Bluetooth Campaign For Big Brother

A friend of mine in Perth Australia just got caught by some random bluecasting waiting for a bus.  The effort was for Big Brother, which had installed advertising in bus shelters that had built in Bluetooth transmitters.  If you happen to walk by and have your Bluetooth powered on your mobile you receive an SMS saying "I'm watching U, Ur at X" and the "X" was personalised to reference the exact corner of the bus stop (very clever and creepy).  Then another text shows up answering the "what the hell" question in your head - "Big Brother is Back on Channel Ten."  I'm not sure who thought of this, but a big hats off to a very appropriate way to harass people via Bluetooth, but in a very entertaining way.  Hopefully consumers aren't being charged for those text messages, could upset some people but hopefully they'll just relax knowing that big brother really isn't watching them, or is he? :)

 

Published 12 May 2008 11:15 by Ryan Peal

Filed under: Social Networking, Youth Marketing, cool stuff

Comments

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  Jenn said:

  i can just see it now! people looking at eachother looking at them!  how awfully awkward and creepy--bluecasting is awesome!  a great tool which should be used more and more in campaigns...most people walk around not even knowing their bluetooth is on.  I remember the first time I used it was to transfer a ring tone from my brothers phone to my phone.  I set them on the desk next to each other to ensure maximum bluetoothing penetration.

  May 20, 2008 09:47
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  Brett said:

  While I agree that this may be an effective campaign, I think the author has his facts incorrect.  Bluetooth and SMS are different channels and work very differently.  When sending content via Bluetooth, there is no personal information that is exchanged.  It is an opt-in file transfer that has a limited broadcast range.  Sending a file that refers to the location the user is currently at is effective, but there is nothing “big brother” about it.  Bluetooth can send rich media messages (ringtones, video, graphic files, voice tones, images) and really are not text.  There are no charges to the consumers.  There are ways to tie SMS and Bluetooth together and track consumers, but this campaign is clearly not that level of deployment.  

  August 26, 2008 20:10