Bluecasting, a UK-developed proximity marketing system, will begin fixed server installation next month to begin wide-scale proximity marketing roll-outs, says Gerald Yapp, partner at Bluecasting SA.
Bluecasting allows for multimedia promotional content to be sent to Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices within range of the transmitter.
The first Bluecasting marketing exercise in SA was at the launch of the Coca-Cola limited edition bottle design in Cape Town on 28 December.
Demo Bluecasting servers installed for the event proved to be successful in delivering promotional multimedia content to cellphones, personal digital assistants and laptops at the launch, says Yapp.
He says Bluecasting SA plans to install servers throughout the country at shopping centres, sports stadiums, night clubs, restaurants, movie theatres, billboards and municipal offices to allow targeted multimedia marketing.
"The servers are quick to install," he says, "we can put them up for special sports events and then take them down afterwards, for instance."
Bluecasting servers have a line-of-sight range of 250m, but Yapp adds that in densely-built areas such as shopping centres it would probably be around 100m.
Tracking systems based on each device`s Bluetooth ID code mean that user profiles can be compiled, and that the same advert will not be sent to the same phone more than once.
"Consumers can also choose whether or not they wish to receive a message," he says.
He adds that so far the only problems encountered have been with sending messages to one or two handheld devices that run on Bluetooth 1, but that in general compatibility has not been an issue.
Messages can be sent as text files, GIF or JPG images, animated GIFs, audio files (WAV or MP3 for instance) and video clips in 3GP format.
Yapp declined to reveal the identity of the clients who have expressed interest in Bluecasting so far.
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