Don’t you think a great place to advertise would be in a public restroom, especially in the women’s restroom on the stall doors? Can you say, “Captive audience.”  What a better place to pitch a product to a consumer? It is great ad space that can be sold at a premium in high traffic areas. Restroom advertisements, why not? According to Brandchannel, a 2006 study shows that around three-quarters of diners in a restaurant will go to the toilets at some point during their meal. Clubbers go around 2.9 times during an average evening at a nightclub. I am sure in the past five years this number has increased. Unfortunately, I can count on one hand how many times I seen a company utilize this space.  Prior to writing this post, I did several Google searches  for ‘bathroom advertising’, ‘restroom advertising’, ‘bathroom stall advertising’, and ‘indoor advertising’, and I only found two posts that were relevant from this past year and five post that were relevant in the past six years. So I ask, “What is a better place to pitch a product to a consumer?” Of course, there are quite a few factors that go into determining if this unconventional medium is for a company, but I believe consumers would be receptive to messages in the bathroom. During the short period of time people are in there, they tend to concentrate more, ruminate in their thoughts, and enjoy momentary peace and quiet.  And I believe it is better to have people reading and taking in a company’s message versus using their phones while in the public restroom and announcing to everyone their private business. If you agree with me on this idea, in order to advertise properly and ensure the correct message...

  I received my weekly email from Baby Center on tips and tricks in dealing with my toddler. Today’s email focused on how to ensure your toddler is happy, how to keep your toddler engaged and stimulated.  The email had a link to a quiz on how much do know about reading to your child. I thought, I am educated person, both my husband and I read a lot to C2 and we are always encouraging any form of reading. C2 loves books and at any given time of the day, he will walk over to the books and just sit and “read”.  So, I figure I knew a great deal about reading to my child. I take the quiz pretty confidentially that I am going to get an 8 or 9 out of 10. I am an over achiever and always did well in school. I got 6 out of 10; 60% correct what? If this was a school quiz I would have received a D-. After taking the quiz, Baby Center provides the answers with an explanation. So, what did I learn? 1.  Although I knew you should read to your child daily, I did not know you should read preferably at a regular time of day.  Of course every night before C2 goes to sleep he gets 4 or 5 bed time stories, but like I stated above he has access to books all day and regularly visits them. 2.  “Children younger than 18 months often find it difficult to understand complicated illustrations that adults recognize easily,” says Jim Trelease in the Read Aloud Handbook.  Young toddlers aren’t quite able to grasp the idea that a small flat picture of an apple represents the shiny red three-dimensional fruit they saw on...

  My husband and I travel a lot with our toddler. After doing numerous road trips, triathlon weekends and hotel stays, we got tired of lugging around our Pack-N-Play. Pack-N-Play’s definitely serve a purpose especially for babies under 12 mos. old, but we realized once C2 could roll over and move around without any worries of SIDs, that the Pack-N-Play could be replaced. The reason for the realization is we were taking our two week vacation to California and didn’t want to have fly with the Pack-N-Play. We already had a BOB jog stroller, Deuter Kid Comfort II Child Carrier, three suitcases and other baby equipment and if we could find something more compact and safe for C2 to travel with we were bound to find it. I did research and found two other viable options that we felt comfortable with other than the Pack-N-Play. 1) Tuck-Me-In Travel Bed with Removable Mattress & Accessories – $79.99-$89.99 From One Step Ahead travel bed bigger and cozier! One Step Aheads kids’ inflatable bed features a larger, fully-detached mattress, for snugglier sleepovers and easier linen changes. Soft and cushy, with a flocked surface and built-in safety bumpers. Pump and tote included. Coordinating travel blankets, linens, and accessories sold separately. 2) Kidco PeaPod Plus Indoor/Outdoor Travel Bed, Red – $84.99 KidCo’s PeaPod™ the travel bed that does it all for the on-the-go parent!  The inflatable air mattress helps protect baby from cold, damp floors while providing a comforting place to sleep.  Great for outdoors because of its UV protection and wind screens.  Zippered panels allow parents quick and easy access to baby from virtually any angle.  The slick, easy to fold design makes it ideal for storage and use anytime. Weighs 4.75 lbs. Ultimately, we chose to go...

  Family road trip to the Finger Lakes of NY for a triathlon weekend with Team Z. My hubby and I really enjoyed Musselman weekend last year, so we ensured that we put it on the calendar for this year. We left early on Friday morning for our 7 hour road trip because we had to ensure I registered for my race on Saturday, but most important that my husbnad could register for the Trike bike national champions that took place on Friday evening. Yes, I said Trike bike. We searched for about a week to borrow a Big Wheel or a Trike bike for my husband to borrow, but unfortunately we do not have friends that still own Trike bikes. So Thursday evening, hubby headed to Target and bought an original Big Wheel.  Once hubby put it together and C2 got wind of it, he was beside himself. Hubby told C2, “If Daddy does not break it, it is definitely yours.” We made it just in time for Hubby to register for the race, get to the hotel and get prepared for the Trike Bike nationals (Swim 100 yards, Trike Bike 0.6 miles, and Run 0.2 miles). We arrived at the race site, the race was taken place at 7:00 PM. Racers brought their costumes and Trike bikes; what a scene. C2 and another future Team Z’er P. (18 mos. old) were so excited to see all these bikes that they believed were for them.   C2 had a blast playing with them until they called time for the race to start then C2 had a minor melt down because Daddy took his “bike” away. The rules for the bike; a helmet was required and the racers bottoms had to stay on the seats...

  Recently, Nestlé’s launched a new baby product BabyNes, basically a formula dispenser similar to the K-cup coffee machines.  According to their May 25, 2011 press release: BabyNes is the world’s first comprehensive nutrition system for infants and toddlers, and is based on Nestlé’s latest scientific achievements in baby nutrition and systems technology. With BabyNes, Nestlé builds on its unmatched expertise in baby nutrition gained over 145 years since the invention of Farine Lactée by Henri Nestlé. Nestlé supports exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of an infant’s life, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, and continued breastfeeding thereafter for as long as possible. For babies who are not breastfed, Nestlé provides high-quality breast milk substitutes, such as BabyNes. BabyNes offers single-serve formulas for infants and young children up to the age of three years. The composition of the six consecutive formulas meets the evolving nutritional needs in the first three years of life: four formulas in the first year, and one formula for each of the following two years. The customised composition of these products is tailored to suit the growth pattern in early life and the baby’s changing nutritional needs, while taking into account the steady introduction of solid food into the infant’s diet. The single-serve portions are sealed in capsules, used in the proprietary BabyNes machine, which recognises each capsule and prepares the bottle with precisely the right dosage and temperature, at the push of a button, in less than one minute. The BabyNes machine combines state-of-the-art technology with the utmost safety and convenience, and ensures a hygienic, quick and easy bottle preparation.   Now, this isn’t a necessity by any means, but from pure marketing point of view, this is brilliant. Let me defend why I say...