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Bluetooth
A wireless standard for
transmission of data
between devices over
short ranges (less than
100 m). Figure 3.23 Using proximity marketing to download music tracks
Proximity
marketing
Marketing messages are Bluetooth
delivered in real time
according to customers’ Bluetooth is another wireless technology, this time used for short-range data transmission
presence based on the
technology they are between devices. Applications of Bluetooth include wireless keyboards and beaming data
carrying, wearing or have between a PDA and a desktop or a laptop and a printer. Transmission distances between
embedded. Bluecasting is Bluetooth-enabled devices were initially limited to 10 m, but can now be up to 100 m, so
the best-known example.
there is now the option for using the technology for networking like Wi-Fi. However, Blue-
Bluecasting tooth is significantly slower than the main Wi-Fi standard at 723kbps, so usage for WLANs
Bluecasting involves will be less common.
messages being
automatically pushed to
a consumer’s Bluetooth- Bluetooth wireless applications
enabled phone or they
can pull or request audio, Bluetooth technology has potential for different forms of local marketing campaigns known
video or text content to
be downloaded from a as proximity marketing: (1) viral communication, (2) community activities (dating or
live advert. In the future gaming events), (3) location-based services – electronic coupons as you pass a store. It is
ads will be able to
respond to those who currently in its infancy, but some trials of bluecasting such as that shown in Figure 3.23
view them. where sample music tracks are downloaded and in Mini Case Study 3.6 have been successful.

Mini Case Study 3.6 Bluecasting encourages trial of new album

One of the early commercial uses of BlueCasting was to support the launch of the Coldplay X&Y album where
a London-based campaign involved 13,000 fans downloading free pre-release video clips, never-before-seen
interviews, audio samples and exclusive images onto their mobile, via Bluetooth from screens at mainline train
stations. In this campaign, 87,000 unique handsets were ‘discovered’ and 13,000 people opted in to receive
the material, a response rate of 15%. The busiest day was Saturday 4 June – two days before the official album
launch date – when over 8,000 handsets were discovered and over 1,100 users opted in to receive a video file.
The BlueCast systems can deliver time-sensitive contextual content, so, for example, in the morning the user
would get an audio clip of the tracks ‘Fix You’ and be prompted to tune in to Radio One, but in the afternoon
the clip would be the same but the user would be prompted to watch Jonathan Ross on BBC1.