T-Mobile trialling Bluetooth technology advertising

T-Mobile today announces that it is trialling Bluetooth as part of a campaign to encourage more people into its stores. Piloting the scheme at six stores across the country, passers by will be prompted to enable Bluetooth on their mobile phones to receive T-Mobile offers and deals.

The activity, known as ˜Proximity Marketing’, will be run in conjunction with Hypertag, a provider of proximity solutions. Hypertag has installed Bluetooth tags in the six T-Mobile stores, which send out invites to pick up a free gift and promotional offers to customers’ Bluetooth-enabled phones as they pass the store. Graphics in the shop windows also prompt customers to turn on their Bluetooth to receive the offers, which cost nothing to receive.

Once in-store, customers will receive additional information on what their gift actually is or further details on the promotions via Bluetooth.

Proximity marketing is a really great way for T-Mobile to engage with their customers, providing offers suited to their interests, says Elaine Haines, Commercial Director at Hypertag. It allows brands to stand out and catch the consumer’s eye at the right place and time, and measure the results.

During the trial “ which lasts for one month “ T-Mobile will continually monitor customers’ responses to the individual promotions trialling different messages. Based on the results from the pilot, the scheme could be extended to other T-Mobile stores nationwide.

In the last two weeks, customer response has been promising, according to T-Mobile. We can see an increase in footfall and sales data is positive too. And customers are positively surprised when they have interacted with the Bluetooth device, says Eugenia Rode, Multimedia Manager responsible for the trial.

We’re very excited to be trialling this new way to connect with our customers, says Andrew Coull, Director of Retail at T-Mobile. We see ˜Proximity Marketing’ as an innovative and more targeted way of interacting with our customers, and we hope that they will also see the benefits, as we share with them the information and unique offers which they will be interested in.

via Press Release