The 82nd Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving parade held in the streets of New York City this past Thursday featured a novel execution of a Bluetooth mobile marketing campaign. NYC-based ACE Marketing & Promotions Inc. worked with Macy’s to enable the float featuring Santa Claus and his sleigh with the ability to transmit marketing materials via Bluetooth and WiFi transmitters. Parade spectators were encouraged to turn their Bluetooth device “On” and Enable their Bluetooth visibility to either “Discoverable” or “Always Visible.” As Santa’s sleigh moved along the parade route, mobile users who followed these instructions would have received a message on their handset to the effect of, “Do you want to receive a FREE download from Macy’s Parade /Santa?” If the user “accepted” the message, a FREE download would begin immediately.
What caught my eye in the coverage of this campaign was the statement that Apple’s iPhone users could participate. How’s this I wondered, as most iPhone owners are now aware that their phone’s Bluetooth capabilities precludes them from using the radio frequency for file transfer or connecting to devices other than headsets. To solve this issue, ACE’s Chief Marketing Officer Matt Gaines explained to me that they have enabled their Bluetooth transmitters to also act as WiFi base stations – thus iPhone users would detect the signal (if scanning), connect and receive the intended marketing message or visit a particular website. (To be honest, I’m not sure what the exact iPhone user experience was yet.)
For marketers, the real challenge in a campaign like this is the creation and display of the Call-To-Action. Creating awareness for new technical applications is always a massive challenge! Unfortunately, I was not present at the parade to witness any signage and the resulting experience on my handset – so I’ll have to wait for some reader input and wait to see ACE’s campaign results.
While Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones are estimated to have upwards of an 80% penetration rate in the U.S., using them for anything but hands-free headsets can be assumed to be very low. According to ABI Research, 14.5 million Bluetooth headset units shipped in 2007 and this number is expected to hit 18M this year and 20+ million in 2009. The NPD Group had some 2007 data indicating that only about 40+% of users with the technology actually used it – and you can assume primarily for connecting to hands-free headsets.
SideNote: Nielsen Mobile estimated that there were about 3.6M iPhone users in the U.S. at the end of Q3. Nielsen also pointed out that the iPhone 3G has fared very well in NYC and San Francisco.
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