Proximity Marketing or SPAM?
Roughly half of all bluetooth devices have their phones in discoverable mode. Allowing other bluetooth devices to make contact with them. Recently this is beginning to be exploited for marketing purposes.
Unlike MMS and SMS and WAP Push, bluetooth content delivery is free. Being a push technology, the recipient does not require and discovery of the service, the only pre-requisits for delivery are:
- Bluetooth enabled phone
- Bluetooth in Discovery Mode
- User to accept the download
With all this being an advantage to the advertiser, what is the benefit to the end user?
- Targeted ads - User can receive information about special offers in their vicinity or related to the event they are attending etc.
- Free Content - Brands can deliver wallpapers or videos to the user, this may be part of a promotion
- The ability to reject the delivery and switch off Discoverable
There are some limitations to this service. The device is usually a Windows client, or a standalone box, and so requires a source of constant power. The reach of bluetooth varies from 50m to 300, but is severly restricted indoors.
Some people may cause this SPAM, however, in use with proper applications, and the ability to only send to devices once will ensure that the user does not get agitated with the service and hence the brand being marketed a bad name.
Application usage of this type of marketing tool has seen an increase, with billboards in the London Underground providing broadcasting ringtones of a artists to passers by, and people waiting for the train.
Time will tell how this type of application will take off…
It is hard to get away from the spam modle that so many people choose to use - but it has been around for a long time. If people dont know, how can they buy it right? Its all push and hope someone picks up on it. Kind of like mailers. Not many people like them turning up, and out of the millions that do get delivered, only a small percentage open, let alone use them. I guess it is the same with mobile marketing and information services. PUSH VS. PULL.
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It’s a nice article in general. But I don’t agree with classifying this marketing methodology as spam. It’s quite a permission-based system that people can simply accept or reject the connection.