Bluetooth's coming home

Footy fans to get pushed advertising

Posted in Mobile, 11th January 2008 16:30 GMT

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Footy fans at a number of clubs will soon be able to enjoy adverts downloaded direct to their mobile phones over a Bluetooth connection, courtesy of promotional company Bluepod.

Fans at Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City, West Ham, Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic, Wolves, and Celtic will be able to opt in to receive transmissions, which will come in the form of video and audio as well as text messages, and include information about club fixtures and club profiles along with advertising.

Bluepod reckons that fans hanging around on the terraces are an ideal target for entertaining advertisements, and cite a recent trial at Portsmouth that saw over 6,000 fans downloading a movie trailer from a crowd of about 20,000.

Given that advertisers will, apparently, pay between 40 and 70 pence per download, that's not a bad day's work for Bluepod.

The content comes from tiny servers, called Bluepods, which just connect to the mains and get their updates wirelessly. Bluepods have already been installed in Vue, Cineworld and Showcase cinemas, and were used with great success to promote LG's Viewty phone.

To receive the content punters obviously need a Bluetooth phone which also needs to be visible, so installations are accompanied by enormous posters suggesting people get that set up to opt into the service. ®

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