Bluetooth Marketing - The Next Step In Portable Marketing?

[maddis]

Hi guys. I have my pandora on preorder (1st Batch) which i am very excited about. This is being ordered mainly for the old school side of things (Sonic and PSX emulation!)

I am also the director of Ringtonesheep.

I make ringtones, alarms and message alerts, and have a reseller platform in place where the community (students and producers) can sell their content through our website.

The website has started to go quite well with 10 orders in the last 2 weeks (Its a start)

The idea of being able to use my pandora for bluetooth marketing is a really good idea. I get the Metrolink to work every day and always send out animated Gifs (freebies) of my website, which has my website address printed in the gif. This goes down quite well as the majority of people i am aiming my website is 11 - 20 year olds.

The great thing is, this is perfectly legal, as the receiver has a choice to receive the gif, the same wether to accept a flyer in the steet.

The The problem is, i can only send 1 bluetooth message at a time. It would be great if you could scan and list all devices inrange, and have a 'send to all' option. At the end of the batch, a report will show the number of people that have accepted & declined.

Does anyone think this is a good idea?

Maddis

 

[gibberish]

i was waiting for the bus in town a couple of weeks ago and my phone vibrated. when i looked at it, a bluetooth device going by the name of "de montford university" was attempting to send me a file. i accepted it and it was a promotional video for the uni. once i'd watched it i deleted it and put my phone in my pocket, however it attempted to send me the file at least another 3 times whilst i was waiting for the bus... so what im saying is i think this kind of marketing is already happening, albeit on a fairly small scale (ive never encountered anything like it since, and neither has anybody i know).

 

[torpor]

I've started to do this as well in my local area (Vienna) and it really is amazing how many people actually appreciate being spammed like this. I hope it doesn't get out of control, or at least that it continues to be manageable ..

 

[Parkydr]

I don't appreciate this, it isn't like a flyer, unless the person handing them out runs up to you and stuffs a flyer down your shirt and runs off.

It would probably work, spam works, but it depends if you mind a few people thinking you're scum.

 

[mali]

I would be really pissed off, if someone pushed advertising in my direction through yet another channel.

 

[Tor]

I've been at the targeting end of such BT spamming schemes, and let me tell you, I don't appreciate it. In fact, if I knew who did it there would be violence.

The problem with "free to accept or not" is that you're forced to, in real-time, to pick up your device and interact with the pop-up. This is in line with getting spam phone calls.

 

[maddis]

I've been at the targeting end of such BT spamming schemes, and let me tell you, I don't appreciate it. In fact, if I knew who did it there would be violence.

The problem with "free to accept or not" is that you're forced to, in real-time, to pick up your device and interact with the pop-up. This is in line with getting spam phone calls.

I guess you still have a choice. whether its choosing 'dont accept' or wether you make the logical choice to walk the long way around someone who is standing in the middle of the street trying to sell you a weekend paintballing (for both you and your mates).

It bottles down to wether you accept the persons initial choice, and not bug them again. Theres being tacticle, and theres being abusive.

 

[johnjtaylor]

I've been at the targeting end of such BT spamming schemes, and let me tell you, I don't appreciate it. In fact, if I knew who did it there would be violence.

The problem with "free to accept or not" is that you're forced to, in real-time, to pick up your device and interact with the pop-up. This is in line with getting spam phone calls.

I guess you still have a choice. whether its choosing 'dont accept' or wether you make the logical choice to walk the long way around someone who is standing in the middle of the street trying to sell you a weekend paintballing (for both you and your mates).

It bottles down to wether you accept the persons initial choice, and not bug them again. Theres being tacticle, and theres being abusive.


Yes, but my perspective is this: I may well have a choice, but nevertheless the sender has intruded into my personal space by requiring me to make a choice in the first place. I don't want *any* spam advertising through any form of medium. Frankly, this type of marketing is not selective of any particular audience (other than younger folk are perhaps more likely to willingly receive unsolicited files), it is an unsolicited intrusion and should be banned. It is simply a slightly more technologically advanced version of a megaphone in the street. Sure, I can choose not to listen - but to do so I have to put my fingers in my ears! What right does the original poster have to impose his desires on me or anyone else?

</rant>

John

 

[kloplop321]

It would be fine with me if someone did it. As I don't even have a cell phone

 

[andyB911]

Yes, but my perspective is this: I may well have a choice, but nevertheless the sender has intruded into my personal space by requiring me to make a choice in the first place. I don't want *any* spam advertising through any form of medium. Frankly, this type of marketing is not selective of any particular audience (other than younger folk are perhaps more likely to willingly receive unsolicited files), it is an unsolicited intrusion and should be banned. It is simply a slightly more technologically advanced version of a megaphone in the street. Sure, I can choose not to listen - but to do so I have to put my fingers in my ears! What right does the original poster have to impose his desires on me or anyone else?

</rant>

John

Surely if you don't want to receive it, you don't leave your phone with Bluetooth turned on.

Whether or not you like it, its great marketing (assuming the product like this one is aimed at youth). Unlike a flyer or traditional marketing mail, its not clear whats 'inside' until you open. Curiosity will lead to most people (at least before its too widespread) opening and reading.

Unlike spam, the problem is that when it becomes more common, turning it off is as simple as turning off Bluetooth - which is good and bad depending on your viewpoint.

Doesn't help with the question on how you blast Bluetooth to multiple destinations at the same time, but no doubt someone will come up with a solution. For any event with lots of suitable people (bar, club, music gig, sporting event) it would be a nice, targetted advertising medium.

Hit older, more cynical audience and the result will be more negative...

 

[Tor]

Surely if you don't want to receive it, you don't leave your phone with Bluetooth turned on.

Oh yeah? So I should be forced to disable a feature just because a spammer wants to misuse it? When I'm in urban areas I often find myself sitting somewhere with friends, interchanging pictures, contacts and other stuff via bluetooth. We all have our gadgets in visible mode, or this would be just too much hassle (it's not normal to have to pair with the devices of all your friends).

QUOTE

Whether or not you like it, its great marketing[...]

Since when is invasive marketing "great", other than in the spammer's eye?

QUOTE

[...]


Everything you wrote is only valid seen from the spammer's side. For the receiving end it's closer to harassment.

The only "good" thing about BT "marketing" is that obviously the transmitter has to be near, up to 10 meters or so away, which means that I can track the bugger down and give him a trashing. Which I will.

 

[psj3809]

Hi guys. I have my pandora on preorder (1st Batch) which i am very excited about. This is being ordered mainly for the old school side of things (Sonic and PSX emulation!)

I am also the director of Ringtonesheep.

I make ringtones, alarms and message alerts, and have a reseller platform in place where the community (students and producers) can sell their content through our website.

The website has started to go quite well with 10 orders in the last 2 weeks (Its a start)

The idea of being able to use my pandora for bluetooth marketing is a really good idea. I get the Metrolink to work every day and always send out animated Gifs (freebies) of my website, which has my website address printed in the gif. This goes down quite well as the majority of people i am aiming my website is 11 - 20 year olds.

The great thing is, this is perfectly legal, as the receiver has a choice to receive the gif, the same wether to accept a flyer in the steet.

The The problem is, i can only send 1 bluetooth message at a time. It would be great if you could scan and list all devices inrange, and have a 'send to all' option. At the end of the batch, a report will show the number of people that have accepted & declined.

Does anyone think this is a good idea?

Maddis



Yuck. This would be a nightmare idea and i'm quite annoyed its meant to be 'legal'.

I mean firstly ringtone are the spawn of the devil, listening to some chav whos phone is going off with the latest top 40 single is a nightmare.

If i've got a bluetooth device and i receive spam mails from some stupid company then that would be even worse.

Are you sure this is legal ? My wifes a solicitor and seems to think this would be against the law. Its like the website where you sign up not to receive any junkmail, if someones signed up to this (no junkmail, no phone calls from marketing companies) this may cover bluetooth crap as well.

The last thing i want is crap trying to be loaded onto my phone/bluetooth gadget without me wanting it. If i want to receive a crappy flyer from a bloke in the street i'll get it off him, he cant however chuck it in my hand and force me to take it or throw it away.

If constantly my gadgets beeping for a bluetooth message/alert and its some spam crap then that would get very irritating.

Sorry but spam mails/post/bluetooth stuff is a flippin nightmare and i can imagine will only get worse.

 

[mali]

Surely if you don't want to receive it, you don't leave your phone with Bluetooth turned on.

Oh yeah? So I should be forced to disable a feature just because a spammer wants to misuse it? When I'm in urban areas I often find myself sitting somewhere with friends, interchanging pictures, contacts and other stuff via bluetooth. We all have our gadgets in visible mode, or this would be just too much hassle (it's not normal to have to pair with the devices of all your friends).

QUOTE

Whether or not you like it, its great marketing[...]

Since when is invasive marketing "great", other than in the spammer's eye?

QUOTE

[...]


Everything you wrote is only valid seen from the spammer's side. For the receiving end it's closer to harassment.

The only "good" thing about BT "marketing" is that obviously the transmitter has to be near, up to 10 meters or so away, which means that I can track the bugger down and give him a trashing. Which I will.

+1

 

[psj3809]

Surely if you don't want to receive it, you don't leave your phone with Bluetooth turned on.

Whether or not you like it, its great marketing (assuming the product like this one is aimed at youth). Unlike a flyer or traditional marketing mail, its not clear whats 'inside' until you open. Curiosity will lead to most people (at least before its too widespread) opening and reading.

Unlike spam, the problem is that when it becomes more common, turning it off is as simple as turning off Bluetooth - which is good and bad depending on your viewpoint.

Doesn't help with the question on how you blast Bluetooth to multiple destinations at the same time, but no doubt someone will come up with a solution. For any event with lots of suitable people (bar, club, music gig, sporting event) it would be a nice, targetted advertising medium.

Hit older, more cynical audience and the result will be more negative...

This would only turn into a nightmare, 11-15 year olds will constantly receive crap and even they'll get p*ss off with it. Then i'm sure if this is 'legal' its only a matter of time when bluetooth spam for porn websites/phone lines will be sent all over the place.

I mean spam email is one thing, you seem to keep justifying that 'spam bluetooth' is okay and is the equivalent of some guy handing out flyers in a town centre. Totally not true. A guy handing out flyers i can say no thanks and carry on on my journey, not get my hand stuffed with some crappy flyer.

You cant just send out bluetooth messages and think its okay as people can just delete them if they dont want them, its spam 100% and if this starts to get bigger and bigger you know 100% there will be guidelines against doing this type of thing.

"Surely if you don't want to receive it, you don't leave your phone with Bluetooth turned on."

Yeah great point, i dont want to receive spam email so i'll disconnect my email, i dont want junk mail so i'll sellotape up my letter box ? Ridiculous

"Hit older, more cynical audience and the result will be more negative..."

You really think this is positive ? You know basically a lot of young people will do it and sign up for crap just like they do with ringtones and then realise a month later theyre getting charged a fortune to receive stupid ringtones every month. Surely aiming your bluetooth campaign at 11-15 year olds is dodgy as anything ? If my kid was receiving spam bluetooths and was 11 years old i would go straight to the police.

Crap like this isnt good, no way can you justify it.

Admin - Cant you delete this thread and user ? Its just a simple way of spamming his crappy ringtone website , plus his idea for spamming people on the metrolink sounds a nightmare.

 

[mali]

@psj3809

Most users here don't fit in that age-range. But it is off topic somehow, so should maybe be moved to off topic IMO. Honestly I don't care

 

[DawnOfTheRent]

No offense, but I would hate to answer my phone just because someone wanted to tell me about their website (or any other reason that involved someone trying to help themselves to my money or time). If the website is worthwhile, I'll find it on my own. if not, then I'm busy finding things that are worth my time and your call just disrupted that process.

It's kind of a neat idea, and around people who don't do anything it might be appreciated. I would never do it because I don't know for sure what everyone receiving the file is like, they may be doing something worth their time, or they may not be, and I'd hate to ask them to accept/decline a file just because people around them were doing nothing.

Now, if there was a way for their phone to notice your blue tooth enabled device, and access the freebie files on it, that would be nice, they would go by their own free will and find what it is you wanted them to see without disrupting anyone who wants to do anything else. But the technique you seem to be suggesting just sounds like telemarketing with different technology.

 

[psj3809]

No offense, but I would hate to answer my phone just because someone wanted to tell me about their website (or any other reason that involved someone trying to help themselves to my money or time). If the website is worthwhile, I'll find it on my own. if not, then I'm busy finding things that are worth my time and your call just disrupted that process.

It's kind of a neat idea, and around people who don't do anything it might be appreciated. I would never do it because I don't know for sure what everyone receiving the file is like, they may be doing something worth their time, or they may not be, and I'd hate to ask them to accept/decline a file just because people around them were doing nothing.

Now, if there was a way for their phone to notice your blue tooth enabled device, and access the freebie files on it, that would be nice, they would go by their own free will and find what it is you wanted them to see without disrupting anyone who wants to do anything else. But the technique you seem to be suggesting just sounds like telemarketing with different technology.

Exactly ! Its like Jehovas who i cant stand, if i want to find religion i know where to go. Disturbing me on a saturday morning or friday night isnt the way to sell your religion !

But if this bluetooth stuff starts getting bigger then you know they'll clamp down on it 100%. He'll be justifying junk emails next and saying 'only takes a second to delete it if you arent interested'.

I love the way their website goes on about 'we respect your privacy and wont send on your details...' etc, but theyre quite happy to just send out to anyone with a bluetooth connection their junk ! Yeah respect privacy eh ?! Sorry but i dont have much confidence in this 23 year old 'director' of his company who seems to think its fine to send junk to whoever he wants, he knows email is illegal so is happy instead to try bluetooth.

 

[ignatz]

I cant believe anyone is considering doing this.
F*ck you and everything you do. I hope you develop the worst colonic cancer that an angry god can devise.

 

[psj3809]

I cant believe anyone is considering doing this.
F*ck you and everything you do. I hope you develop the worst colonic cancer that an angry god can devise.

Who do you want to get colonic cancer ? Me or the spammer ?!

If i buy a ringtone then stupidly forget to check the 'dont send me any crap' then fair enough, send whatever you want (until i opt out). But you seriously just cant send out your bluetooth crap to anyone you want.

 

[mali]

Please don't start flaming here. Discuss it or leave it at that.