Signature - Q1, 2008 - (Page 22) Bluetooth Technology Interactive | Q1 ’08 These signs let fans of American football know they could win Longhorns tickets by enabling the Bluetooth technology function on their cell phones. Launched at the Longhorns’ first home game on 1 September 2007 and scheduled to run throughout the season, the pilot program placed five Bluetooth wireless technology kiosks around the stadium. Fans walking by one of the kiosks and carrying a Bluetooth enabled device set on discoverable mode were alerted to special offers. If a user opted in, the kiosk sent University of Texas images and Longhorns information. It also provided a promotional code and encouraged the user to go to the Bluetooth.com Web site. There they could enter the code for a chance to win tickets to postseason Longhorns games. In addition, the program made use of the Bluetooth SIG’s newest product offering, TransSend. The wireless application enabled Longhorns fans who visited either mackbrown-texasfootball.com or texassports.com to transfer images, game schedules and other Web content from a Bluetooth enabled PC to a Bluetooth enabled phone or PDA, free of charge. (For more about TransSend, see “The Web Your Way” on page 28.) As the Longhorns were winning their game in Texas, the Bluetooth SIG staff was busy in Seattle at the Bumbershoot festival. The 2007 event attracted more than 130,000 visitors, mostly music lovers in their teens and 20s – an ideal demographic group for Samsung and T-Mobile. What better place to create buzz for the Blast, called “the ultimate text-messaging phone,” than amid thousands of text-message-happy music fans? Those who carried a Bluetooth enabled device past one of 15 access sites were prompted to answer a trivia question about one of the festival’s musicians. The first person to go to the Samsung/T-Mobile booth with the correct answer won a prize and received information about the Blast. Festivalgoers could also download wallpapers and musician highlights. Success From Challenge From Ship to Ernie Shore The roster of blue-chip brands using Bluetooth enabled proximity marketing to promote their products and services is growing by the week. Nokia, Ford Motor Co., the U.S. Navy Reserve … wait, the Navy? Indeed. To pump up enlistment, the Navy Reserve launched its own Bluetooth enabled recruitment campaign. In November 2006, the Navy Recruiting Command set up kiosks on 13 naval bases across the United States. As owners of Bluetooth enabled cell phones walked by, they received a message prompting them to download a free recruitment video. The threemonth campaign was extremely successful, reportedly generating an astonishing 32 percent message opt-in rate. Major league baseball is also stepping up to the plate, so to speak. In 2007 the Houston Astros became the first major league franchise to promote the team and its related events via Bluetooth enabled marketing. The Astros installed two Bluetooth wireless zones in Minute Maid Park. Fans in range could download video and audio clips, wallpaper images of the team and ticket information to their Bluetooth enabled mobile devices. The test program ran from April to July, and it was a solid hit. “It was a great marketing tool,” says Travis Morin, media relations manager for the Astros. “It was picked up by the fans, and we got very positive feedback.”—C.C.W. Qwikker, a leading firm in mobile marketing, provided the hardware and software solutions to support both proximity marketing campaigns. “Our strength is that our technology allows a number of different pieces of content to be delivered by Java menu rather than just a single file,” says Saul Kato, chief technology officer for the London- and U.S.-based outfit. While both installations were successful, such marketing innovations face challenges. The major one, notes Smith, is that many people don’t understand the Bluetooth wireless function on their phones. But even that challenge has its benefits. With many people visiting the Bumbershoot booths to ask about the technology itself, the Bluetooth SIG was able to do a lot of teaching. “So far, we’ve seen a great deal of success in consumer education,” Smith says. With more than 10 million Bluetooth wireless devices shipped every week, as well as more Bluetooth SIG–sponsored marketing initiatives on the way, the learning curve promises to be short. C.C. Williams is a New York-based writer who covers the intersection of finance and technology. 22 | SIGnature | Bluetooth.org Share your proximity-marketing experiences and events by e-mailing signature@bluetooth.com. We may include them in future issues of SIGnature. http://Bluetooth.com http://mackbrown-texasfootball.com http://texassports.com http://Bluetooth.org
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.