Comments on: About Bluetooth Advertising in Kuwait

By: Manik

Manik — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 05:28:07 +0000

Hey,
about this bluetooth advertising…anyone considered whether its a secure medium or not? for instance in my phone to accept a bluetooth message from someone all i see is the guy’s bluetooth name! is there anyway to know that the bluetooth message that one would get is not a virus? whats a MAC address?

By: Carlsb3rg

Carlsb3rg — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 15:21:15 +0000

Discounts would be cool. How about a random draw for a prize? Randomly pick a device and send them a message for winning a prize(movie tickets/discounts/etc). This would be an incentive to make people keep their bluetooths on and make them accept messages.

By: mooodi

mooodi — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:37:58 +0000

Porn would be a start..

No seriously, could start off with vouchers, which is a sure way to see if customers take the ads seriously. I’d use MSN Messenger if you had a strict/clear data collection policy.
Decent movie trailers would be okay, but funny clips, ringtones, games and all that rubbish would make you seem unproffesstional.

As a sidenote, maintain strict regulations and it might be accepted well.

By: Raj

Raj — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 09:38:46 +0000

The concerns that people have regarding privacy are quite valid, but it’s worth noting that we can track bluetooth ID’s, but not phone numbers. Also, the fact that we can track it and see that you don’t want to accept messages over a period of time will help us control spam. The mobile operators on the other hand can track your mobile phone number to within a few meters, across the entire country. At least you can opt-out of our medium without having to call a number. With SMS you cannot. Plus, this tool is very important for advertisers because for the first time it let’s them see who accepted their message and who rejected. With this information we hope that companies will seek to actually improve the quality of advertising. Also, Moodi’s comment that other companies may decide to spam users’ is very possible, which is why my company is in the process of signing up all the major locations so that we can standardize this medium as much as possible. Can people on this forum give me an idea as to what they would like to receive via Bluetooth (i.e. vouchers, discounts, funny films, movie trailers, etc.) If we were to offer you MSN chat via bluetooth in our locations, would you use it?

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:43:56 +0000

government legislation required….

bah, dream on

By: mooodi

mooodi — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:24:30 +0000

Okay fine, these dudes might have some self respect and not dump more than 3 bluetooth ads a week, but what if another company decides to jump the wagon?

By: dotone

dotone — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 02:41:38 +0000

Now that’s spam but in a way it could become a data bank for storing real consumer behavior at shopping malls and loging accordingly; leading to User Behavior Marketing later in the mall. So it becomes an information black market later instead of an ad revenue stream/source.

Remember annonymous browsing and IP masking on ur PCs? get ur gear on for ur mobile experience now! Snoop up!

By: Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 19:47:42 +0000

or even better

use carrier pigeons, technology is overrated

By: KtheKuwaiti

KtheKuwaiti — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 19:32:46 +0000

Kids,
Stick your phone in non-discovery mode .. it doesnt show up when you search publically and pre-authorized blutooth devices can still pair (Car/headset/laptop).

By: cyberrowdy

cyberrowdy — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:30:36 +0000

call 777 …lol

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:33:26 +0000

yes but your phones bluetooth is still on. so when u come back u click the headset button and its paired. some models they get paired while in range.

but if your phones bluetooth is off then you have to turn it back on which with my phone is a 3 button process and i know with some nokias a longer process and then also click the headset button… too complicated and a big hassel just to avoid ads on my phone which i never approved to receive.

By: Carlsb3rg

Carlsb3rg — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:09:03 +0000

when you go out of range you are considered OFF for the headset

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 13:25:05 +0000

You are not making sense. Turning bluetooth off means turning bluetooth off. To do that you have to go into the menu and manually turn it off.

When you go out of range bluetooth is still ON, it doesnt get turned off so going out of range is not the same as turning it off because bluetooth is still on.

By: Carlsb3rg

Carlsb3rg — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 13:22:42 +0000

Dude, I’m saying that if you go out of range it’s the same as turning it OFF, so by really turning it OFF, you also avoid ads.. you getting what i’m saying?

Well okay maybe technically it’s spam, but it’s not as bad as email spam, at least the way raj described it. Of course it could be worse later.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:21:23 +0000

carl when u go out of range u dont turn bluetooth off… it stays on.

Email SPAM and bluetooth ads are the exact same thing. As long as you are getting the ads without your permission thats SPAM.

SMS Spam is as bad as bluetooth ads can be and as bad as email spam is.