is in getting the right ads, to the right people.

Akula's right about this... But also, the way you were thinking is right at well, because when you are there in the washroom and staring at an ad while you go about your business, there's no way you can turn the ad "off." So, a lot of people will be forced to take in the message.

Here in Toronto, this has exploded! Every public washroom has advertisiments now. And I don't mind it at all. I'd rather stare at an ad, especially an entertaining one, rather than stare at a blank wall.

However, this may not work for you as this market is already saturated in any metropolitan area that can support this.

Think along the same lines as Akula... put ads where there are none yet and where people are forced to take notice. The food court table is a good idea (but already taken as well). Good entrepreneurs find "new" ways of doing things. They don't do what someone else has already done.

[villarrealsj]

I think it's a great idea. We all know there are ads everywhere. It's never going away. Frankly, if you don't act on it, someone else will, so I say Go For It!

There are many ways you can do this. Granted, graffitti will be a sure thing to happen, but more times not. Take a look at Car Wash Ads, Inc. They have a concept that I think will work for your concept. You simply have display panels custom made for your business. That may cost a pretty penny. Have them bolted to each stall so it will be difficult to remove. With the back door that opens, you simply revisit it weekly to ensure good house keeping of the ads. And if it's damaged, no biggie. Simply replace the $2 ad and replace it with a clean one. Just be sure to have a few on hand. To pursuade the owners to allow this, offer a monthly fee for each display panel you have installed, so they make out too.

Oh, and the panels will have a lock on it, so only you can open it... almost forgot to mention that.

[Bored]

I have seen your idea many times before, especially in restaurants.

[brianaaron]

the company that already does this is called
c.i.a. or f.b.i it is ones of these play one words

[jdoc]

Zoom Media (http://www.zoom-media.com) is one of the few companies in my part of the world (Western Canada) that does this type of bathroom advertising.

Advertising's definitely hot right now (a proliferation of new ideas to reach certain 'coveted' demographics coinciding with a rise in advertising revenues) - for an example of what people are trying see http://www.business2.com/b2/web/arti...103401,00.html.

That said, this market can be volatile (look at the state of the market before Google transformed the business). If you believe that you have local customers who will see value in what you're providing (ie. their advertising with you translates into revenue for them, as opposed to trying to take that last slice of their advertising budget), then you have an opportunity. Otherwise you're just riding a wave.