Broadcasting and Advertising - Why is the Dog's Nose is Cold

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. That is the principal difference between a dog and a man

Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar

It seems that I spoke too soon. People, one of the Big Three (3) Broadcasters has awoken from its slumber in response to the potential advertising loss being visited upon it by the trend of time shifting using DVR (Digital Video Recorders), watching DVD’s and WebTV as stated in the article “Survey of viewers shows extent of TV time shifting”, published Tuesday August 17, 6:53 am ET By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer, Yahoo! News.

This services is soon to be visited upon them by the launch of as-for-now-uncapped WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) Broadband service Digicel Broadband from Telecom Provider Digicel as stated in the article “Digicel goes 4G”, published Saturday, August 21, 2010 By ROSS SHEIL Online co-ordinator, The Jamaica Observer

Just in the nick of time too, as the RJR Communications Group was taking a beating in the form Second Quarter Losses in 2010 as stated in the article “RJR profits drop 53% in June Q”, published Friday, August 20, 2010, The Jamaica Observer.

The RJR Communications Group’s youngest child, Multimedia Jamaica Limited, has, in a flash of inspiration, a clear case of happenstance and experimentation (first ever for a local broadcaster!!) began beta testing a new technology called Direct Targeted Advertising based on Bluetooth powered technology by a company called BlueWave Caribbean from out of the United Kingdom, of all places!

This is a technology that I had previously hinted was possible in a previous series of in my blog articles entitled:

1.      Brown Dawg, a Mobile Social Network based on Mobile phones

2.      Brown Dawg and A So di Ting Set - An API tool for User preferences and avoid backlash

3.      Brown Dawg and I spy Rewards - Geo-Location rewards system for Mobile Social Networking

4.      Brown Dawg and Se'et Deh - Behavioural Targeted Marketing Ads

These set of proposals I had sent to Telecom Provider Digicel, but as usual with those techie-types, they showed no interest in researching the concept and experimenting with it as an additional source of revenue, which, in a twist of irony, the younger child of a very old broadcaster has decided to dabble.

By making that decision, the RJR Communications Group has become the first company in Jamaica and indeed the entire Caribbean to use this little know type of advertising known as Direct Targeted Advertising powered by Bluetooth as stated in the article “Bluetooth ads coming to cellphones soon”, published Wednesday, August 25, 2010 by Alicia Roache Business reporter, The Jamaica Observer

Bluewave Technologies is a very close cousin of Behavioral Targeted Advertising as stated in the article “Study: Like it or not, behavioral ad targeting works”, published March 24, 2010 9:01 AM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News – The Social ().

Wherein lies the difference? Behavioral Targeted Advertising is dependent on being a member of a Social Network that has geo-location e.g. FourSquare, who started this concept and FaceBook Places readily comes to mind. Both services that have the capability to push you targeted advertisements and offerings on your mobile smart phone based on your “likes” as selected on your Social Network.

Once you are in proximity of an advertiser based on your GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) location, your acceptance of the advertisement being recorded as a hit at the time of “check-in” to use this now prolific term originated by FourSquare, who started the trending towards geo-location.

Direct Targeted Advertising is also location based, but is unsolicited advertising and is more dependent on proximity of the customer to a fixed Wireless Network, be it a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), Bluetooth or Mobile Cellular Network to push advertising to a customer.

This is much in the same way Telecom Providers, without your prompting, send you SMS (Short Messaging Service) or Text messages to your mobile phone, most likely a cost they themselves absorb or in the case of Third Party SMS providers, such as CoreTalk Communications Limited.  CoreTalk Communications Limited specializes in such Direct Targeted Advertising via SMS.

Thus this service is nothing new under the Sun. The genius of BlueWave Caribbean, a subsidiary of the British company that is championing this advertising concept in Jamaica, is that unlike SMS based services from CoreTalk Communications Limited, which can also be utilized for advertising. It is free to the customer and is Telecom Provider agnostic as Bluetooth is already ubiquitous on most mobile smart phones and “feature” phones, be they on Telecom Provider Digicel, CLARO or LIME’s Network.

Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) is also becoming more ubiquitous on mobile smart phones as well as on household appliances and gadgets, such as 3-D HDTV’s as per my previous blog articles, thus the concept of advertising being pushed to you on mobile smart phones via Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Networks such as Dekal Wireless is very possible in the future and is most likely possible, especially as this Asian Tiger spreads its message of low cost, modem-less “Super-Wi-Fi”.

Another big advantage of using Bluetooth as a medium to push advertising is that you can choose if you wish to receive the advertising or not, much as one is able to opt-in or opt-out of being tracked by your friends using geo-location services such as FourSquare.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided to opt-in everyone into FaceBook Places and make it a tad tedious to opt-out, which thankfully, Molly Wood, Executive Editor at CNET has been most kind to give us the “411” as the Americans would say, in the video “CNET How To - Turn Off Facebook places”, aired Monday August 23 2010, by Molly Wood, Executive Editor, CNET News.

Bluetooth’s very own proprietary technology helps to mitigate against any perceived risk of invasion of privacy due to this opt-in feature, but it truly makes one worry about content that is not appropriate for children. Ironically, the Broadcasting Commission had no axe to grind with the RJR Communications Group, especially as they are already compliant in their advertising on broadcast free-to-air Television and Radio.

This new advertising venture is expected to hit the ground running and with a bang, as merely porting the advertisements that are acceptable to the Broadcast Commission will help to spur its adoption, as already Jamaicans have been clamoring for geo-location services, which have fallen on the deaf ears of Telecom Providers and even local startup MonaGIS (Geo-Informatics) Ltd.

This is ironic, as a female friend of mine on FaceBook who is employed at  MonaGIS (Geo-Informatics) Ltd originally gave me the idea of tracking people via a suggestion she made to me in 2009 via email (sorry, can’t post my private emails!!) about using GPS outside of building and a local network indoors to track people. Ostensibly a reference to Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) or GloPos Communications Ltd GSM based technology which allows single tower triangulation as stated in the article "Global Positioning without GPS”, published September 13, 2009, 11:30PM EST by Kevin Tofel, BusinessWeek.

Worse, I posted the suggestion repeatedly on BOTH Telecom Provider Digicel and MonaGIS (Geo-Informatics) Ltd Facebook pages, even sending Telecom Provider Digicel hardcopies of my concept for a Mobile Social Network, which by the way is a combination of ConnectU, CreditU and C&W BlingBack Tunes back in 2002 and its updated cousin Digicel InTunes.

Guess as usual, it takes foreigners to shake up the advertising business for it to become relevant, hence the reason why I give away any of my purloined ideas over the Internet and bask in the glory at the Baxter Building among the employees of Amazing PC and the Bee Hive at the back of Bargain Village in May Pen, Clarendon.

I am extremely happy that Jamaica is going to be the first to try this out. Advertisers will love this too, as it breathes life into some ideas I purloined from Red Stripe as it relates to Mobile Advertising and Marketing Metrics, which I later gave away in 2003 and started the Social Networking trend now known as Twitter and FaceBook….and its many related cousins.

Persons would then say that with an opt-out feature, no one will opt-in and support receiving advertising. However that worry is easily brushed aside as well, as Jamaicans love free giveaways, as evident from Telecom Provider Digicel and their previous free giveaways and current Jus Buss Promotion and as they are many Jamaican with foreign travel experience who may be using FourSquare, Loopt, Gowalla and FaceBook Places.

This trend will rapidly catch on, especially as persons get used to the idea of getting free giveaways, party tickets, even mobile phone credit from the various Telecom Providers based on just “check-in” to a location or in this case with the BlueWave Caribbean Bluetooth Technology, coming into proximity of a Bluetooth Network strategically positioned to broadcast advertising information.

Most likely, the carrier to provide interconnectivity will undoubtedly and ironically be Digicel Broadband, their most prolific advertiser and partner-in-crime, thus making the Bluetooth Wireless Hotspots remote and independent of manual intervention.

New advertising can be remotely pushed to these Bluetooth Wireless Hotspots on a on-demand basis over Digicel Broadband WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) Network. Profitability is guaranteed, thus the RJR Communications Group may be saved, ironically by its potential killer: 4G Broadband. Poetic Justice indeed……….

The words of Director of BlueWave Caribbean sum it up best: “It's new technology so do you wait for regulations to come in or do you give people the opportunity to experience the technology? My preference is to give people the opportunity to experience the technology”. Had Telecom Provider Digicel or MonaGIS (Geo-Informatics) been a little more forward thinking, they would have seen this coming too………….albeit it is not too late.

My proposals for Brown Dawg Mobile Social Network are freely available for copying from my blog, as I have already become bored with this and started working on a proposal for another big future Social Networking Trend: Augmented View and its relation to Video Calling Social Network Chatroulette……..Dolche Gabbana and Mui Mui style