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Pittsburgh Paints mobilizes digital room painting experience for on-the-go convenience

PPG Pittsburgh Paints is giving homeowners a way to use their tablet browser and camera to virtually paint a room to help them decide on a color.

The new tablet version of The Voice of Color Paint Your Own Room Visualizer was developed in response to the significant increase in traffic from mobile devices to The Voice of Color Web site. Users can access the service from their tablet browser.

?Snap a picture on your tablet, and then pick the colors you want, and touch and drag the colors to the spaces you want to paint,? said Dee Schlotter, brand manager for The Voice of Color program at PPG Pittsburgh Paints, Pittsburgh, PA.

?Professional painters and interior designers use it a lot with clients to show a quick snapshot to a customer how their room will look with the colors they like,? she said. ?Consumers love it for its mobility and taking out those additional steps of snapping a picture with phone or camera, and downloading the picture to the desktop.

?The tablet makes everything happen faster.?

Matching colors
Tablet users can try out a color on their walls with a just a few clicks in the Paint Your Own Room Visualizer as well as see coordinating colors that go with their choices. The goal is to make it easy for users to match ceilings and trim to find the right colors for a home decorating project.

Users tap the colors that they want to save for their project and then bring in the picture of a room.

Users can browse all colors and select the color family they want to be in, or they can review the current color trends and see what colors are big on walls today. They can also look at Pittsburgh Paints designer collections where color pairings are shown to inspire and provide ideas.

The Paint Your Own Room Visualizer also enables users to find the nearest retailer that carries the line and bring their ideas with them into the store on a tablet.

The mobile solution uses PPG EasyEdge Technology, which considers elements in a room photo such as lighting, angles, furniture and trim to provide virtual painters with a simulated experience of painting a room. The technology electronically maps and outlines a room so that users can easily touch a desired color and drag it to the wall they want to paint.

Easy access
Data and painted room images are saved on the cloud so that homeowners can access all of their stored information from their desktop, mobile visualizer or PPG mobile app.

Painted rooms can also be shared to homeowners' social media pages directly from the visualizer.

?Mobile is becoming their preferred method of using the visualizer,? Ms. Schlotter said. ?Anytime that you can help a customer with visualizing a paint color on their own walls is a win for us.

?Choosing paint color can be overwhelming with so much choice and not knowing if the colors match their existing décor; our in-store color brochures help, but actually seeing the paint colors on your own wall next to your own furniture ? that is so helpful in helping to find the perfect color,? she said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York />