April 3, 2007

HSBC sends Mobile Ads via Bluetooth

by Dhiram Shah

If you ever passed by the two London offices of the HSBC bank at Regent Street and Canary Wharf (since the beginning of this year) and had your Bluetooth on, you would have noticed the mobile ads sent to your phone by them. The trial run of the ads will come to an end this week. Using a small box installed in the branch that scans for passing mobile phones that had the Bluetooth capability switched on, the box then sent a message asking if the person would like to receive a promotional message from the bank. If the person answers ‘yes’ the ad (regarding the ‘Individual Savings Accounts’) is sent to their mobile.

The only downside we see is that not many people keep the Bluetooth on as it sucks up the battery.
Soure