Many people have transferred files and contacts between devices, listened to music on stereo headsets and interfaced with their handheld device using Bluetooth.

However, Benjamin Fong Yen Keat, chief executive officer of BiteMark sees Bluetooth as an excellent marketing tool and his company developed its Proximate proprietary proximity marketing solution which communicate with the consumer via Bluetooth enabled devices.

“Ninety per cent of all new phones are shipped with Bluetooth capability and 63% of all mobile phones in Malaysia are Bluetooth-enabled," said Fong.

“A 2006 survey by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group found that 78% of urban Malaysians have a high awareness of Bluetooth, perhaps due to requirements for people talking on their phones while driving to use a handsfree kit,” he added. 

Bluetooth is also a cheap and free medium to transfer music, videos, games, applications, with size limited only be the phone’s memory.

Reaching out

BiteMark set up a Proximate system, including an industrial PC and a Bluetooth transmitter and receiver installed at the location, which it calls a “beamer” in the tunnel between the the Suria KLCC shopping mall and the KLCC LRT station and it reached 73,000 people within 47 days of operation. The system has a range of up to 300 ft (91.4 m).

Banners and posters telling people to turn on their Bluetooth device are put up and when the visitors click Yes or No, Proximate read the unique 16-digit hexadecimal code of their devices’ Bluetooth chip, which identifies its make and model and it checks with its database for their past interest if available and then it asks them if they want to receive a promotion for a particular product on their phone and if they say Yes, a coupon will be sent to it.

Since the database is not centralized as of yet, their profile is not retained.

“If we want to centralize Proximate, we’d need to apply for a new license from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and this can be done in partnership with the mobile operators since most consumers feel more comfortable with operators,” said Phil Captain, BiteMark advisor and coach.

“At present, we have a class license from the MCMC to operate this services but it does not allows us to interconnect multiple sites,” he added.

Respecting privacy

BiteMark wants to change the mindset of advertisers and it advises them to let consumers opt in and opt out of participation and also for advertisers to see their permission before sending them content via Bluetooth.

“Our strategy is to let users be in control of what they receive, must be permission based, acquisition of their contact must be obtained with an explicit request and we believe in advertising as being a service,” said Captain.

Traditional mobile marketing is restricted within each operator’s walled garden and consumers pay the commission which is shared with the operator. On the other hand, a Proximate system has between 3 and 16 antennas, each of which can reach seven devices simultaneously or up to 200 devices at the same time.

“Bluetooth lets advertisers capitalize on impulse desires and it can easily and cost-effectively transfer large content such as a music, video file or an application.

For example, at the launch of the Honda Jazz car at KLCC, BiteMark put a beamer in each of four cars which posted a GIF file with different information about the car.

It also sent them a Java applet for them to apply to do a test drive of the car and the applet transmitted their application back to Honda via GPRS or 3G data and altogether, 131 people out of 250 applied.

“However, 14 more people registered after the event, which indicates its potentially viral effect,” said Fong.

BiteMark held a similar event at KLCC for Chevrolet and it acquired 1,371 prospects, which resulted in seven sales, while traditional methods would have acquired about 200 prospects.

At another project in One Utama, Proximate detected 500 people and 300 registered.

Proximate was also used at a Maxis dealers convention where during a live performance of Phua Chu Kang, when one of the characters received a phone call, it offered members of the audience the same ringtone, animated GIF, good luck charm and so on.

BiteMark had held held similar campaigns with Malaysia Airlines, Intel, Hennessy and DiGi in the KLCC tunnel and they all paid off.

“The key is personalization and branding, and based on each users’ profile, they can be offered different gifts,” said Fong.

BiteMark also works with traditional media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio and billboards, and it also partners with advertising agencies such as Universal McCann and Big Tree.

While this wasn’t BiteMark’s project, a well-known sports apparel company had a billboard in China tightly integrated with Bluetooth and let users get a free shoe upon receipt of a coupon via Bluetooth which they then took into the shop to claim their shoe.

Ads as a service

“We also want to provide infortainment, weather, traffic information to users a mall based on the advertisements-as-a-service basis,” said Fong.

With advertisements-as-a-service, the advertiser would not for example, send them an advertisement telling them to buy Milo but instead send them a free recipe on how to prepare a drink or a cake using Milo. In India, the producer of Kingfisher beer sent jokes, stories, games and so on to bar patrons’ phones.

Bluetooth can also be used in airports to provide travelers with information about their boarding gates, shops and so on in the airport.

“For example, it can be used at passenger arrival gates to provide incoming passengers the information about their baggage carousel in their own language,” said Fong.

The best time to use Bluetooth is when people are waiting for something to happen, such as to board a plane or for a train to arrive, which is an excellent moment to engage them.

Other possibilities include obtaining games or different levels of games on the phone from a vending machine via Bluetooth.

Technically speaking, Bluetooth is more robust against interference than WiFi, since it can hop 65,000 times a second between about 78 frequencies. It’s also safer to use in hospitals and many pieces of medical equipment are Bluetooth-enabled.

BiteMark makes its beamers from imported components, including the Bluetooth chip from Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR).

“One beamer can reach 1.4 million people in a year at a cost of RM23,000, which is about the cost of a full-page colour advertisement in a major newspaper for one day,” said Fong.

"Bluetooth technology is the simplest and cheapest way to connect up with an individual based on their location.  Proximate with their patented process is paving the way forward for location centric
connections and interactions," Fong added.