Proximity Marketing: is it SPAM?

April 15, 2009 in Answers

Bluetooth has existed for sometime. People happily use headsets, wireless car kits, wireless syncing, etc.

But putting the word “marketing” or “coupons” alongside Bluetooth, makes some people nervous. Despite a number of success case that we and other service providers can point to, there are still a number of concerns that need to be addressed. A recent post goes a long way to helping to begin sorting through fact from fiction surrounding Bluetooth Marketing – by Mark Brill who Chairman of the Direct Marketing Association Mobile Marketing Council. The article has generated some good, thoughtful, response such as this one from Mobile Marketing Watch.

So we thought is was a good time to share some of our experiences approaching these issue.

Opting In & Opting Out

Lets assume I send a message to anyone standing within a define zone or distance from one of our AzureMayan hotspots. What happens? Well, some people will experience something similar to receiving a new SMS or e-mail message. These people would have Bluetooth turned on and visible and settings that result in a audio or vibrating notification when receiving a Bluetooth message. For many of these people, they might not be paying attention or know that an offer is available. They would receive a message but in the tests we have done, the Bluetooth message disappears if there is not response.

We dont pair devices (its too much work for customers). We do keep track of their responses, though. So for example, if someone has Bluetooth turned on and visible and they receive a message, they get to choose whether or not they want to receive the message. If they say NO, we remember this response and dont send them messages again. Or more specifically, we encourage out clients to do this – remove people from the list and like e-mail you can decide if and how you would like to try opt them in again.

For most people however, they dont leave Bluetooth on (Mr Brill says in his post that 30% might have Bluetooth turned on, which seems about correct although it is not something we have measured recently) and so they need to see signage to be prompted to action. We have observed people doing this and see this in our campaigns – when we add signage, opt in rates more than double, in part because people simply turn on the Bluetooth to receive the content.

The previous section described how most service providers are deploying Bluetooth Proximity marketing. We offer this, too. But we are moving towards multiple types of opt-in models. How do we do this?

Online Registration

We know we can do better delivering relevant messages. For example, we see many people who want to download a special offer but they dont act on it, because its not what they were hoping for. How can we do better?

Well, in the above example we have limited context. We know where people are (a mall, a stadium, an airport) but we dont know much else about them. If we can get some more information about who they are, we can send them better offers.

To do this, we tie into existing systems such as online profiles, loyalty cards or point of sale systems. All of these systems will tell us more about the user and make it easier to target. Also, if we see repeat behavior such as a person who tends to spend more time in electronics, versus a person who is routinely picking up medication, we can do even more to make offers, much like we see in some online commerce environments.

In practice, this means that customers needs to register their phones as a kiosk or point of sale, but this isnt too different from signing up for a store loyalty card or registering for an online account.  Most important, we think this give customers more control and more relevant messages.

New Rules

We are excited about the ongoing evolution and refinement of “rules of engagement” for proximity marketing. We like our clients to be informed because it makes it easier to work together to do the best thing for them and their customers.  We like what the DMA has done with their guidelines and will be reviewing and refining our own guidelines in response.

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