I’ve just met the acceptable face of Bluetooth marketing. OK, that might sound a bit facetious, but Bluetooth does tend to get quite a bad press, due to the way in which some brands and Bluetooth marketing providers deploy it. I remember being spammed by a hi-fi brand on three consecutive days last year as I was walking through Waterloo station in London. But talking to Greg Isbister from breezeTECH this afternoon, it’s obvious that some companies take a slightly more sophisticated approach.
breezeTECH works with, among others, T-Mobile, which sponsors West Bromwich Albion football club. It helps T-Mobile leverage its sponsorship on matchdays by offering supporters in the ground a free Bluetooth video download in which Team Coach Tony Mowbray runs through the team he’s picked, and explains his approach to the match.
The download is promoted in the club programme and via billboards in the ground. This call to action is essential, Isbister told me, in order to get people to want to download the content.
There are other important factors too, which Isbister has promised to expand on in a Guest Column in the coming weeks. But the very idea of a Bluetooth marketing firm talking about the need for a call to action was music to my ears. If Bluetooth has a place in the future of mobile marketing, it won’t win it by spamming people who just happen to be walking past the wrong bus shelter with Bluetooth switched on. There’s got to be an element of opt-in about it, and it was refreshing to hear someone from a Bluetooth marketing firm so keen to talk about it. 

David Murphy
Editor