WireMedia, a Boca Raton, Florida Company trading on the Pink Sheets has announced the deployment of bluetoothmedia.com. Their press release says:
The new site will allow advertisers, partners and end-users to see how Wiremedia’s new service offerings will work for them. Users will also see the direction Wiremedia is taking with the new site and the features that will be brought online for the service launch in the imminent future. We are excited about the new website and the opportunity it will afford the company to showcase an open demonstration of Wiremedia’s Bluetooth proximity advertising service.
About Wiremedia’s Bluetooth Proximity Advertising Delivery System:
Wiremedia’s Bluetooth Mediaserver delivers customized rich media content and applications directly to cell phones, within a range of 100+ meters of a specific location, at broadband speed. Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone users can receive coupons, video, audio, etc. ‚Äú80 percent of all new mobile phones expected to come equipped with Bluetooth in 2006,‚Äù says IDC. http://www.wiremedia.com
Not a word of “opt-in” or “permission based” Nope…just 80 percent of all new mobile phones. I wonder what percent of new mobile phone owners WANT to get messages from Wiremedia’s bluespamming devices?
This appears to me to be a classic case of a company that does not get it. Beyond this, their BlueSpamming Website has been announced, but when you visit it there is nothing tere, not even an “under construction page! Bluespamming was a novel idea in about 2002 today it is hard to take anyone offering up such a service seriously, especially when the company describes itself like this:
About Wiremedia
Wiremedia (Pink Sheets: WRMA) is an emerging company focused on creating scalable mobile technologies and wireless data software applications. The company intends to leverage its immense expertise in mobile content marketing and distribution to deliver value-added mobile applications, services and content to the global market place. http://www.wiremedia.com.
From that paragraph I can’t even tell what the company does, and frankly I don’t think they know either! Anyone have any idea?
Be careful, seems that the name of this company is WireMedia.com (and not WiredMedia.com )….
But beyond the opt-in issue, and not specifically talking of this company, why getting for bluetooth based add/content seems to be bad idea ni your views? For instance, getting a movie trailer while waiting for the subway seems to be quite interesting (at least for me) if well executed….
Thanks for pointing that out, Thomas.
Wiremedia bluetooth aparatus does not sound like a potential spam machine to me. I’ve tested such systems in Europe and they do have built in opt-out features.
@ Sue
It’s not about opt-out with digital media (email, mobile)… you need to get opt-in in the first place. Just because you have your bluetooth switched on doesn’t mean you’ve opted in to receive anything. You might have blue-tooth switched on so you can connect with your earpiece or because you’re synching between your pc and your phone. Or maybe you don’t even know your bluetooth is on. “Hey, what’s bluetooth?” I hear a lot of consumers say. You see the problem?
I have seen various systems of BlueTooth advertising on mobile phones, the fact that:
1. You need first to turn your phone’s BlueTooth function on
2. You need to turn the “I am visible” BlueTooth function on (you can be stealth if you want)
3. Then when you are scanned by the sender device, it asks you if you wish to receive the message, and you just can say “NO”
You have three option to opt-out ! I think it is much more opt in and permissive marketing than SMS o email ads or audio messages in a public mall or even large signs. And at the end, you have to be in a 30m radio from the sending device..