Some information on using Bluetooth technology in marketing campaigns including the Sky Lost case study in Victoria Station. Published by Douglas McDonald

There tends to be a fair amount of confusion within the marketing community about how new technologies should be integrated in to promotional campaigns. This is usually because the people selling the technology are “techies” and the people responsible for the campaigns are not. Bluetooth is a prime example: technical people will sell in technology in some cases without a real understanding of consumer experiences or the objectives of the brand.

Thankfully, this is not always the case – the recent Bluetooth promotion for Lost at Victoria station is a fantastic example of when it’s done well. The campaign was to promote the new series of Lost that is now running on Sky One, and part of the objective was to get exclusive content onto consumers’ mobile phones. In many cases Bluetooth marketing is a kind of “stealth” campaign, whereby innocent members of the public suddenly get a bleep from their mobile phone. They then think “Ah, that’ll be an SMS from my wife,” or whoever. But it turns out to be a message asking them to “pair” their device with a Bluetooth station, which tries to give them something that they hadn’t asked for.

In marked contrast to that experience, the Lost Bluetooth promotion was supported by highly visible awareness components that couldn’t be missed. The creative execution was excellent, providing great branding for Sky One and communicating effectively with all the commuters going by that the series was about to start. There were posters and postcards explaining exactly what was going on and a massive “Bluetooth Zone” marked out in a big circle on the ground. A consumer saw the posters, got the postcard – and here’s the good bit – decided to go into the Zone out of curiosity or because they actively wanted to get the content that was available.

Once they were in the Zone with Bluetooth turned on they were treated to a 30 second video of an exclusive interview that talked about the show. The content was unlocked, showing that there was an understanding of its potential viral nature. It will be Bluetoothed to friends, stuck up on the internet and provide some longevity to the campaign – a fair amount of time after the promo posters have been recycled.

To be honest, however, the content itself was the only bit that let the experience down. The interview just wasn’t that interesting and people who were hoping for an inside scoop on the new series were in for a bit of a disappointment. This was a perfect opportunity to provide some clips from future episodes and either demystify the plot, or more likely add to the questions that most fans have regarding what will happen in the show. The campaign would have had much more viral and “chat” value if it had provided content that genuinely couldn’t be found anywhere else.

So what can we take from all this? The first thing is that Bluetooth is really a delivery channel as opposed to a communications channel. As long as you put together a good communication strategy and explain things clearly to consumers, you can use Bluetooth to create a good experience with true benefit to the brand. If you try to sneak stuff onto people’s phones, they’ll get annoyed and take a dim view of that brand. Consumers do not discriminate between a spam SMS and a “spam” pairing request from a Bluetooth station.

A final word of warning. Bluetooth is currently not regarded as an unsolicited marketing message. Last year it was decided that, because Bluetooth does not use a “public electronics communications network” to send its signals, it’s not illegal. However, that doesn’t mean that the powers that be are going to definitely leave things as they are. In that decision on the guidelines, the Information Commissioners Office added: “It is for government to decide whether the law should be changed to cover such marketing.”

Bluetooth, therefore, may be on a bit of medium-term borrowed time. If loads of companies and marketers start to use it and it begins to “pollute” our public spaces, you can bet that the law will be changed to ban it. Similarly, if consumers are getting bombarded with badly executed campaigns then, guess what? No-one will turn Bluetooth on!

So, if you are thinking of running a good campaign using Bluetooth as a delivery method, you’d better do it in 2008!