Mobile marketing is an important part of the modern marketing mix. The Mobile Marketing Association estimates that of the 350 billion text messages sent each month around the world, 15 percent are commercial. And now with the high penetration of phones with color displays, MMS and WAP, the opportunities for marketers to send multimedia content are almost endless. However, for advertisers taking advantage of the mobile boom, the challenge remains to avoid being seen as intrusive, annoying or just plain unwanted.
In the UK recently, a small firm specializing in transmitter technology teamed up with one of the country's most established companies for billboard advertising to launch a Bluetooth-driven ad campaign. Filter UK equipped several billboards in London train stations and Heathrow airport with special transmitters that beamed text messages to the phones of people walking by. The message asks if the recipient would like to watch a video clip on their phone. If the user accepts, they receive a video clip or some other multimedia advertisement. The transmission is enabled by Bluetooth, a technology allowing different types of electronic equipment to communicate within a range of 100m.
Visitors to Ericsson's pavilion at one of the Volvo Ocean Race stopovers will have the opportunity for a similar experience. Ericsson has teamed up with German-based Blue Cell Networks to provide multi-media content to visitors in the pavilion with Bluetooth enabled telephones. Ericsson will provide content such as ringtones, images and videos, while Blue Cell will provide its beamzone. Beamzone’s hotspot system is capable of sending pre-defined digital content, automatically out to all compatible Bluetooth handsets . The system is permission based and can reach handsets within a vicinity of 30-100m.
The London billboard campaign was a huge success, reaching 23,000 people in two weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal. Filter UK wants to distance themselves from those just providing spam by asking recipients for their permission before sending any material. In this way, their advertisements only reached people who wanted to receive them. Those that declined a particular ad were not offered any further ads in the series.
With mobile advertising, there is enormous potential for operators to generate supplemental revenue and for businesses to communicate to their market in new and more effective ways. For Filter UK, advertising using billboards and Bluetooth has proven to be a successful method for reaching consumers.
