Instead of broadcasting content to every Bluetooth device within 40 meters, the new Touchpoint system only delivers content to consumers who place their Bluetooth cell phone within a few centimetres of an interactive surface. Fiat first used the system in February this year at the Melbourne Motorshow to promote the launch of the new Fiat Punto. The back wall of the Fiat stand was transformed into an 'interactive zone' with four Touchpoints, each delivering different content.

Breeze Tech developed their Touchpoint product to complement their existing Breeze Broadcast system (which automatically sends digital content to Bluetooth devices within a 40m range) and give brands the option of either pushing content to consumers' phones or letting the consumer actively download information.

Gregor Isbister, founder of UK-based Breeze Tech said: "Some brands are reluctant to use Bluetooth in their marketing mix because of the push nature of the technology. We developed the Breeze Touchpoints to offer our clients the option of using an 'opt-in' based Bluetooth marketing approach. While many of our clients use our Broadcast System to automatically deliver content to handsets, we are now able to push or pull content to consumers depending on the campaign requirements of each individual client. Our technology is about giving marketers choice."

The Touchpoint product also overcomes some of the limitations of automatically pushing content to consumers - for example, Motorola phones (14% of the handset market) don't work well with Bluetooth push systems as their phones automatically switch their Bluetooth to 'invisible' after 60 seconds of activating, meaning Bluetooth push systems cannot see the device. In addition, some manufacturers are now shipping Bluetooth handsets that require the exchange of PIN codes before it is possible to accept files.
 

However Breeze Touchpoints overcome this issue as consumers can follow the simple instructions on the Touchpoint to pair their device to receive content. Furthermore, some Bluetooth push marketing hardware is not set up with handset recognition capability, which puts into question the results of campaigns using such hardware. Gregor said: "Of the 317 Bluetooth enabled handsets only 57 (17%) can playback video. Bluetooth marketing systems that cannot identify handset models will send video content to all phones, and count this as a successful transfer, but only a fraction of consumers can view the message - the rest will be left with an 'unrecognised file' error on their phone. Both our Touchpoint and Broadcast products have handset recognition ensuring we can send compatible content to phones, for example if a phone is unable to play a video clip, we will send an image instead. We are therefore able to report on the actual number of consumers who have viewed the content, not the number of 'successful transfers'."

Breeze Tech is currently working with outdoor companies to implement Touchpoints in six sheet poster sites. The technology can be changed from a Touchpoint to a Broadcast system on a campaign basis.

Report: Breeze Tech