Category — bluetooth

Petros Kondos was way ahead of his time.  Well before smartphones, mobile apps and even the mobile web Petros recognized the potential of mobile phones for not just marketing, but customer relationship management programs. He was effectively one  of the pioneers of location based marketing (LBM).

Using the power of bluetooth for good (permission based) and not evil (what we used to call bluespam) he was an example for the rest of the world to follow.  I first learned about his company in 2007 while in Barcelona for the World Mobile Congress and followed with great interest as he got 50 of the biggest malls in South Africa as well as several banks, automotive dealerships and other retail centers on to his bluetooth marketing system.

We exchanged emails over the years and I had the opportunity to meet him two years ago when he was in Toronto scouting out a possible relocation and partnership with a Canadian bluetooth marketing company.  Since then he has shut down his business and wrote a book about his experience from start to finish. You can find it on Amazon.

I really enjoyed his book and took away a few things: 

1) His marketing instincts led him to create an amazing CRM  product based on Bluetooth – but instead of staying true to his marketing roots he eventually became a Bluetooth company that did marketing and not the other way around. This ultimately held him back from evolving & expanding beyond Bluetooth early enough as he was too heavily invested to abandon it or to invest in other emerging mobile engagement mechanisms.

2) Over the last few years his marketing instincts led him to the development of a revolutionary product that leverages the signals from all Bluetooth devices to more accurately map and track foot traffic in retail – by the minute.  When I learned about this two years ago I was working for a promotional marketing company that specialized in shopper marketing who would have salivated for this type of tool in their tool box.  Before I could more seriously validate and explore an implementation in Toronto I was recruited away to RIM.

3) Mobile marketers today who are only now figuring out location based marketing as part of their marketing mix using mobile Apps that leverage GPS or by leveraging mobile triggers such as QR codes could learn a lot from Petros on how to make it relevant in retail and how it fits into the broader promotional or marketing mix

Although when I think of location based marketing today I mostly think about the gamification of loyalty programs through the likes of foursquare, the future of LBM is exciting. With NFC becoming standard on mobile devices, mass adoption of 2d code readers and even the evolution of the bluetooth standard to leverage and incorporate wifi all point to a future of mobile marketing that goes beyond a banner Ad.

Although some have called bluetooth marketing “blue spam” marketing, WCIT has taken an approach that should be considered best practice – they have bluetooth zones setup in malls that encourage consumers to register & make their devices discoverable. In return,  consumers who enter the zone can download something of value to their mobile device (like a mall catalogue of sales, store locator etc…) and don’t feel like they are being disrupted at random.

Permission based bluetooth marketing can be a great extension of your digital, mobile, or multi-channel campaign.

Petros Kondos from WCIT contacted me earlier this week with a new use for bluetooth systems – they can also be used as advanced foot counting systems. Having installed new systems in 25 malls already,  WCIT is now also using their system to count foot traffic in malls and have validated their approach as being more accurate than traditional foot traffic measuring systems.

Each mobile device has a unique bluetooth ID which does not contain any personal information or even a link to the mobile number. The consumer is therefore anonymous to the system – although track-able throughout a period of time. This means their system will not count the same person twice – but at the same time they can track where that consumer walks within the mall itself.  Although the best retailers have their own shopper marketing strategy & zones within their space, having an additional layer of data to validate behaviour would be very valuable.

Shopper marketing professionals would jump through hoops of fire to get such detailed & accurate customer analytic information.

The BlueTrac system tracks:

• Number of times the same mobile device returns to a specific mall / store within a day, week, or month
• Time of visit
• Amount of time spent in one area
• Entry and departure times
• Patterns of customer visits

The system can also learn to distinguish between consumers and mall staff – so the data can be segmented accordingly.

Comparative research around this technology and customer volumes in malls has produced accurate extrapolations to include total customer volumes within retail spaces. On the basis of detected bluetooth devices, BlueTrace can indicate total customer footfall within a mall or specific retail area within a given period.

A secondary useful stat that came out of this study is that on average 7% of all consumers entering the mall had a mobile device that was bluetooth enabled and activated.

Although the data relates to the South African market, it’s still directional relevant for the Canadian market.  We know through local bluetooth network Broadburst that of those who have bluetooth devices that are activated, around 3% respond to bluetooth requests within their network – still far above traditional media responses.

California is the latest U.S. state to require hands free use of mobile phones while driving. What happens in California usually happens in Canada – although usually about 18-24 months later.

Safety first… and now look at all the other things you can do while your at it.