The other day I was in Borders in Oxford Street having a bit of a wander after work looking at books and so on, when I had a look at my mobile phone and realised that I’d been sent a midi file of Krafty by New Order. I’m on a few junk text message lists, and it’s possible that I once gave my phone number to a record company that are now pushing ringtones and the like to get me to buy New Order’s new album. I just hoped that I hadn’t been charged three quid for a ringtone (Incidentally, why do people pay so much for ringtones when the actual tracks only cost 79p each at Itunes?).
I was back in Oxford Street today and I realised what had happened. I didn’t get sent the ringtone by the record company – I got it from a window display in HMV. There’s a big ad for the New Order album in the HMV’s window and I’d noticed it a couple of times over the last week or so. What I hadn’t noticed was that in the middle of poster there’s a “hole” where you point your mobile phone to receive an audio demo by infra-red. How did I receive the ringtone via infra-red without knowing? I didn’t. It’s also being pushed via Bluetooth. Before I visited Borders, I stopped by in HMV, and must have spent enough time browsing near the front of the store for the data to reach my phone. I still had to choose “Accept” but I did so the previous week out of curiosity, and in any case, if you’ve got it on your phone, you’ve been charged at that point anyway.
All in all, it adds up to a very clever marketing idea. Possibly not new, but something that’ll be used more and more I’ve no doubt.
I’ve only recently got a phone with Bluetooth and I’m still a little new to it, but a brief “look” around in a pub the other week brought at least ten other phones in close enough proximity. I still haven’t tried bluejacking though.