The movement toward consumer-generated marketing continues to develop as Proctor & Gamble markets an environmentally sensitive product (Tide Coldwater) and encourages people to track their own contribution to marketing it.

Read this article by Neal Leavitt for a comprehensive overview of the campaign and its progress. Link: iMediaConnection: No Degrees of Separation — from Tide.

P&G said that consumers who use Tide Coldwater can reduce their energy bills about $63/year and as much as 692 kwh, or 6.9 million Btus. (This is based on seven loads of laundry per week, national average electric costs, setting the water heater at 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and switching from warm to cold water.).

To date, 484,343 people have accepted the Tide ColdWater Challenge, which simply entails going to the Tide Coldwater website and filling out your name, email address and zip code. Participants receive a free sample of the product. P&G also provides them with an individualized interactive map that traces how their viral efforts — letting their friends know about the Challenge — have influenced the campaign.

P&G refers to this on its interactive map as a "‘Degree of Separation,"’ e.g., each degree is an additional wave of contacts. If you take the Challenge, you’re degree one; the next group is degree two, and so on — it’s easy to plot how large the chain is between the original person who accepted the Challenge and the most recent one to do so.