Wednesday, February 22, 2006

BlueCasting Will Have Guidelines


One of the last things the mobile marketing community wants right now is the consumer to get ticked off with unwanted advertising on the mobile. It's good to see that bluetooth enabled ads (bluecasting or bluespamming) will have guidelines too.

Just because a consumer is near a bluetooth enabled ad, doesn't give the advertiser the right to broadcast it.

Mobile Marketing Magazine has a good story on the "other" form of mobile marketing, BlueCasting.

Last month, Viacom Outdoor launched a network of Bluetooth-enabled poster sites across the London Underground. Yet, these sites might breach the Privacy Directive, because people walking within 8 metres of the posters will receive messages without the option of blocking them.

Critics believe that a consumer having Bluetooth enabled on their phone does not equate to them giving their permission to receive marketing messages, even if the first message seeks their permission to be sent subsequent messages.

Next month the Direct Marketing Association will publish guidelines on marketing via Bluetooth and will raise the issue of initial opt-in with its new Mobile Marketing Council.

Bluecasting could be the equivalent of email spam if it's not done properly.

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