Bluetooth Marketinng Return on investment (Roi)

Measuring the success of Bluetooth Marketing.

As in any form of marketing the ability to measure the return on investment (R.o.I) is a key indicator in judging the success of the campaign, R.o.I is calculated as any money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested.

If the amount of campaign investment can be reduced or offset, this will dramatically impact on the R.o.I leading to an increase in profitability, however a reduction in campaign investment often produces quality compromises, which can undermine campaign effectiveness.

In order to assist your Bluetooth Marketing Campaign to maximise its R.o.I potential without reducing quality and performance, Huetouch are providing a leasing solution, removing upfront capital expenditure and spreading investment costs over the length of a campaign improving the R.o.I on a month-by-month basis.

• Improve R.o.I
• Increase profitability
• Remove upfront investment risk
• Maximise mobile marketing campaigns

Bluetooth Marketing can be valuable to the mix of any mobile marketing campaign, as an emerging technology it can deliver true competitive advantage whilst providing new experiences for consumers. Spreading the financial investment over a longer term removes any initial barriers to entry improving a campaigns R.o.I.

Leasing with Huetouch, will keep your Bluetooth platform at the cutting edge of marketing technology through our software refresh program, reduce upfront financial outlay and deliver competitive advantage.

Important Questions to ask Bluetooth Marketing companies:

1. What is the maximum number of Bluetooth connections at any one time?
2. Does the Software allow you to remote manage your Campaigns and Statistics
3. Does the Software allow you to group Bluetooth hardware together to work in synergy (zoning)?
4. Does Hardware use reliable Linux or Windows operating systems or purely by an embedded chip?
5. Is the Software web-based or PC-based?
6. Is the Solution capable of Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity
7. Is the Solution portable (i.e. battery pack/car charger)
8. How practical/expensive is it to upgrade your Bluetooth solution?
9. Does the firm cater for small business as well as providing enterprise solutions?
10. Does the firm offer creative services or provide DIY software?

Bluetooth Marketing in your hand

The tiny new Bluetooth Marketing device from Huetouch, the Huetouch Lite is a great step forward in Bluetooth Marketing technology, the Lite can be remotely managed using the Hue Live interface from anywhere in the world. The Lite can support between 7 and 14 simultanious connections and can fit in the palm of your hand, making it ideal for portable proximity marketing solutions.

Proximimty Marketing is the means of sending messages to mobile phones via Bluetooth for free.

See more at www.huetouch.com

Remember David Beckham in his Bluetooth Ad ?

http://themobileexpert.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

Well now you can have the ultimate mobile accessory, and no!!! your dont need David beckahm and his little ear accessory, its a Bluetooth Marketing System that runs off your mobile phone! yes the new huetouch Mobile product can deliver proximity marketing from any Microsoft windows mobile device. See huetouch from more !!

Boys in Bluetooth

http://www.itvlocal.com/wales/news/?player=WAL_News_15&void=255519

See products that can make this happen for police forces at huetouch

Tech-savvy Letting Agents

We are revolutionising house hunting for the Chelmsford community as we bring the latest texting technology to Chelmsford. Tenants can now receive property details to their mobile phones whilst outside a Martin & Co property, simply by sending a text message.

Known as “Textboarding” house hunters will be able to text a property code (which is displayed underneath the Martin & Co “To Let! boards) and instantly receive a text message back containing that property’s details.

Stephen Frost, Principal at Martin & Co Chelmsford said: “Textboarding is the future for house hunting, we are very excited to be providing this technology to the people of Chelmsford. You’ll now notice Textboards on all Martin & Co To Let boards so if you’re house hunting in our area you now have an even easier way to find property details. Also, if you are a landlord, you’ll get even more enquiries on your property.”

The History of Bluetooth

The Bluetooth specification was developed in 1994 by Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson, who were working for Ericsson Mobile Platforms in Lund, Sweden. The specification is based on frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology.

The specifications were formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The SIG was formally announced on May 20, 1998. Today it has a membership of over 11,000 companies worldwide. It was established by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba, and Nokia, and later joined by many other companies.

Bluetooth 1.0 and 1.0B

Versions 1.0 and 1.0B had many problems, and manufacturers had difficulty making their products interoperable. Versions 1.0 and 1.0B also included mandatory Bluetooth hardware device address (BD_ADDR) transmission in the Connecting process (rendering anonymity impossible at the protocol level), which was a major setback for certain services planned for use in Bluetooth environments.

Bluetooth 1.1

* Ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2002.
* Many errors found in the 1.0B specifications were fixed.
* Added support for non-encrypted channels.
* Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI).

Bluetooth 1.2

This version is backward-compatible with 1.1 and the major enhancements include the following:

* Faster Connection and Discovery
* Adaptive frequency-hopping spread spectrum (AFH), which improves resistance to radio frequency interference by avoiding the use of crowded frequencies in the hopping sequence.
* Higher transmission speeds in practice, up to 721 kbit/s, than in 1.1.
* Extended Synchronous Connections (eSCO), which improve voice quality of audio links by allowing retransmissions of corrupted packets, and may optionally increase audio latency to provide better support for concurrent data transfer.
* Host Controller Interface (HCI) support for three-wire UART.
* Ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2005.

Bluetooth 2.0 (currenly supported on all Huetouch products)

This version of the Bluetooth specification was released on November 10, 2004. It is backward-compatible with the previous version 1.1. The main difference is the introduction of an Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) for faster data transfer. The nominal rate of EDR is about 3 megabits per second, although the practical data transfer rate is 2.1 megabits per second.[8] The additional throughput is obtained by using a different radio technology for transmission of the data. Standard, or Basic Rate, transmission uses Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK) modulation of the radio signal; EDR uses a combination of GFSK and Phase Shift Keying (PSK) modulation.[9]

According to the 2.0 specification, EDR provides the following benefits:

* Three times faster transmission speed — up to 10 times (2.1 Mbit/s) in some cases.
* Reduced complexity of multiple simultaneous connections due to additional bandwidth.
* Lower power consumption through a reduced duty cycle.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) published the specification as "Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR" which implies that EDR is an optional feature. Aside from EDR, there are other minor improvements to the 2.0 specification, and products may claim compliance to "Bluetooth 2.0" without supporting the higher data rate. At least one commercial device, the HTC TyTN pocket PC phone, states "Bluetooth 2.0 without EDR" on its data sheet.[10]

Bluetooth 2.1

Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.1 is fully backward-compatible with 1.1, and was adopted by the Bluetooth SIG on July 26, 2007.[9] This specification includes the following features:

* Extended inquiry response: provides more information during the inquiry procedure to allow better filtering of devices before connection. This information includes the name of the device, a list of services the device supports, plus other information like the time of day and pairing information.

* Sniff subrating: reduces the power consumption when devices are in the sniff low-power mode, especially on links with asymmetric data flows. Human interface devices (HID) are expected to benefit the most, with mouse and keyboard devices increasing their battery life by a factor of 3 to 10. It lets devices decide how long they will wait before sending keepalive messages to one another. Previous Bluetooth implementations featured keep alive message frequencies of up to several times per second. In contrast, the 2.1 specification allows pairs of devices to negotiate this value between them to as infrequently as once every 5 or 10 seconds.

* Encryption Pause Resume: enables an encryption key to be refreshed, enabling much stronger encryption for connections that stay up for longer than 23.3 hours (one Bluetooth day).

* Secure Simple Pairing: radically improves the pairing experience for Bluetooth devices, while increasing the use and strength of security. It is expected that this feature will significantly increase the use of Bluetooth.[11]

* Near Field Communication (NFC) cooperation: automatic creation of secure Bluetooth connections when NFC radio interface is also available. This functionality is part of the Secure Simple Pairing where NFC is one way of exchanging pairing information. For example, a headset should be paired with a Bluetooth 2.1 phone including NFC just by bringing the two devices close to each other (a few centimeters). Another example is automatic uploading of photos from a mobile phone or camera to a digital picture frame just by bringing the phone or camera close to the frame.

Future of Bluetooth

* Broadcast Channel: enables Bluetooth information points. This will drive the adoption of Bluetooth into mobile phones, and enable advertising models based around users pulling information from the information points, and not based around the object push model that is used in a limited way today.

* Topology Management: enables the automatic configuration of the piconet topologies especially in scatternet situations that are becoming more common today. This should all be invisible to the users of the technology, while also making the technology just work.

* Alternate MAC PHY: enables the use of alternative MAC and PHY's for transporting Bluetooth profile data. The Bluetooth Radio will still be used for device discovery, initial connection and profile configuration, however when lots of data needs to be sent, the high speed alternate MAC PHY's will be used to transport the data. This means that the proven low power connection models of Bluetooth are used when the system is idle, and the low power per bit radios are used when lots of data needs to be sent.

* QoS improvements: enable audio and video data to be transmitted at a higher quality, especially when best effort traffic is being transmitted in the same piconet.

Bluetooth high speed

On March 28, 2006, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced its selection of the WiMedia Alliance Multi-Band Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MB-OFDM) version of UWB for integration with current Bluetooth wireless technology.

UWB integration will create a version of Bluetooth wireless technology with a high-speed/high-data-rate option. This new version of Bluetooth technology will meet the high-speed demands of synchronizing and transferring large amounts of data, as well as enabling high-quality video and audio applications for portable devices, multi-media projectors and television sets, and wireless VOIP.

At the same time, Bluetooth technology will continue catering to the needs of very low power applications such as mouse, keyboards, and mono headsets, enabling devices to select the most appropriate physical radio for the application requirements, thereby offering the best of both worlds.

Bluetooth SIG is also developing a method of radio substitution to use an alternate MAC/PHY (such as IEEE 802.11) for application requiring more speed. It will allow Bluetooth protocols, profiles, security and pairing to be used in consumer devices on top of the already present 802.11 radio, when necessary. [14]

Bluetooth 3.0 (actual version number TBD)

The next version of Bluetooth after v2.1, code-named Seattle (the version number of which is TBD) has many of the same features, but is most notable for plans to adopt ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology. This will allow Bluetooth use over UWB radio, enabling very fast data transfers of up to 480 Mbit/s, while building on the very low-power idle modes of Bluetooth.

Bluetooth low energy

On June 12, 2007, Nokia and Bluetooth SIG announced that Wibree will be a part of the Bluetooth specification, as an ultra-low power Bluetooth technology.[15] Expected use cases include watches displaying Caller ID information, sports sensors monitoring your heart rate during exercise, and medical devices. The Medical Devices Working Group is also creating a medical devices profile and associated protocols to enable this market. Battery life for devices using Bluetooth low energy technology is designed to last up to one year.

Minority Report comes of age with Bluetooth Marketing

Forward thinking Bluetooth Marketing company Huetouch came one step closer today to delivering the future outlined in the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report. To add to their full range of Marketing Solutions, the innovating company now has in built Bluetooth tracking to identify individual handsets and send specific content to the device based on previous activity. Now Bluetooth Marketing is more targeted and can deliver individually tailored content to users.

BLUETOOTH® TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

Definition
Bluetooth wireless technology is the global short-range wireless standard for personal connectivity of a broad range of electronic devices – from mobile phones and headsets to cars, MP3 players, cameras and printers.
The technology is now available in its fourth version of the core specification and continues to develop, building on its inherent strengths – small-form factor radio, low power, low cost, built-in security, robustness, ease-of-use, and ad hoc networking abilities.

Specification Version
The Bluetooth SIG adopted Bluetooth Specification Version 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) in November 2004. In March 2007, the Bluetooth SIG announced Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) which adds improved pairing and lowers power consumption. The Bluetooth SIG is currently working on the next version of the technology which will incorporate ultrawideband technology as a high-speed alternative for manufacturers and Wibree technology as an ultra low power version of the specification Specification Make-Up Unlike many other wireless standards, the Bluetooth wireless specification gives product developers both link layer and application layer definitions, which supports data and voice applications.
Spectrum Bluetooth wireless technology operates in the unlicensed, 2.4 GHz ISM band.

Interference
Bluetooth wireless technology’s Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) capability was explicitly designed to reduce interference between wireless technologies sharing the 2.4 GHz spectrum. AFH works within the spectrum to take advantage of the available frequency. This is done by detecting other devices in the spectrum and avoiding the frequencies they are using. This 'adaptive hopping' allows for more efficient
transmission within the spectrum, thereby providing the user with greater performance, even if using other technologies along with the Bluetooth wireless technology.

Range
Class 2 radios – most commonly found in mobile devices – have a range of 10 meters or 30 feet
Class 1 radios – used primarily in industrial use cases – have a range of 100 meters or 300 feet

Power
The most commonly used radio (class 2) uses 1mW of power; Bluetooth wireless technology is designed to have very low power consumption; the specification reinforces this by allowing radios to be powered down when they are not active.

Data Rate
3Mbps

BBC: Why the future is in your hands

Last Updated: Monday, 18 February 2008, 11:21 GMT
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Why the future is in your hands
By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website

GPS=enabled handset- Lluis Gene (AFP/Getty)
GPS is starting to appear on more handsets

Sales of smartphones are expected to overtake those of laptops in the next 12 to 18 months as the mobile phone completes its transition from voice communications device to multimedia computer.

Convergence has been the Holy Grail for mobile phone makers, software and hardware partners, as well as consumers, for more than a decade.

And for the first time the rhetoric of companies like Nokia, Samsung and Motorola, who have boasted of putting a multimedia computer in your pocket, no longer seems far fetched.

"Converged devices are always with you and always connected," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia chief executive at last week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Last year Nokia sold almost 200m camera phones and about 146m music phones, making it the world's biggest seller of digital cameras and MP3 players.

In the coming year the firm predicts it will sell 35 million GPS-enabled phones as personal navigation becomes the latest feature to be assimilated into the mobile phone.

Form and function

Nigel Clifford, chief executive of Symbian, said: "All of those single use devices - MP3 players, digital camera, GPS - are collapsing onto the phone."

"We are going past the point where this was a phone with a few other things," he said.

Symbian's operating system shipped on 188 million phones last year and a third of those came with GPS.

"We see mobile phones evolving into multi-functional devices that now support consumer electronics, multimedia entertainment and mobile professional enterprise applications; all converging," said Luis Pineda, from mobile phone chip firm Qualcomm.

Man taking photo with phone, Roslan Rahman AFP/Getty
More and more people are snapping shots with a handset
Convergence is being driven by a combination of software, services and hardware.

The first phones powered by a chip running at 1Ghz will hit the market later this year, seven years after the first desktop chip broke the gigahertz barrier.

Qualcomm's 1Ghz Snapdragon chipset will debut inside a number of handsets, including some from Samsung and HTC

"It's a first in the industry for a wireless chipset," said Mr Pineda.

As well as raw horsepower Snapdragon also features a dedicated application processor, as well as the ability to handle 12 megapixel digital photos and up to 720p high definition video imaging.

Mr Clifford from Symbian said the mobile industry had to deliver multi-function devices which did not compromise.

He said: "When we look at what is collapsing on to these devices and people's expectations with their experiences on single-use specialized devices there is going to be rising expectations."

Chip shop

More than 90% of the world's mobile phones are powered by technology created by British firm Arm. It designs chip architectures that it licenses to semiconductors makers such as Qualcomm and Broadcom.

Ian Drew from Arm said future mobile phones demanded ever more processing power.

But building chips with greater processing was not a straightforward, he said.


The future of the internet and computing applications is not going to be in the home or at the office; it's going to be mobile
Nigel Clifford, Symbian
"If you look at a typical phone the first thing you have got to do is get within the half a watt envelope.

"It needs to get into your pocket. And there's no fan. It needs to work for days rather than hours."

He added: "When you start adding multi media experiences - such as 3D graphics, video, and games - there are two ways to do that: you can get bigger and bigger processors or you have multi core where you can switch off a processor when you don't need it."

Arm is demonstrating a chip architecture, called Coretex A9, that will offer four cores, or processors, on a single chip.

Symbian has been working with Arm on future uses for multi-core mobile phones.

"You can use massive amounts of processing if you need it. But if you don't you can power down the cores that aren't required," said Mr Clifford.

Symmetrical Multi Processing will drive the next generation of applications on a phone, he added.

"Silicon vendors are looking very seriously at how they integrate SMP."

Mr Clifford added: "The future of the internet and computing applications is not going to be in the home or at the office; it's going to be mobile."

Quake III screenshot, Activision
The gaming abilities of handsets are rapidly improving
He said gaming would be the next feature to collapse into phones.

"That is one of the next single usage devices that will start feeling the pressure from the mobile device," he said.

3D graphics acceleration is becoming standard on many of today's mobile phones and specialists like Nvidia have joined the market.

Mr Clifford said today's most powerful mobile phones, such as Nokia's N96 and NTTDoCoMo's 905 series have the same power as a laptop from 2000.

Nvidia's APX 2500 chip has enough 3D graphics acceleration to handle Quake 3, a PC game from 1999, on a mobile phone.

Handset owners were also beginning to expect the same online experience they have on their desktop PCs on their mobile phones.

"Web 2.0, social networking and video sharing; that's a real driver of horsepower," said Mr Drew from Arm.

He added: "But you need to be able to get data in. The next generation of mobile phones need high performance radios - they will have high data rates that will enable this content to be streamed to you."

Symbian is working on technology called Freeway to give phones the ability to move seamlessly between wireless networks, like wi-fi and cell networks like 3G and 4G.

"We don't want people to feel the mobile web is a second class experience."

Networking Bluetooth Zones together.

In order to maximise throughput and downloads in a geographical venue such as a subway or a shopping mall, Bluetooth proximity marketing Zones can be networked together creating one larger logical Zone. Suppliers such as Huetouch enable this grouping of Zones through a simple management interface. When grouped together Bluetooth servers will act as one, ensuring that an end user whom has received a download previously does not get asked by another server within the location again, equally an end user rejecting the request to download will not be asked repeatedly by other servers.

Bluetooth servers can be networked in many ways, Huetouch provide Bluetooth Marketing Zones which can be networked using:

3G or GPRS across cellular networks.
WIFI groups.
IP Networked devices within a subnet.

Each of the various networks have their own strengths and drawbacks, usually based around download amounts and security.

Not only do larger Zones enable more thorough downloading of information but they also are able to measure footfall in a given location showing the movement of people though a geographical zone.

Huetouch offers White Label solution for marketing companies

Huetouch now offers marketing, advertising, ambient media or creative agency a fully white label solution set which they can sell as their own, benefits include:

• Re-branded best of breed hardware solutions
• Rebranded customer portal with your brand, colours and data feeds
• Re-packaging
• Software and portal only option (non-UK)
• URL marking and logon from your own website
• Rebranded proximity marketing software products for PC and XDA
• Second line support and training for your organisation
• Legal protection and confidentiality for you and your end users.

How effective is Bluetooth Marketing ?

Like any technology and marketing solution result vary based on a number of factors:

* Effective deployment of "zone" using the most appropriate products
* Visual assets promoting the Zone
* An incentive for phone owners to want to accept the download
* Capacity and footfall planning
* Appropriate files size based on Zone dynamics.

A good company like Huetouch, or Bloo2.com will help you with the above, using formulas for calculate capacity and assisting with visual, audible and sensory assets to encourage download.

Results of Bluetooth Marketing can be anywhere from 1% of all unique phones receiving a download to 35%+ of all phones receiving a download (this excluded very niche applications where upt to 100% of people receive, I.E a university lecture theatre or art gallery, include of the an on demand solution such as the Touch-2000 trigger from Huetouch will also improve download rates.

Huetouch and other Bluetooth Proximity Marketing companies have developed sophisticated algorithms which enable brands to know (based on budget) what the appropriate deployment solution should look like, based on the objectives of the customer as to what percentage of footfall should receive a download request from the Bluetooth server.

Benefits of Proximity Marketing

Given the rapid growth in Mobile Marketing and Bluetooth adoption, Bluetooth Proximity Marketing has many benefits:

• It is free for handset owners to receive downloads.

• It is quicker to download than MMS and other cellular solutions.

• It does not require the use of Cell / Mobile networks - thus incurs no transactional costs.

• It is standards based and legal (it operates in the unlicensed, 2.4 GHz ISM band).

• It is measurable and can show clear Return on Investment (RoI) for Mobile campaigns.

• It can be targeted to a specific location, group or event at any time.

• It is low cost, requiring only capital outlay from transmitters and software.

• It does not capture mobile numbers or access data on handsets thus is secure.
It offers opt-in and opt-out of messages as part of the standard.

Mobile Advertising

According to Online Publishing Association 40% of brands have trailed mobile technologies as a way of expanding their brands and advertising reach, with market research company ‘Strategy analytics’ predicting mobile advertising spend to be $1.4b by the end of 2007 rising to $14.4bn in 2011.

The majority of this ‘spend’ will be on the production of “content.” Bluetooth Marketing is one mechanism to deliver this content at specific locations and times and can be responsible for delivering Applications, Video, Games, MMS and Web content thus Bluetooth as a transport mechanism could deliver apx 67% of this content, equating to over $8bn in 2011. The remainder transportation methods being 3G, GPRS, GSM, SMS, EDGE and other chargeable network methods.

The Bluetooth Handset Market

The number of mobile handsets in circulation world wide is staggering (over 261m subscribers in the US and 74m in the UK alone). Though many emerging countries demand
low cost, limited functionality handsets the developed world is purchasing new handsets with rich functionality at an incredible rate.

The annual number of new mobile phones shipped, which were Bluetooth-enabled surpassed the 500 million unit mark for the first time in 2007 and According to the IMS Research report, “The Worldwide Market for Bluetooth”, global Bluetooth attachment rates for mobile phones are at 46.7% in 2007, up from 40% in 2006. This figure includes regional attach rates for the Americas, EMEA and Asia at 46.4%, 51.2% and 42.7%, respectively.

Notably high, the percentage of mobile phones with Bluetooth technology in North America and Western Europe has reached over 60% and 70% respectively for the first time ever.

Mobile phones enabled with Bluetooth technology are becoming a burgeoning market, as In-Stat market research projects that by 2009 more than 66 percent of the 900 million new mobile phone handsets sold that year will include Bluetooth technology. In addition the total Bluetooth market will grow at a compound annual rate of over 40% between 2008 and 2011, and equipment shipments (including accessories) are expected to break the 1 billion mark by 2009. Source ABI.

What is Bluetooth Marketing ?

What is Bluetooth Proximity Marketing?

Bluetooth Proximity Marketing is the means of pushing FREE content to phones or Bluetooth devices within a defined geographical location, called a "Zone." 70% of the 900 million phones sold each year are Bluetooth enabled creating a huge market for this form of mobile marketing.

Zones cover a 100 meter radius per device, any phone or Bluetooth device (which is discoverable) entering the Zone will receive a request to download media (pictures, adverts, video, music etc) if the request is declined or ignored the Zone will not re-contact that phone, if the request is accepted the content is downloaded for free.

A log of each transaction is reported from the product in each Zone enabling detailed campaign measurement.

Unlike cellular marketing such as SMS, MMS or WAP, Bluetooth is free to deliver and does not require personal information such as a mobile telephone number for the technology to work.

Bluetooth Marketing helps retailers avoid the credit crunch

With retail sales declining as more shoppers hibernate until the credit crunch winter passes, retailers are turning to new technology to cost effectively promote special offers.

Using Bluetooth technology retailers can beam out messages from their stores to the mobile phones of shoppers walking by. When a shopper receives a special offer they simply walk into the store to claim their discount.

At Huetouch we developed a fully remote manageable solution for retailers enabling them to creat messages at head office and then with the click of a button instantly update their entire estate of distributed stores with the latest offer, this not only removes the need for printed promotions (which saves money) but also reduces the time is takes to deliver a new promotion to the end consumer.

One financial services retailer is using the service to promote their interest rates and latest competitive financial products to high street shoppers across the UK, “We can now stay one step ahead of our competition by interacting directly with our target market on their cell phone” the Technical Director said “we always have the most up to date rates due to the speed in which this service can be delivered.”

Bloo2.com the online retailer of Bluetooth Advertising Systems has seen a 300% increase in sales to retail organisations over the second quarter 2008.

I believe that Bluetooth Proximity Marketing will be a key ingredient for retailers as the credit crunch bites.

UK Health Trust in BLUE MOVIE broadcast.

A Large UK Primary Care Trust (PCT) is launching an innovative new technology to educate young people of the perils of STD’s. From Novemebr the PCT will be Bluetoothing young people STD videos with information and advice on sexual health.

Using compact Bluetooth devices supplied by Huetouch, the PCT can place this technology in youth clubs, arcades and other places where youths congregate, once it is ‘in situ’ the Bluetooth device will beam out free information videos available to anyone with a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone.

When the young people are in these areas individual phones are contacted by the Bluetooth device which asks if they wish to receive a free video from the PCT, if the phone owner selects ‘no’ then they will not be asked again, if they select ‘yes’ then a short video will be transmitted from the Bluetooth device to the mobile phone free of charge. This video is saved on the phone and can then be viewed on the mobile phone as well as forwarded to friends and family.

The chairman of the PCT said:
“Communicating with young people is an ever present challenge, which is why Bluetooth is a great way in which we can communicate the risks of unprotected sex whilst talking on their medium. Mobile phones are a platform that nearly all young people use and by implementing Huetouch’s technology we are able to get STD information and advice onto mobile phones where the young people can read it at their leisure and learn about STD’s.”

The man behind this clever Bluetooth device is award-winning Solihull based mobile-mogul Nicholas Maguire, he said:
“A challenge for PCT’s has always been getting their message across to those that need it, especially when education is needed. Our Bluetooth technology enables them to get their information onto young peoples mobile phones, once it is on their phones the youths then have a reference for STD information and a point of contact for further details.

This is a great way for youths to anonymously find out more details in a safe and controlled format.”

The content for the videos has been supplied by a specialist London agency, who have produced comical but educational videos which once on the phone have the ability to become viral and when paired with a YouTube campaign these videos will soon be spread around the local youth community, educating a high number in the process.

For more information on Huetouch and their Bluetooth technology please visit www.huetouch.com

How SMS texting can be used to Sell Property

Listen to me give a brief video overview on how SMS text messages can be used to sell property using textboards.

Estate agents are getting more enquiries, properties are sold quicker and house hunters can get details 24*7 from outside the property.

Case Study: Bluetooth Proximity Marketing

Situation
Alexander’s Estate Agent is an independently owned Estate Agent in Aberystwyth,
their branch is well positioned near to the centre of the town centre and has
established a good reputation in mid-Wales.
In the spring of 2008 Alexander’s had a range of sea-facing luxury apartments to
market and were looking at options on how they could maximise the footfall past
these properties and increase enquiries in the process.

Solution
After a consultation period with Huetouch, Alexander’s implemented a Huetouch
Bluetooth device that would sit within the luxury apartments and beam pictures of the
properties to mobile phones within a 100 metre radius.
This would form the basis of their Luxury Apartment campaign on Easter Weekend,
when the footfall past these apartments would be at it’s highest.
Before the weekend Alexander’s designed a simple image slideshow featuring
photos of the inside and outside of the apartments. The slideshow was loaded onto
the device through the Huetouch web-portal and then the Bluetooth device was
placed in one of the properties and left for the weekend.
During the Easter Weekend the Bluetooth device would contact passing mobile
phones and offer the free slideshow. If the mobile phone owner ignored or denied
the request they would not be contacted again, if they accepted the request they
would be able to quickly download the free slideshow from the Bluetooth device from
as far away as 100 metres.
Success
The Bluetooth device was in place for three days and during this time it delivered the
slideshow to 1,739 mobile phones, which resulted in 50 enquiries, 20 viewings and 2
sales.
Derek Ross from Alexander’s said:
“Through using the Huetouch device we were able to reach potential
customers who otherwise may not have been aware that the properties near
to them were for sale. The results of our Easter Weekend campaign were
phenomenal and the feedback from the public was very positive, they
especially liked the lack of printed materials and the ease of which they were
able to receive the details.
Working with Huetouch was very easy, they went above and beyond the call
of duty to ensure that our campaign was a success and we are now planning
a longer campaign based on the success of the first one.”

Bluetooth Range

Bluetooth works over distances of between 10 metres or 100 metres, depending on the Bluetooth device class.

It’s important to consider how far away users will be able to see the call to action.
For example, it shouldn’t be visible at a distance farther than what the Bluetooth node can transmit, or else users may become frustrated trying to connect to a node that’s out of range. (Formore information about device classes, visit
http://bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/Technology/Basics.htm.)

Note that although most Bluetooth nodes may be able to send content over 100 metres (320 feet), most handsets have an effective range of only 10 - 20 metres.

How to Deliver Bluetooth Campaigns by the MMA

Bluetooth hardware must be deployed at each location involved in a Bluetooth-based campaign.
This hardware may be a dedicated network appliance such as an access point, or it may be a PC
or other multi-function hardware device. This hardware is often networked in order to allow
remote configuration and control of the devices and update of content over time. For example, a
retailer could use a central server to push a new ad out to all of its stores’ Bluetooth nodes.
Bluetooth marketing companies can sell or lease the hardware and software to location owners,
as well as offer more comprehensive service provision including development of mobile content
and assurance of quality of service. They may also operate a network of locations, access to
which can be sold to advertisers and media companies.

There has been a significant amount of activity in providing Bluetooth-based infrastructure to
established out-of-home media owners, such as taxi media, cinemas and fixed site poster
companies, which have intuitively viewed Bluetooth as a value-added extension of their existing,
basic media channels.

Most mobile phones have three Bluetooth modes:

1. Off. The Bluetooth functionality is turned off. Bluetooth devices cannot be used with the
phone, and it will not be possible for proximity marketing systems to contact the phone.
2. On but hidden or non-discoverable. The Bluetooth functionality is on, but the phone
can pair only with devices – such as a Bluetooth headset – that the owner has identified
as “trusted.” The phone will be “invisible” to proximity marketing systems, which typically
do not use paired connections.
3. On and visible or discoverable. The Bluetooth functionality is on, and the phone is
visible to other Bluetooth devices. In this mode proximity marketing systems can contact
the user.

In order to receive any content, the recipient must first choose to enable the Bluetooth
connectivity on their handset and in addition make the device visible to others. The ability to make
their device invisible permits users of other Bluetooth functionality, such as headset pairing and
music players, to operate them without also opting in to third-party content offerings.
Additionally the recipient will be, as part of the Bluetooth protocol, prompted by a request
generated by their handset. This request appears as a pop-up alert (similar to the notification of
receipt of a new text message) and often is accompanied by a single beep or vibration. This alert
functions as a content- or campaign-specific opt-in mechanism and allows the consumer to
decline any offer of content. Some (but not all) Bluetooth delivery hardware can be configured so
that further alerts are not delivered to recipient devices after an opt-out has occurred, for a
specified period such as a day or for the length of a campaign.
As brands and marketers develop Bluetooth marketing campaigns, the MMA suggests consulting
with handset manufacturers because different manufacturers and/or handset models implement
Bluetooth slightly differently.

Bluetooth Marketing Case Study

Case Study Alexander’s Estate Agents

Situation
Alexander’s Estate Agent is an independently owned Estate Agent in Aberystwyth,
their branch is well positioned near to the centre of the town centre and has
established a good reputation in mid-Wales.

In the spring of 2008 Alexander’s had a range of sea-facing luxury apartments to
market and were looking at options on how they could maximise the footfall past
these properties and increase enquiries in the process.

Solution
After a consultation period with Huetouch, Alexander’s implemented a Huetouch
Bluetooth device that would sit within the luxury apartments and beam pictures of the properties to mobile phones within a 100 metre radius.

This would form the basis of their Luxury Apartment campaign on Easter Weekend,
when the footfall past these apartments would be at it’s highest.

Before the weekend Alexander’s designed a simple image slideshow featuring
photos of the inside and outside of the apartments. The slideshow was loaded onto
the device through the Huetouch web-portal and then the Bluetooth device was
placed in one of the properties and left for the weekend.

During the Easter Weekend the Bluetooth device would contact passing mobile
phones and offer the free slideshow. If the mobile phone owner ignored or denied
the request they would not be contacted again, if they accepted the request they
would be able to quickly download the free slideshow from the Bluetooth device from
as far away as 100 metres.

Success
The Bluetooth device was in place for three days and during this time it delivered the slideshow to 1,739 mobile phones, which resulted in 50 enquiries, 20 viewings and 2 sales.

Derek Ross from Alexander’s said:
“Through using the Huetouch device we were able to reach potential
customers who otherwise may not have been aware that the properties near
to them were for sale. The results of our Easter Weekend campaign were
phenomenal and the feedback from the public was very positive, they
especially liked the lack of printed materials and the ease of which they were
able to receive the details.

Working with Huetouch was very easy, they went above and beyond the call
of duty to ensure that our campaign was a success and we are now planning
a longer campaign based on the success of the first one.”

Bluetooth Server software for Bluegiga

UK based Huetouch ltd have created the first white label interface for proximity marketing using a specially design solution for the Bluegiga BSM server.

This innovation gives resellers such as marketing companies and creative design companies the ability to create Bluetooth campaigns that can be remotely managed on the Bluegiga access server family, without then need of any technical knowledge themselves.

Nicholas Maguire MD of Huetouch Ltd said “ We believe there are many advertising and marketing companies that would like to offer Bluetooth Marketing in there campaigns, but have been put off by the technical challenges of configuration and deployment. With the new HUE Live platform these organisations can concentrate on delivering effective campaigns whilst the Huetouch platform takes care of all the technical configuration.”

The management interface can be customised by resellers as their own enabling their customers to login and view success statistics, configure campaigns in real-time and mange Bluetooth Zones anywhere in the world.

Huetouch are activly recruting new resellers of both its hardware and software solutions accross the globe, see www.huetouch.com for more detials.

Marketing Companies get their TEETH into Bluetooth

Huetouch Ltd today used The Mobile Retailing Conference in London to launch their white label Bluetooth technology; opening proximity marketing to creative agencies across Europe.

Huetouch has developed a simple technology that sends free content to phones within defined geographical ‘zones’ whilst lowering the barriers to entry through offering a customised management portal for resellers.

Nicholas Maguire, Huetouch CEO, said:

“We’ve been approached by many marketing agencies who have wanted to include mobile offerings within their campaigns but have been inhibited by the technical and financial barriers of entry.

By opening our solution as a White Label service Marketing Companies are now able to offer a Bluetooth service simply and cost-effectively to their customers.”

Brands are using Mobile Marketing as a key differentiator in customer interaction and retention, with the recent popularity in SMS, MMS and other mobile applications, Bluetooth marketing with its ease of deployment and low costs is set to be the next step in the evolution of mobile interactivity.

The White Label reseller option offers a fully integrated Bluetooth package including full product training, custom branded management portal for customers, 2nd line technical support, dedicated Channel Account Manager and a complete range of high margin product solutions.

My Church NEEDS one of those (Mcnoot)

Its not only large organisations that are using Bluetooth Proximity Marketing, but even local churches are using the latest communication techniques to contact mobile phones.

See details of a great award that txttouch won:

An innovative Bluetooth product is the first ever winner of the Christian Award entitled: “My Church Needs One of Those” or “McNoot”, which promises to bring the church directly to your mobile phone.

Developed by mobile technology company ‘txttouch’, the “Gabriel Communicator” is a portable device that enables churches to deliver messages directly onto mobile phones within 100 meters, for free. Message content is loaded onto the Gabriel Communicator which can include digital tracts, mp3’s, video or any multimedia accepted by mobile phones. Using ‘Gabriel’ churches can publicise events, evangelise, deliver sermon notes and in turn make their message viral.

Txttouch Managing Director Nicholas Maguire was at the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) at Sandown Park to accept the award and said:

“It is a great honour to be presented with this award. Churches are recognising that it is not enough to have a relevant message; they need a relevant medium in which to communicate their message. Using the Gabriel Communicator Churches now have a way to deliver messages to people in a way that is none intrusive, environmentally friendly and free.”

The Gabriel Communicator was unanimously voted by the panel of judges as the product that every Church needs; seeing off all other competition in the process including the popular Christian website GodTube.com which attracts over 27million hits every month.

This award comes off the back of Joel Edwards the General Director of the Evangelical Alliance using the Gabriel Communicator in his latest UK tour: “Agenda for Change”. Mr Edwards said:

“Biblical witness is not called to tip-toe through the 21st century, but to transform society by presenting Christ credibly to the culture. Mobile communications is one important tool that Churches need to be considering.”

Mr Maguire added:
“We have been helping Churches to adopt Bluetooth and SMS texting technology for parish notices, youth group alerts, social events and outreach. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. It is our desire to see Churches becoming early adopters of new technology so that they can present themselves in a culturally relevant way.”

Joel Edwards began his “Agenda for Change” tour on April 22nd at St. Andrew’s URC in Canterbury, for further details please visit www.anagendaforchange.com or for more details on The Gabriel Communicator and SMS for churches visit www.txttouch.com

The Tycoon Talks

Real Estate Industry article from The Estate Agency Times, with Textboards MD Nicholas Maguire, Mobile phone expert. Talking about software solutions for estate agents and giving an example of Bluetooth Marketing as an online rapid application for generatic maxium sales leads and enquiries.

Bluetooth marketing success for Advantage

(28 March 2008)

A Bluetooth marketing system trialled by Advantage has been hailed an initial success and could be rolled out across the membership.

Bill McCarthy Travel in Bathgate, West Lothian, worked with technology company Accelerated Internet Marketing Systemsover a three-month period to target potential customers browsing offers in the shop window.

Customers who have Bluetooth on their mobile phones received a message asking if they would like to be sent offers from the agency. If they accepted, they were sent text, pictures and video.

Bill McCarthy Travel managing director Douglas McCarthy will now use the system to promote his new website in2sun.com.

He said: "Sending out messages is a good way of making customers who are just browsing window offers actually come in and speak to us. The trial went well but we need to work on building awareness of the service."

This month the campaign has had a 57% success rate, with 2,384 customers out of 4,211 accepting the message, which offered 50% off cruise bookings.

AIMS director Ian Barclay said: "Travel agents need to find innovative ways to communicate to their customers.

About 35% of Bluetooth users have it turned on all the time, but agents can access a bigger audience by putting a big graphic in the window and making sure customers know it's of benefit to them."

He advised agents to use generic offers, such as 10% off package holiday bookings, rather than specific deals.

Advantage is to make a decision next month on whether to roll out the service.

by Chloe Berman

BBC Radio 4 clip with the Mobile Expert on Bluetooth Marketing for Churches

Listen to this Radio interview with Nicholas Maguire the Mobile Expert on BBC Radio 4, for their Sunday Morning religious affairs show. Talking about how Bluetooth Marketing from txttouch is being used in Churches as a new form of evangelism.

BBC Radio Leicester interview with The Mobile Expert

In January 2008 Radio Leicester did an interview with the Mobile Expert Nicholas Maguire on how the "Gabriel Communicator" from txttouch which is a Bluetooth Marketing product for churches, to discuss how mobile technology could be used to keep churches culturally relevant.

As the founder of txttouch Nicholas was well positioned to answer their sector specific questions on text messaging, Bluetooth Marketing and other mobile phone matters.