i agreed too that bluetooth push marketer can do a lot to mitigate as like Oliver said before. But I still do a research about this.

Cheer,
Nokia News

The range of responses here also shows what diversity of views there are and thus how difficult it is to navigate this issue. Some people are going to be disappointed (and that may include me), but that’s democracy in action for you.

Olivier – you make some excellent points and I’m a fan of MobiLuck, as you know. But the points you make are really periphery to the central question ie has the consumer asked to receive messages or not? If he hasn’t, no matter how nice and friendly you are, no matter how you try to make the interruption tolerable, you’re still assuming that you have the right to send them messages.

Let’s take the parallel of physical direct mail. If I ask the question of the direct marketer “Has the consumer opted in to receive these letters?” it’s a simple case of “yes” or “no”. It doesn’t matter to what lengths the marketer has gone to design an eye-pleasing envelope, spell the name right or tried to make sure that the consumer was interested in the subject.

Yes, I agree that Bluetooth Push marketers can do a lot to mitigate their messages, but they still don’t have permission.

As for giving the technology a chance to mature, I’m a big fan of the technology and its applications generally. I just have a problem with one way it’s currently being used. It’s a little like my attitude to hammers – they’re great, apart from when they’re used to bludgeon people to death. [No, I'm not suggesting that Bluetooth marketing is like killing people, just pointing out that technology isn't uniformly good or bad.]

Anyway, there’s lots of mileage in this topic and thanks again for your interest and comments.

Russell

When talking to non-tech / mobile business people about mobile marketing, most times the first thing that comes to their mind is something spam related. – be it sms or bt.

Because of the low cost (at least nowadays compared to distribution via mobile web) BT will be used extensively.
This can / will cause many unsatisfied (stalked) users.
And users will not distinguish between mobile web advertising and bt advertising – mobile is mobile.

The guidelines say: “the recipient must first choose to enable the Bluetooth connectivity on their handset …”
I remember when I got my last phone, bt was on and visible.
So the first step I had to take was to disable bt on my handset.

Pull is ok. Push services should be used only after opt-in for each single session. Strict but userfriendly.

I can see several points that make it really different:
- You don’t need to reply to a Bluetooth notification, you can just ignore it and it will disapear from your screen after a few seconds whereas you have to delete unsolicited SMS and emails.
- Those unsolicited SMS and emails are stored on your device and are using space that you want to store your pictures, games, … whereas a Bluetooth notification is a standard message displayed by your phone itself and doesn’t take any space on your phone.
- You can turn your Bluetooth off or select the invisible mode when you want. You cannot turn SMS off, you can switch off your mobile but you will receive the SMS later when you switch it back on.
- On most phones the Bluetooth notification comes with a single barely audible beep and new SMS notification are a lot louder.
- Bluetooth campaigns have a very short range (a dozen meters) and they are usually related to nearby services or products, so they are better targeted and more relevant than many SMS campaigns who are literaly spamming thousands of people with completely irrelevant offers (I’m not really interested in a 20% discount on lingerie from a distant department store where I have never been).
For all these reasons Bluetooth push campaigns are generally a lot less intrusive than SMS or email campaigns.

And there are several ways to make those campaigns less intrusive:
- Stop offering a content to people who have already refused it once
- Stop offering a content to people who have already downloaded it
- Stop offering a content at least during 1 hour to people who have ignored a previous offer
- Stop offering any content to people who have refused 3 times
- In case several Bluetooth spots are used, respect above rules globally by connecting the Bluetooth spots to a network.
- Offer free high-quality mobile content that people will be happy to receive (e.g. movie trailers, ringtones, coupons, games, …) instead of regular advertising
- Only offer content designed specifically for mobiles (e.g. videos < 300Ko)
- Only send content in a format supported by the target device

The acceptance-level of a Bluetooth Marketing campaigns is mainly determined by the following factors: opt-in, number and frequency of download offers, level of targeting, location (private or public), type of content (agressive advertising or not), content quality.

With these guidelines I believe you can create very successful Bluetooth marketing campaigns with high user satisfaction and excellent results for advertisers.

Please give this new technology a chance and some time to mature before killing it.

You have set out the dilemma brilliantly and I am so pleased that the MMA is working with the industry to provide some standards. Bluetooth Broadcasting is (in my opinion) an important stepping stone towards NFC Broadcasting which (I hope) will be less controversial for the industry.

My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that the practice of ‘Bluetooth Push’ can be compared with unsolicited mail, freesheet newspapers or leaflets, but shouldn’t be compared with ‘SMS Push’. Receiving a message is always free (but sometimes annoying) to the recipient.

Where I think that the MMA and the DMA both fail in their task is that they both frame Bluetooth in one exclusive range (up to 15 meters for the MMA, I think). The trouble with this strategy is that Bluetooth transmitters can be set from anywhere between 0 and 100+ meters, so the application of Bluetooth Broadcasting is very diverse.

The regulations for close proximity broadcasting should be different to the regulations for wider reaching broadcasts. For the record, I would go with;

- up to half a meter = push to anyone discoverable
- half a meter to 15m = only to permission granted
- 15m+ = push to anyone discoverable in closed groups (concerts, schools) but only with permission in open groups (shopping centers, hospitals)

m

I’ve commented on the guidelines, but the MMA forum doesn’t appear to show comments, is this intentional?