Most Commonly Asked Questions About Proximity Marketing

The Top Ten Questions on Bluetooth Marketing answered

1. How many people have their Bluetooth switched on?

Figures range from 40% to 60% of users having their Bluetooth enabled; this figure continues to grow as the use of Bluetooth accessories especially in cars continues to increase. The main issue with Bluetooth Marketing is NOT how many people have Bluetooth enabled, but how many phones a Zone can simultaneously service. In practice Bluetooth Zones show that if footfall is high, then the limiting factor is the Bluetooth bandwidth available for downloads rather than enabling more phones.

2. Is Bluetooth Marketing legal or Spam?

Many countries legislation is still under review with organizations such as the Mobile Marketing Association working on industry best practice models to ensure Bluetooth Marketing is deployed effectively, enabling the industry to regulate itself. In order for Bluetooth Marketing to occur, the user must A) have Bluetooth enabled. B) Allow file sharing. C) Accept the Bluetooth request which comes from the Zone. With Proximity Marketing, if a user ignores the request from the Zone, the request message will disappear from the phone after a number of seconds leaving no footprint, if the user rejects the request by selecting DECLINE on their phone, Proximity Marketing Zone will never ask the user again, only if a Bluetooth user accepts the message from the Zone will the file be transferred, this is often called permission based marketing.

3. How many downloads will I get in a Zone?

Results vary from 0.5% of all users accepting downloads to 60%+ of unique users accepting downloads, results vary due to: Position, demographic, content relevance, time of day and targeting. The better a Zone is branded, the more downloads will be accepted.

4. How far will a Bluetooth Zone reach?

Each Proximity Marketing device produces up to 100m Bluetooth radial sphere, however most phones have smaller transmitters (class 2) only reaching 10m yet with a Proximity Zone a normal mobile phone range is increase to around 25m. Zone range can be further increased using the proprietary software control panel to "link" Zones together increasing their range and performance.

5. Can Bluetooth Zones be effected by buildings etc?

Yes, water, steel, mirrors and WIFI 802.11x can all effect Bluetooth efficiency, however with our deployment guidelines these factors can be mitigated.

6. Is it the same as text messaging?

No, a text message uses cellular networks, costs to send and its content is 160 text characters. Bluetooth creates it's own "network" to send messages (100m) - its free to send and the content can be any content a phone can receive: video, music, files, business cards, etc.

7. How long does it take to download a file?

This depends on the size of the file, the number of other downloads occurring and distance from transmitter, however as a rule of thumb a 50k file will download within 1 sec.
8. All phones are different sizes, how do I create content that fits?
Using the campaign creator, you can create animated .gif files which can be scaled for different phones and their screens.

9. Is Bluetooth Marketing expensive?

The return on investment from Bluetooth marketing is often greater than traditional marketing techniques, this is because each download is free. Generally the only costs are content creation (optional) and the capital expenditure of the equipment.

10. What commercial opportunities are there for this technology?

1. Selling advertising space on Zones.
2. Informing citizens of relevant information from public sector bodies.
3. Teasers for games or premium content downloaded.
4. Tracking footfall using the bloo2 tracking software.
5. Mobile marketing from cars or vehicles.
6. Creating metropolitan area networks for public service or advertising.
7. Promotion at exhibitions or conferences.
8. Guerilla marketing.
9. Remote management anywhere across the globe - on demand marketing.
10. Charging advertisers per download.