The system, run in partnership with Peel Advertising and Bluepod Media is being trialled at the moment after a successful run at Birmingham’s Bullring and may be extended to Liverpool John Lennon airport.

In addition to being a marketing tool, it also generates income for the provider by allowing third parties to advertise. In the shopping centres that could be anything from film and music clips to barcodes that can be swiped in-store for special offers.

So far they’ve sent a quarter of a million messages out to phones, with 70,000 people accepting the advertising.

The system was demonstrated two years ago at Manchester’s In the City music convention, where panellists at the Midland Hotel could receive information on conferences and bands direct to their media devices.

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Comments (3)

1  By peter , on 16-05-2008 11:58 It is a great idea, been around for ages, but do you really want to receive advertisng on your phone everytime you enter the Trafford Centre? Its great for people with no friends though, gives them a warm feeling that someone has texted them.  Best bet though, turn your bluetooth off. Report

3  By Petros , on 19-05-2008 08:18 Dont even bother with a trail. This is a very sucessful method of customer communictaion and powerful CRM tool for those that want it. Our companay has been doing this since 2005 and our business has grown exponentially. The trick is to keep content relevant and give lots of freebies via the medium. I love it when guys like Peter refuse to accept a BT message ---- do that in South African and you miss out on free movie tickets and massive promotions. Most recently a mall client of our gave away a car via Bluetooth. BT is good for certain customer classes not everyone. Our company averages about 60 000 downloads a month across 23 malls in SA. Report