Yesterday I came across two Bluetooth billboard campaigns I remembered seeing a few years ago. They both share similar qualities using a bit of mystery to (hopefully) intrigue the consumer into interacting with the brand. However being in public areas they could easily be seen as being intrusive and offensive rather than creative and innovative. More detail about each of the campaigns below:

Schiesser “Mystery” Underwear Campaign:

First is the ‘Mystery’ billboard by underwear company Shiesser. The billboard features a sketched silhouette of a woman with the line “The prettiest things are hidden from view“.

Then when you activate your Bluetooth you get sent the Schiesser Showroom Application which displays a catalogue of models in lingerie, thus filling out the silhouette. Agency: Mindmatics

Big Brother “Big Brother is watching” Campaign:

Next is the Big Brother campaign in Australia to promote the launch of the new series on TV. Bluetooth transmitters were installed into 20 high footfall bus shelters around town. Two messages were sent to people nearby (as a .txt file).

The first message is targeted for the location, with something along the lines of “Im watching u. Ur at the (customised current location)”. The second message is received 30-40 seconds later with the big reveal, saying “Big Brother is back. 7 PM weeknights on TEN”.

The campaigns theme is based around the Big Brother slogan “Big Brother is watching” hence the stalker style message. Agency: Marketforce

Quick Background On Bluetooth Marketing

Bluetooth Marketing (also known as Proximity Marketing) is distributing content via Bluetooth transmitters, usually in billboards, shop displays or hidden out of sight. You can send any type of file to a mobile, whether you can open it or not depends if it’s compatible with your handset. Files are usually video, audio, images and applications – the speed of Bluetooth means you can generally send 1mb files in seconds which makes it such a attractive method of mobile advertising. It is free to send and receive files and no personal information about the user is divulged. It works in exactly the same way as peer to peer Bluetooth, which means you can either accept of reject the file transfer.

Innovative Or Intrusive?

So as you can see these could either be seen as smart bits of advertising…or two billboards sending random members of the public pictures of ladies in pants or stalker messages scaring them to death. Read More