When Wasting The Time Of 85% Of People You Spam Is Considered A Success

from the flip-those-numbers-please... dept

There was a lot of hype recently about the various mobile phone promotions used by the extremely popular band Coldplay. It started with a plan to release their new songs as ringtones before the music was released elsewhere. That made very little sense, as the reason people buy ringtones is because they like the song -- not to hear the song for the first time in short segments whenever someone calls you. Then, they moved on to try something they called "Bluecasting." The way it works is they set up a Bluetooth enabled machine somewhere public, and when people walk by with Bluetooth-enabled phones that associate with the server, a message is sent, asking the recipient if they'd like to download content from the band. You're probably a bit ahead of the marketers on this one, because you, like most people, are probably realizing that this whole thing sounds a lot more like Bluespamming than Bluecasting. Anyway, now that the promotion is done, the folks behind it are absolutely thrilled that they got such a positive response. How positive? 15% of those spammed responded, which means that they pissed off 85% of the people they spammed with a promotion on their mobile phone they didn't want. That's success?
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Tim, 5 Aug 2005 @ 2:39am

    No Subject Given

    Does this mean it's a good thing I keep my moobile in `hidden' bluetooth mode, lest I be had-up for public order offence of kicking the living daylights out of a bit of hardware for spamming me? :P

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    thecaptain, 5 Aug 2005 @ 4:53am

    No Subject Given

    In marketting speak its a HUGE success.

    One more symptom of what's grossly wrong with the industry.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2005 @ 7:27am

    Re: No Subject Given

    Come on, guys. If they didn't harass everyone walking by, Coldplay would only sell 3 bagillion records. Those poor guys need to eat, too.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.