Monday, July 18, 2005

Is That A Buzz In Your Pocket, Or Are You Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing, it's coming. A great idea that doesn't involve the slow speeds of wireless or optical character recognition (code reading).

From NY Times.Com A cellphone, a movie lobby and a message

This summer, moviegoers walking through theater lobbies in three cities might have felt a sudden vibration in their cellphones, the work of a nearby Bluetooth promotional kiosk.

The technology behind this comes from WideRay WideRay's customers include TeliaSonera, Electronics Boutique, General Motors, Nokia, and Microsoft

Last month, 20th Century Fox signed a deal with Loews Cineplex Entertainment to distribute movie trailers, ring tones and pictures through kiosks in three Loews theaters, in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The promotional material can be picked up by anyone with a cellphone equipped to handle Bluetooth, a form of short-range wireless transmission

Downloading a full-length movie trailer from the kiosk takes about 30 seconds, and there is no fee from the phone's service provider.

The Fox promotion is limited by the number of Bluetooth-compatible phones, which, according to industry analysts, account for 10 to 15 percent of the market. The Gartner Group, a research firm, predicts that by 2008, 60 percent of all cellphones will be Bluetooth-enabled.

No comments: