Spam takes on blue tint

Some attendees at last month’s 3GSM World Congress in Spain got an unexpected come-on as they entered the show: a Bluetooth-transmitted inquiry asking if they’d like to receive an official message from the event.
Even in the tech-happy world of wireless, though, the effort received less-than-stellar reviews. Bloggers and mobile enthusiasts decried the marketing play as “stupid,” “squalid” and “tawdry,” and the latest example of “bluespamming”-using the increasingly popular wireless technology to transmit unwanted come-ons.
Bluetooth marketing is nothing new, of course. Virgin Atlantic Airways teamed with Range Rover in 2005 to deliver video clips of the carmaker’s flagship SUV, and Loews Theatres has used kiosks to transmit movie trailers. The New York puppet group Avenue Q recently installed technology at the Noel Coward Theatre that asks Bluetooth users if they’d like a free video clip of the show, and CBS is using the technology to lure potential viewers by plugging its lineup to commuters at Grand Central Station.
And while it’s not without controversy, Bluetooth marketing has largely been successful. A Coldplay campaign in England two years ago saw 13,000 fans access video clips, interviews, audio samples and images of the band, and the first week of the Avenue Q effort saw more than 700 people accept content, notching a remarkable “take rate” of more than 7 percent.
While such a high rate of return has some mobile marketing companies salivating, the tactic continues to draw scorn from those concerned about consumer privacy issues. Unknowing consumers who have activated Bluetooth on their phones shouldn’t be pestered, detractors say, simply for walking within 30 feet of a mobile marketing campaign. And users who choose to accept content run the risk of receiving a virus or other nasty bugs with the advertising messages.
But backers of Bluetooth marketing point to the fact users must have Bluetooth in discoverable mode, and that most campaigns are initiated with a message asking if they would like to receive content.
“There’s a whole misunderstanding about that,” said Raymond Stone, marketing manager for ZipZone Media, a Fresh Meadows, N.Y.-based firm that sells devices that deliver marketing messages via Bluetooth. “People think you’re pushing something onto their cell phones they don’t want. In actuality, the whole thing is an opt-in system.”
Of course, the customer can opt in only after receiving the initial-and unsolicited-inquiry. While the Mobile Marketing Association has yet to address “bluespamming” directly, Executive Director Laura Marriott said mobile marketing efforts should wait for consumers to ask for content before approaching them.
“At the end of the day, the MMA does not support unsolicited consumer push,” Marriott said. “It’s got to be consumer-initiated.”
ZipZone launched its online storefront in October, and Stone said the company has sold “less than 40” of the $1,900 units, only about one-fourth of which shipped to U.S. companies. In fact, he said, most North American users generally don’t have their phones set to discoverable, so the devices are sold with electric signs urging potential customers to activate Bluetooth. CBS’s effort at Grand Central, which is powered by Paris-based Kameleon Technologies, uses billboards for the same purpose.
Bluetooth marketing has gained substantial traction in Europe and some markets in the Far East, where users are generally more tech-savvy and handsets more advanced than in the United States. But given the relative low cost of deploying such campaigns, it’s easy to imagine a day when strolling down a city block can result in dozens of Bluetooth come-ons from shoe stores and pizza parlors.