Coming Soon To A Phone Near You
The Age
Thursday August 30, 2007
BLUETOOTH mobile marketing is proving that you can, after all, get something for nothing - even if it isn't lunch.Using the short-range wireless technology that allows mobiles to send and receive data, film companies are offering free mobile downloads of movie trailers, screensavers and ring tones via AURA Interactive's public content hubs.
AURA's sales and marketing director, Adam Dunne, says the "BlueZones network" of 150 locations across CBD streets, shopping centres and now Hoyts cinemas, make Australia the largest Bluetooth network in the southern hemisphere.As Australia's mobile marketing pioneer, AURA has recently doubled its revenue with a growing list of clients. With 90 per cent of mobile phones sold in the last year now equipped with Bluetooth, Mr Dunne says the platform is gaining recognition as a powerful sales tool."Bluetooth is such an underrated technology, but marketers are waking up to the possibilities. The mobile has become your lifestyle remote control - your primary communication device, a way to find out what's going on around you and get information on demand," says Mr Dunne. With several marketing awards driving its credentials, including ADMA's 2006 Mobile Marketer of the Year award, AURA is championing interactive marketing as a way to reach an increasingly elusive audience, especially young people on the move.Film distributors like Paramount Pictures are starting to use Bluetooth to preview films like Transformers, which received 54,000 downloads from shopping centres and public kiosks.Ford used the technology at the Australian International Motor Show to offer images, video and sound effects for its range of vehicles.Since Hoyts debuted its mobile content stands this month, the free videos, animated screensavers and calendar reminders for upcoming film releases have been hugely popular. "The Hoyts national network just went live and over the first weekend there were 5000 interactions a day. Our projections were for the network to do 150,000 a month but we hit that on day one - it's much bigger than we expected," says Mr Dunne.Hoyts has also included customer relationship management (CRM) solutions via the mobile, offering discounts for the candy bar and return cinema visits."The science of their solution is around CRM, so they're trying to increase spend and frequency of visitation through the delivery of this rich, valuable content. Redemption rates are huge, at over 50 per cent." AURA's marketing director says the key to continuing success is a permission-based model that assures consumers of privacy, respect and no charges."We heavily brand everything we do with the word 'free', and reinforce the fact that we're not capturing any personal information, or locking them into a subscription where they're spammed. Australia has very strict permission guidelines with mobile marketing, so it's incredibly unlikely that we'll see the same spam problems that we've seen with email."Mr Dunne says what's most exciting about Bluetooth marketing is the interactivity it has brought to out-of-home media, where static billboards are increasingly being overshadowed by high-tech street furniture. He says the "bells and whistles" are also easily measured, providing brands with return on investment."The mobile provides full metrics on how many times, how often and what times of the day people interact, which is bringing a really good return on investment."
© 2007 The Age
