Following the recent article about mobile internet on coaches in Ireland, I have just stumbled across another article about bluetooth marketing on buses.

Every place with a large concentration of people is an excellent place to run a proximity marketing campaign. Usually when we think of places, we think of static locations, but of course, they are not limited to such.

All mass transport media, such as trains, metro, buses, coaches, boats, airplanes, etc. are such places, because they contain lots of people, and this makes them excellent candidates to run such campaigns. On top of offering large concentration of consumers, they also offer an extra, very important element.

Idle time. People on mass transport media are mostly sitting idle (except the regular commuters, who find a way to exploit this time). This means it is an excellent opportunity to engage with your target audience.

Here's the article from livemint:

Mumbai: Taking cue from cities like Singapore and New York, India’s first public bus service, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST), is likely to soon install Bluetooth-enabled services in its 4,027 buses.

“The Bluetooth-enabled services would be of much help to our nearly 50 lakh commuters. The proposal is likely to come within a month and once it is passed the services will be introduced,” said BEST chairman Dilip Patel.

Once installed, the system would provide route and other information on services to the commuters having cellphones.

The system will first be introduced for long route buses like the air-conditioned Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) and then on the smaller routes, Patel said.

With these services, commuters will come to know which routes the bus will cover, the next stop and in how much time will it reach the final destination, Patel explained.

Similar services are available in public buses in cities like Bangkok, London, New York, London and Hong Kong.

Great stuff. There's lots of applications and ideas for proximity marketing campaigns in mass transport media, so I'm sure we'll soon see lots of other examples come up.