Is Bluetooth Proximity Marketing the Next Outdoor Advertising?

As proximity marketing (and bluetooth marketing in particular) is gathering momentum, it seems that more and more businesses are choosing this marketing approach to attract and appeal to a wider audience.

The reason is simple (or it seems simple to me): if you allow the consumers to interact with your message, whatever form that is in, you are giving them a more active role and enticing them to participate in your campaign. This way, the message is easier to get through and, usually, more memorable as well, as the consumer can link your campaign with their own activity in that campaign. This is a much more powerful and memorable event, than a marketing message on its own, no matter how well put together the campaign is.

Adding interactivity into the mix already well designed mobile marketing campaign is guaranteed to make your numbers shoot through the roof.

This is what seems to be a growing trend in India. The film industry there has started to replace their outdoor advertising activities with bluetooth marketing. From the article:

“Film promotion vans and related billboards are being used as vehicles to beam rich-media content - film trailers, reviews, wallpapers and ringtones, that can be received on bluetooth phones. From in-store or at-location bluecasting, still popular with brands retailing at malls, bluetooth promotions have scaled up to push movie content at zero cost for the receiver.

The film promotions are rolled out in three phases to create buzz around the film. In the pre-release period, the production house provides snippets on the movie, after which contests and free tickets are sent. After the film is released, they share reviews and interviews with stars. It is supplemented by blu-fi zones in malls and film billboards.

Tier I and II cities will see a lot of movie promotions through this medium. While India is the fastest growing mobile phone market with 300 million subscribers, handset manufacturers claim 70 per cent of all phones are bluetooth enabled.”

It’s great to see this mobile marketing approach is being picked up so quickly and used so widely in such a fast-growing mobile community, and I’m looking forward to hearing more about such campaigns, and more importantly results from these.
Source: http://www.mobile-marketing-blog.net/

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/