DUBLIN, Ireland — Research and Markets(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/e3d2cd/proximity_marketin) has announced the addition of the “Proximity Marketing with Bluetooth” report to their offering.

Proximity marketing using Bluetooth is an enormously powerful tool and, although seemingly complex technically, ethically and legally, following a few basic principles can ensure success. This report introduces the reader to Bluetooth marketing, and describes in detail the concept of proximity marketing, detailing what it can and can’t deliver.

The legal and ethical use of Bluetooth is investigated, and the accepted levels of consent are discussed.

The report spells out 12 steps, a checklist that advises marketers on all the considerations that should be part of the due diligence performed as part of a Bluetooth marketing campaign. The closer the steps are adhered to, the greater the chance of a successful campaign. It also details ways to measure the success of a project.

The report concludes with a technical overview of the implementation of a campaign, including a guide to buying in Bluetooth marketing products and services.

Key Findings:

* Consumers are 50% more likely to accept Bluetooth marketing if you have a poster describing the activity than without
* Bluetooth Marketing is able to target an audience with pinpoint accuracy, based on location
* While it is legal to broadcast Bluetooth messages to anybody, without permission, the Direct Marketing Association recommends more strict guidelines for this sort of communication
* The public’s understanding of Bluetooth technology has improved greatly in the last two years
* Big media agencies are still wary of the technology, and traditional media buyers are yet to routinely include it in their media planning
* When best practice is followed, there is little chance of users considering the communication as spam
* The area in which you use Bluetooth is very important, it should never be a public space, only commercial
* The cost of implementing a Bluetooth campaign is always more predictable and usually lower than SMS campaigns

Audience:

Marketing Professionals: Anyone considering using Bluetooth as a marketing channel will benefit from this in-depth guide covering best practice, step-by-step campaign design, legislative and regulatory impacts and practical examples of successful Bluetooth proximity marketing campaigns.

If you are considering using Bluetooth for a future marketing campaign – start here first!

Marketing and Media Agencies: Are your clients asking for new and creative ways to reach target audiences without the expense and complexity of location based mobile marketing? Bluetooth proximity marketing is a great alternative. This guide will help you understand how to use Bluetooth proximity marketing to maximize the return on your client’s investment – while ensuring best practice and legislative and regulatory compliance.

Bluetooth Proximity Marketing Providers: This report can be a great sales tool to help you explain Bluetooth proximity marketing to your clients – as a source of great examples of working Bluetooth campaigns – and as a benchmark for your own business practices. The report also includes the results from a January 2009 survey of 1000 UK consumer’s on their attitudes towards Bluetooth as a technology and acceptance of Bluetooth marketing – again providing you with more data to enhance your sales efforts!

Mobile Marketing Consultants: In general Bluetooth marketing is relatively well understood by mobile marketing consultants – but this is the first in-depth report covering the details of the best and most effective campaigns, consumer insights into perception of Bluespam, best practice for campaign design and execution – and legislative and regulatory compliance.

An absolute must to ensure your clients get the best advice when it comes to Bluetooth proximity marketing.

Mobile Technology Specialists: You know how to use Bluetooth for pairing your headset or your car kit – and you can even swap last night’s party pics over Bluetooth – but how is Bluetooth being used for marketing? What is the basis for the Bluetooth standard? Where is Bluetooth going next? Although primarily focused towards the marketing community – the report packs enough punch to keep the technologists interested right through to the end.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/e3d2cd/proximity_marketin

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A new trend appears in the mobile marketing since the beginning of 2006 : The Bluetooth marketing, or proximity marketing.

This new tool works as a direct marketing channel to end users mobile phones. The first generation of these tools established a connection with the Bluetooth enabled phones (activated and set to visible) which are within 20 meters from a dedicated hotspot. A question appears on the screen of the phone in the form ‘Do you accept content from Alterwave ? Yes / No’, where Alterwave is the name of the company willing to advertise. If the user presses Yes, the download proceeds at a speed of typ. 50kB/sec over Bluetooth. The data transfer is 100% free. A video of 500 kB would be sent in about 10 seconds.

If the user presses No, the popup disappears from the screen, and if the users does not press either key the popup will disappear when the phone leaves the Bluetooth covered zone.

This new media raises a lot of interest in the advertising and marketing industry. The kind of files that they push is images (still or animated), sounds (mp3) and video.

The risk to see the Bluetooth marketing seen as Spam does exist, but an opt-in is also possible by requiring the user to approach his phone close to a given point (typ. 1-2 meters) for triggering the download.

The challenge is now for media and marketing agencies to use this innovative tool wisely, and certainly to send value added content to the users. The Bluetooth marketing has a lot of impact on end users, so it should be used with wisdom.

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On the one hand there are those of you that have your own businesses and are interested in using an sms marketing, proximity marketing, or other mobile marketing method to give your business a competitive edge.

On the other hand, there those of you that are in some form involved within the mobile marketing sector, or the marketing sector in general and need ideas in order to promote this marketing approach to your clients.

Somewhere in the middle, there are those of you interested to start out in the mobile marketing field, but are still exploring the possibilities and still trying to get a feel of the market in order to decide whether to proceed.

The discussions I’ve been having lately with some of you have triggered the idea to write up a small series of articles with ideas about mobile marketing (or proximity marketing in particular – a field I find somewhat more exciting than other now-becoming-ordinary mobile marketing approaches) in a number of different places.

Over the next few weeks I will be putting down the ideas we’ve been discussing in private, and sharing them with everyone else — there’s probably some value there for all of you, whatever your position in the sector.

Stay tuned for the Proximity Marketing Tutorials Series that will be interleaved with other interesting news. However, do bear with me if the news are a bit more sparse over the coming few weeks — work and deadlines will be taking over for a short while.

The articles will cover proximity marketing ideas in the following sectors:

* Cafeterias/Restaurants/Pubs/Clubs/Bars
* Hotels
* Stadiums
* Airports
* Malls
* Public Spaces
* Cinemas

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Hotels these days offer a wide array of services to their guests, usually through a great number of facilities. In big hotels in particular, communicating to the visitor the availability of all these services or features offered, is a substantial task.

Brochures or booklets, that are currently being handed out, are now used for this task. However, as those of you that have tried exploring a big hotel will know, it is simply inconvenient to be carrying around all of these, all the time.

The opportunity is there to add a proximity marketing element, and make this information available to the guest on their most private electronic device – their mobile phone.

This way the information is made readily available wherever and whenever.

Let’s now take a look at individual ideas:

Service list
Straightforward stuff. Put all your services in an eBrochure, (or simpler an illustrated image) and send it to guests mobile phones. At any time they can then take out their phones and find what they need.

Prices
Hotels charge guests for using their facilities, and sometimes that puts them off using them because they are unaware of the costs involved. By making this information available on the mobile phone, guests can discretely retrieve this information whenever they need it.

Events
Hotels often organise events for their guests. Through proximity marketing via bluetooth it is very straightforward to send guests calendar reminders for the events they are interested, to help them remember, and eventually attend the event.

Map
One of the most obvious pieces of information that can be offered (but one that is also frequently neglected), especially in large hotels / hotel complexes, is the hotel map. If you need this point proven, all it takes is a visit to some of the wonderful village-like hotels you can find on most greek islands. And then, try not getting lost!

Room Service
A very exciting service that mobile marketing can put on the table for hotels, is room service on your mobile phone. When you want to order breakfast, simply take out your phone, have a look at the menu, and place your order using your mobile. Next thing you know the door rings. ‘Room service’…

Stock exchange updates
For business executives, or the everyday guest who owns some stocks, hotels can offer the icing on the cake type of service, by going the extra mile and retrieving for them live stock exchange information, and making it available on their mobile phones.

3rd party promotions
Hotels also offer third-party advertising by providing leaflets and brochures to their guests, for outside activities they can partake in. By offering these promotions on guests’ mobile phones, it is much more probable that they will actually have the information available at the point in time when they need it, and thus increase the conversions.

Hotels are great candidate areas for proximity marketing services, and I’m sure there’s plenty more ideas out there. These are just to get you started. Good luck!

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Athens International Airport

* What is the project about?

The project is about giving interactive mobile services to as many visitors as we can. The first phase is the pilot. AIA and Cytech wanted to test the feasibility of this project as there aren’t many such project all over the world. The aim was to develop a number of simple and valuable services that would be tested by the AIA personnel. Not just IT but also marketing and administrative personnel. We wanted to have feedback so we make any necessary alterations before we go public.
The first thing was to install 7 Bluevibe Hotspots at the departure terminal. These hotspots were not able to cover all the terminal but they are in such locations that cover the cafeterias and the corridors. After the installation we made all the connections to the Bluevibe Server installed at the AIA premises.
There were a number of challenges such as, power over ethernet, remote power cycling, decoration of the hotspots to look pretty and we achieved all these with the aid of the AIA personnel in about two months. Especially the decoration issue was hard as the rules are very strict.
If you visit AIA you can see the blue plaques at the ceiling, these are antenna containers. After the installation we train the AIA personnel to use the Bluevibe Manager, our web based administration and monitoring tool. They now are able to operate it mostly by themselves.
We also developed a special application for AIA for managing their content and of course a special version of the Bluevibe Browser, the mobile application installed in the visitors’ mobile phones.

* What kind of services are you intending to provide?

The most important service during the first phase is the Flight Information. You enter the flight number and get information about the departure/arrival time, status etc. The other service is about the retail shops of the airport.
It is a mobile shopping catalog. All retail shops inside AIA can present their products and offers. The marketing department of the Airport can change dynamically the images, texts etc using a CMS. We also provide a number of information concerning the airport itself, like left-luggage” areas or safety rules.

* Do the users accept to install a Java mobile application?

We ve just ended our test phase so our users were AIA personnel. They dont have serious objection on installing a new application as lons as this application is useful and not create any problems to their mobile phone. When the number of employees started to install this application and they saw that there is no problem and that they are able to use it we overcame any hesitations.
I think that the most important thing when you ask someone to install an application is to give him a good reason why to do it. If it is something really useful and “alive” they’ll accept it and try to install it.
We confront the same hesitations during the DontDrinkandDrive campaign we currently run for Johnnie Walker. We have developed a mobile application containing all the necessary information (taxi call numbers, bus itineraries, metro time tables) so if you decide to drink to take public transportation and not your car.
Most of the people find this application useful and at the moment they undestand what it is, they are willing to install it. It is 100 times better that a piece of paper containing all this information and that you ll probably throw it away after 5 minutes.

* Since it’s not yet public, and you don’t have any numbers on use, do you have any numbers regarding how many users have their Bluetooth turned on?

You will be surprised, and so our partners at the AIA did. More than half a million different devices have been scanned during the last 10 months and only at 7 hotspots at the departures terminal. I have to add that there is currently no signage and no one knows that there is a Bluetooth system active in the area. We know that we will double or triple this number if we cover the whole terminal and inform people about it.

* What would you identify as the main problem with this project?

I think the major problem hasn’t appeared yet. I strongly believe that when we go public there will be such great demand that we ll have problem to serve them. As you understand, our goal is to serve more than 300.000 unique users in a year.
Based on this assumption and some statistics concerning the number of people per hotspot and the time a user browse the services, we make our plans for the full scale installation. But, I am afraid, the real number will be greater. We are trying to be ready for this case also. I ll keep you updated but I am sure you will be informed from your sources when we go public.

Johnnie Walker Mobile Marketing Campaign

* Could you please also describe the JW campaign to us?

The concept is simple. Don’t drink and drive. It is about responsible drinking. Johnnie Walker has great tradition in this kind of events that contain messages like this. This time they have decided to include proximity marketing to the whole scenario. GetItRight marketing services, in cooperation with Cytech have designed a campaign with the following innovation.
Instead of giving people a plain paper with information about the means of transport during late hours, they also send this information to their mobile phones.
This way, this information which includes, taxi call numbers, bus and underground time schedule, is stored at the mobile phone and can be used anytime. The paper version is OK but it is most of the times misplaced somewhere and you can’t find it the next day.
These events take place at crowded squares of Athens from 20:00 till 24:00 just before people enters the bars and pubs for a drink. Everyday we setup a kiosk where promoters call people to play an internet game and win prizes. At the same time Bluevibe is responsible for sending the mobile application to the people as they stop in front of the kiosk.

* Can you share the penetration rate there with us?

I can’t disclose our statistics as the campaign is still running but I have to say that we believe that the penetration rate will be greater than 10%. We can discuss it again when it is over, at the end of May.

* What would you identify as the main problem with this campaign?

The main problem is the infrastructure. As you understand, we are in the open and we have constantly problems with electricity and network. We are lucky to use a system like Bluevibe because it is very versatile.
We use it as we think appropriate during each event day. If we see that the network is not stable enough we operate the Hotspots in standalone mode and when the network is back again they are synchronised with the server, uploading all the statistics and downloading new campaign settings. On the other hand if the network is stable we operate them in Networked mode, having all the advantages like online monitoring and administration and live statistics.

Mr. Antoniadis’ views provide a very interesting inside view on the workings of proximity marketing campaigns. I believe those of you interested in starting out in the bluetooth marketing sector, have plenty to learn and I highly recommend you keep some of these hints in your mobile marketing notebook.

I hope you enjoyed it, and found it valuable as much as I did.. Feel free to share your views, or questions, if you have any. I’m sure Mr. Antoniadis will be more than happy to follow up.

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Spam, we all know. The e-mails (let alone other forms of messaging, such as SMS) I personally get everyday that can be categorised as spam, are in the hundreds (yes, I do realise there’s some of you out there that get them in the thousands, but this isn’t a contest, right? — and if it is, well I guess I win ). In this category I am only counting e-mails(or messages, in general) which I would have rejected, had I been given the option, and most of which are from an unsolicited use of my e-mail address, that I just cannot be bothered to chase up.

I heard a very interesting definition of ‘Junk Mail’ a few days ago, btw. This definition included, not only the the aforementioned messages, but also messages from people we do know, that simply contain stacks of useless information. An excellent example of this is conversations between a number of parties, which contain a lot of content, but little substance, and could easily have been stripped down to one word / phrase, such as ‘Yes’ or ‘I agree’. This definition was what got me thinking about today’s subject.

We put a lot of work, and invest our hopes, as well as a good deal of money, of course, in our mobile marketing campaigns. This is what makes it all the more important for them to be successful. We’ll also be out of a job if they aren’t, incidentally, so I guess that’s another very good reason.

There are two key points that make a successful campaign:

* provide some value to the end user, so that they want to see your message,

* notify them as to the existence of the service.

Regarding the first point, there is a lot of debate about how to provide value to the end user. There is not just one answer, in my opinion, and the answer in every case is different. This is because we are talking about running a marketing campaign in a physical environment. Well, physical environment are all just different from one another, and thus have distinct requirements. There are some common characteristics between similar physical spaces, that allow us to run the same mobile marketing campaign across all of them, sure. However, in theory, each location can provide slightly different information to the end user, specific to its own unique characteristics. For example, the same campaign may run on every bus stop in a certain town, prefecture, or even country. Ideally, however, it would be much more effective if each single bus stop provided the same content, but slightly altered depending on its location.

In addition, this value depends (perhaps more greatly) on the target audience, and the end users themselves. For each mobile marketing campaign, we must consider:

* who our target audience are,

* why we are trying to reach them,

* what message we are trying to get across,

* what the tone of the message should be,

* what interests our target audience and how that relates to our product,

* and finally what the content of the message itself should be exactly.

The answers to the above questions are more than likely to yield an appealing message or service to our target audience, through which our marketing message will be delivered. The marketing message or advertisement must be weaved into the fabric of the service being provided that has value for the consumer. The more we can accomplish that, the less it will be perceived as an advertisement / marketing message and the consumer will be much more open to it.

Good ads or marketing campaigns always give something to the consumer; whether that’s humour, some education, art, etc. it depends. But if you want the consumers’ attention it doesn’t come easy (though mobile marketing does make it cheap – compared to what you would pay before). You must put the effort and thought into broadcasting your message in such a way that it does not feel like an ad.

Be creative, and put yourself into the shoes of the consumer. They will always appreciate you and your product more.

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In a shopping mall, where the stores are endless, it is important to make your store and the great deals it is offering stand out. When there are numerous businesses in competition with your business, letting the potential customers know what you have to offer can mean the difference between a sale and a sale for your competition.

One of the key reasons a customer doesn’t take advantage of a great deal is simply that they aren’t aware of the great deal. No one wants to pay more for the same exact item, especially with gas prices consistently on the rise and with that the cost of nearly everything going up. Customers have to find savings somewhere, and they will go where they can find it. How can your business show what great deals are offered inside?

Proximity ads can reach anyone standing within a hundred yards of the media content server. If you place the media content server over the entrance, place a poster alerting potential customers of the deals and let the customer do the rest. They accept the ads offered, view your great deals and come inside to potentially take advantage of your great deals.

Your ads can be images, video, animated images, audio clips, business cards and live data feed. Have a great deal on a pair of jeans? Seeing a color picture of the jeans with the great low price you have to offer is much better then having a poster saying “Jeans 14.99.” Seeing the price is great, but actually seeing the jeans can be a deal clincher. A woman looking at a pair of jeans may say, “Wow, those are some really cute jeans and that is a great price.” Seeing the jeans may compel them to go inside and at least look at the jeans. That is the first step in gaining a customer.

If you want to catch the customer right as they come into the mall, you can place your media content server by a main mall entrance. You can also place the media content server in the food court of the mall, where the customers are now relaxed after eating and deciding which way to go and where to head to next. Many times the food court is a meeting place and that can be where the group makes a plan of action. Add a media content server to the food court and let them know you have great deals so they can include your business in their plans.

Ultimately, the more people that know what you have to offer, the more chances you have to draw someone in and make them a customer. With a spontaneous trip to the mall, chances are the potential customers might not have seen any print ads, nor are they coming to your store for any bill boards, radio or TV ads, or mobile marketing ads you might have used. But they can still be reached with proximity ads. After all, they are in the right place at the right time and if they are there to begin with, chances are, they are there to spend money.

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In the world of rapid changing technology, continuously we are bombarded by names such as Bluetooth, wi-fi and TIVO. Technology has become so advance that people only need to press the button for changing the channel and use the technology of Bluetooth and infrared to transform the data.

So are you looking for creative, cost effective methods to distribute rich media content? Here is the solution for you, Bluetooth marketing is an amazing system that uses wireless Bluetooth technology to target your audience at near proximity to your establishment with direct response message. Bluetooth is the latest and hottest cost effective technology which allows you to exchange data without wasting your money. You can send any sort of data via Bluetooth including images, audio-video, animated images, etc. It can be enable on the Bluetooth handheld devices like mobile, laptops, etc. The formula work when the Bluetooth enabled devices are relatively close “between the distance of 12 meters” to virtually any public and private spaces that are equipped with a Bluetooth MediaServer.

There are lots of advantages of Bluetooth marketing and some of them are listed below:

1.Free message delivery – you can deliver message content on any mobiles and PDA’s quickly. You don’t need to pay any transmission cost, not even by your target audience.

2.24×7x365 data exchange or deliver – the Bluetooth service is enable throughout the day and the whole. Information delivery with little operator intervention required.

3.Fixed cost – Price are fixed whether you send your communication via Bluetooth to 10 to 10,000 customers.

The content that can be delivered with the aid of Bluetooth are – Animated images (animated GIF files), still images like JPEG wall papers, vCal (calendar event files), Audio (as WAV, MP3, MP4, RMF or ringtone files), video (as real media, 3GP or MP4 files).

Bluetooth advertising or marketing can be integrated with other visual communication like billboards, sinages, posters for high impact etc. Bluetoothmarketing.ae is an innovative mobile marketing service offered by Image matters advertising.

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NORTHBROOK, Ill. — Northbrook, IL based Parachute Marketing Group has brought cutting-edge Bluetooth proximity marketing to the Mid-West by deploying Hypertag units at events over the last several months. Overall, Hypertag units have been present at 5 different events and have directly reached about 60,000 people.

As the sole authorized U.S. partner of Hypertag, a UK-based Bluetooth proximity marketing company, Parachute has brought Bluetooth marketing to consumers at the Chicago Bears Fan Festival (March 31-April 1) Bluesfest (June 7-10), Summerfest (June 29-July 8 in Milwaukee, WI) and the Taste of Chicago (June 29-July 8). Hypertag has also been in operation at Busch Stadium in St. Louis for the entire Cardinal’s season.

One of the nation’s largest cellular carriers used Hypertag’s technology and its industry-exclusive Bluetooth wearable marketing tool to conduct an “instant-win” campaign through user’s mobile phones at the Taste. Promotional staff wore the eye-catching and lightweight Hypertag devices and intermixed with the crowd, sending out electronic coupons. Winning coupons were sent out based on the numbers of hats and shirts to give away, but the “losing” coupon gave users a second chance to win an item from their booth. Hypertag’s industry-leading “fingerprinting” technology ensures that each cell phone only has one chance to win by recognizing the unique Bluetooth address of each phone and is set to only give out the number of coupons specified by the client.

“It’s been a great summer for Bluetooth marketing in the U.S. and for Hypertag,” Parachute Marketing Group President Brett Cutler said. “The consumer’s willingness to view content on their most cherished device opens up huge new opportunities for advertisers in an increasingly difficult environment. Hypertag’s incredible ease of use and innovative tools make it the perfect tool for companies seeking a cutting edge solution that can track the consumer from first interaction through purchase.”

“We are very encouraged by these numbers and will continue towards our goal of making Hypertag the #1 choice for proximity marketing campaigns in the U.S.,” Cutler said. “As consumers and advertisers turn away from their televisions, print and radio and towards alternative media, the market for mobile phone-enabled advertising and marketing will only increase. We are here to supply the technology and provide the support and knowledge to help mold the campaigns to take advantage of the ever-expanding reach of the mobile phone.”

ABOUT HYPERTAG

Hypertag (www.hypertag.com) is a proximity marketing technology provider which allows brands to deliver rich, interactive content to consumers based on their proximity to a fixed physical location. This ensures that brands can reach their target audience at a time and place that puts their offer into a direct and relevant context when a consumer is most receptive.

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Bluetooth advertising is becoming more and more popular and fast becoming the most cost effective way of getting the message out. Companies around the world, including a number of major multi nationals, are investing their budget in proximity marketing.

However beaming adverts to prospective customers is only one use for these boxes. These are now being used for a number of other purposes

Recruitment

In the UK, the army and RAF careers are using bluetooth to get the message to their potential recruits. They target an age range that have the best chance of having bluetooth enabled and have huge success rates with it, sending GIF’s to entice people into careers offices.

Police

Major UK police forces are harnessing the power of proximity to get serious messages across. From securing valuables out of sight in cars to serious missing person cases, bluetooth ads can get a message to many people in targeted area very quickly. A box located at the site of an incident can appeal for witnesses and people who come to the same spot again can be contacted straight away.

Councils

Local councils get public service messages to people, again with ease and for no cost. Litter campaigns, clean up after your dog or recycling advice can be sent quickly to peoples phones and get a message out so much quicker than conventional methods.

The world is waking up to the hundreds of uses for proximity advertising. What started off as a simple way to get an advertising point across could end up saving someones life. Whilst their is always a market for these to beam adverts, its clear that soon bluetooth will be used in many diverse ways to maximise its potential.

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