Mobile Internet For Free From Irish Coach Company

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Written on Thursday, May 28, 2009

I have just been reading this article from the Irish Times, reporting that a Coach Company (Butlers Buses) now offers Internet access via Bluetooth to all its passengers.

This means they will be able to access the Internet on their mobile phones, for free, which is pretty interesting news, I hope you will agree! This prospect is opening up the market for even more Web-based mobile services, a trend that as time passes I see growing.

I have copy-pasted the whole article below:

Other coach firms, including JJ Kavanaghs, Aircoach, Go Bus and
Matthews Coaches, already offer internet access using WiFi technology,
which effectively restricts the service to laptop users.

Butlers
Buses chose Bluetooth short-range wireless technology to be able to
offer access to passengers with mobile phones in addition to offering
WiFi. Both options are available at no cost.

Ian Butler,
managing director of Butlers Buses, said younger passengers or tourists
would be more likely to avail of the Bluetooth service over their
mobile phones, with business customers preferring to use their laptops.

Signage
on the coach headrests will remind passengers to switch on their
phone’s Bluetooth setting and prompt them to download a custom web
browser to allow them to read websites, check e-mails or send instant
messages.

Each coach will be connected to the internet via a 3G
antenna located on the roof. Access speeds will vary according to
mobile network coverage up to a theoretical maximum of 7.2Mbps. The
router on the bus can handle up to 42 users simultaneously.

“When
you are browsing on a mobile phone the download speed is going to be
very quick because it’s mostly text, with no images,” said Kevin
O’Connor, managing director of Bluezone Media, which supplied the
technology to Butlers Buses.

The Bluetooth service is initially
restricted to sites such as Facebook, RTÉ, Freetext, Flickr and
Wikipedia, with considerations for websites with pages specifically
tailored for mobile phone screens.

“We can customise the
service,” said Mr Butler. “Once we approve of a site and it is
compatible with a mobile phone, then that can be added as well.”

Butlers
Buses may seek to earn revenue from the service through advertising,
said Mr Butler. “For example, we could tie it into a tourist
attraction, pubs or restaurants with a discount voucher.”

Oakley Backs Mobile Marketing

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Written on Monday, May 25, 2009

Going through the Mobile Marketer, I came across this article which only comes to add to the list of big names choosing mobile marketing as a recognised medium that helps them reach a specific targeted audience.

Admittedly it is 'just another iPhone app', but I liked that this one was targeted advertising, focused on a specific target audience, and a niche consumer base. Such campaigns will always be more likely to succeed.

Here's some bits from the article itself:

Sunglasses giant Oakley ran an “AFA Snow” mobile advertising
campaign within the Ridertech Snow Reports iPhone application to
promote its ski/snowboard goggles.

Oakley tapped appssavvy for
the campaign, which targeted male snow sports enthusiasts ages 15-28.
The objectives were to generate awareness of Oakley AFA snowboard/ski
gear and brand equity associated with Oakley and the action sports
lifestyle, send qualified traffic to the AFA Snow landing page on
Oakley.com and drive Oakley AFA product sales.

...

Appssavvy identified Ridertech Snow Reports as an application that
encompasses Oakley's target audience and created a custom integration
on Snow Reports using Oakley’s sponsored athlete videos, athlete
profiles and AFA products.

Oakley used Ridertech’s iPhone application in a cross-platform strategy to increase brand utility.

By
using an application with a niche user base that perfectly matched the
Oakley brand, appssavvy claims that it was able to deliver the brand
equity to a highly targeted audience in an environment where they were
already consuming media that is completely consistent with the Oakley
AFA brand.

The average click-through rate of Oakley’s sponsorship elements was 0.1 percent.

The campaign achieved a CTR of 0.24 percent on the sponsorship skin, where as the iPhone skin reached a CTR of 0.39 percent.

Ten percent of application’s users clicked to Oakley.com.

The campaign generated 957 Oakley video views with a 91 percent completion rate.

In
addition, there were 317 athlete profile views and a 16 percent CTR
from athlete profile pages, which led to 50 Oakley product views.


Proximity Marketing Tutorials: Hotels

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Written on Friday, May 22, 2009

Today's article has some ideas about proximity marketing in hotels.

Hotels these days offer a wide array of services to their guests, usually through a great number of facilities. In big hotels in particular, communicating to the visitor the availability of all these services or features offered, is a substantial task.

Brochures or booklets, that are currently being handed out, are now used for this task. However, as those of you that have tried exploring a big hotel will know, it is simply inconvenient to be carrying around all of these, all the time.

The opportunity is there to add a proximity marketing element, and make this information available to the guest on their most private electronic device - their mobile phone.

This way the information is made readily available wherever and whenever.

Let's now take a look at individual ideas:

Service list
Straightforward stuff. Put all your services in an eBrochure, (or simpler an illustrated image) and send it to guests mobile phones. At any time they can then take out their phones and find what they need.

Prices
Hotels charge guests for using their facilities, and sometimes that puts them off using them because they are unaware of the costs involved. By making this information available on the mobile phone, guests can discretely retrieve this information whenever they need it.

Events
Hotels often organise events for their guests. Through proximity marketing via bluetooth it is very straightforward to send guests calendar reminders for the events they are interested, to help them remember, and eventually attend the event.

Map
One of the most obvious pieces of information that can be offered (but one that is also frequently neglected), especially in large hotels / hotel complexes, is the hotel map. If you need this point proven, all it takes is a visit to some of the wonderful village-like hotels you can find on most greek islands. And then, try not getting lost!

Room Service
A very exciting service that mobile marketing can put on the table for hotels, is room service on your mobile phone. When you want to order breakfast, simply take out your phone, have a look at the menu, and place your order using your mobile. Next thing you know the door rings. 'Room service'...

Stock exchange updates
For business executives, or the everyday guest who owns some stocks, hotels can offer the icing on the cake type of service, by going the extra mile and retrieving for them live stock exchange information, and making it available on their mobile phones.

3rd party promotions
Hotels also offer third-party advertising by providing leaflets and brochures to their guests, for outside activities they can partake in. By offering these promotions on guests' mobile phones, it is much more probable that they will actually have the information available at the point in time when they need it, and thus increase the conversions.

Hotels are great candidate areas for proximity marketing services, and I'm sure there's plenty more ideas out there. These are just to get you started. Good luck!

Next in the series is proximity marketing in cafes,bars, or restaurants.

Proximity Marketing Tutorial Series Coming Up

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Written on Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I have had a few e-mail requests recently from you guys asking for ideas on specific mobile marketing scenarios.

On the one hand there are those of you that have your own businesses and are interested in using an sms marketing, proximity marketing, or other mobile marketing method to give your business a competitive edge.

On the other hand, there those of you that are in some form involved within the mobile marketing sector, or the marketing sector in general and need ideas in order to promote this marketing approach to your clients.

Somewhere in the middle, there are those of you interested to start out in the mobile marketing field, but are still exploring the possibilities and still trying to get a feel of the market in order to decide whether to proceed.

The discussions I've been having lately with some of you have triggered the idea to write up a small series of articles with ideas about mobile marketing (or proximity marketing in particular - a field I find somewhat more exciting than other now-becoming-ordinary mobile marketing approaches) in a number of different places.

Over the next few weeks I will be putting down the ideas we've been discussing in private, and sharing them with everyone else -- there's probably some value there for all of you, whatever your position in the sector.

Stay tuned for the Proximity Marketing Tutorials Series that will be interleaved with other interesting news. However, do bear with me if the news are a bit more sparse over the coming few weeks -- work and deadlines will be taking over for a short while.

The articles will cover proximity marketing ideas in the following sectors:
  • Cafeterias/Restaurants/Pubs/Clubs/Bars
  • Hotels
  • Stadiums
  • Airports
  • Malls
  • Public Spaces
  • Cinemas

Bluetooth Marketing in Airports: Now Also In Slovenia

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Written on Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The number of airports around the world that are using bluetooth marketing campaigns in order to approach travelers is starting to pick up pace.

Not long ago I was writing about the exciting services over at the Athens International Airport.

A few months back it was the Duty Free Shops in Bristol International Airport.

Last October I posted about the New Orleans Airport.

This time round it is the Jože Pučnik Airport in Ljubljana, Slovenia, that is also now sending tourist information and other mobile marketing promotion material, such as mobile coupons, to tourists' mobile phones.


Here's more information from the Mobiz article:
At the baggage claim area of Jože Pučnik Airport in Ljubljana, Slovenia, travellers can pick up more than just their luggage. Using the Bluetooth feature on their mobile phones, they can download tourist information and coupons for their stay in Slovenia.

Through a campaign devised by the Slovenian Tourist Board in cooperation with Aerodrom Ljubljana and Creativ Interaktiv, arriving passengers riding on the airport's buses from plane to terminal are invited to turn on the Bluetooth feature on their mobile phones. That invitation is repeated as they pass through customs to the baggage retrieval area. Within baggage claim is the so-called Bluetooth Zone, where users who have turned on Bluetooth are asked if they want to receive information about Slovenia. Users who say yes receive a free SMS text message with instructions on downloading the information, which is presented in both Slovene and English and includes tips for a hassle-free stay in Slovenia, recommended tourist attractions and events, and mobile coupons from partner organizations. Following the positive response to a test in December and January, the Bluetooth service is in place at least through the end of this month.

While Bluetooth proximity-marketing efforts elsewhere have met with mixed success so far, the fact that travellers are already accustomed to receiving text messages from local phone providers when they land at a foreign airport makes this one seem like more of a natural fit. Tourist destinations and other airports should consider doing this campaign.
Needless to say, it's really exciting to be seeing the number of airports implementing bluetooth advertising techniques increase, because airports, as places, are ideal candidates for running such proximity marketing campaigns. As a large space that is also usually very busy, with lots of people passing through every day, it gives a unique opportunity to the mobile marketer to address such a large and diverse audience. An opportunity you won't often come in many other areas.

Mobile Banking: How Safe Is It?

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Written on Monday, May 11, 2009

I came across a very interesting article on the Times Online this weekend. James Charles, the writer, writes a pretty conclusive article about whether mobile banking services currently offered by banks, as well as future ones, really are secure.

The article is very complete, and I recommend you read the whole thing, but I have highlighted the best bits, for those that just want a brief overview.

Current options for mobile banking include:
More than a million Britons regularly use their mobile phones to check recent transactions on their bank current accounts or to view an account balance. Most customers receive this information in the form of text messages, but a number of banks now allow customers to download secure software that enables them to transfer money between accounts or top up prepay phones.

But how secure are these technologies and what safeguards are in place if your phone is lost or stolen? Times Money reviews the main services that are available and examines the security implications for banking from the palm of your hand.

Text messages
A number of high street banks now offer text message services for no charge. You can set up alerts that are sent out when you get too close to your overdraft limit, you can receive a weekly balance reminder or a notification every time a large amount is spent in a single transaction on the debit card attached to the account.

...

Text messages are the safest form of mobile banking. No information about your account is stored on your phone and the information that you receive would not be enough on its own for fraudsters to access your money if the phone was lost or stolen.

Mobile money manager
An increasing number of banks allow you to do more on your mobile than simply receive text alerts. These mobile banking services allow you to transfer money between savings and current accounts, view your balance and your last six transactions and top up pay-as-you-go mobile phones.

The software has been developed by Monilink, which is 50 per cent owned by the banking industry. You first need to download software to your phone. To access your account, you must enter a five to eight-digit password. Mr Lukies says: “The application is very secure. It verifies that your account is being accessed from your mobile number and requires a password, making it impossible to use if your phone is lost or stolen.”

...

Smart phones
About half of all new phones now allow individuals to connect to the internet — most through wi-fi connections in “hotspots” such as pubs, coffee shops, large railway stations or even town squares, or over the 3G network.

Jon Corke, of What Mobile magazine, says: “Mobiles are catching up with the iPhone and many now offer the full internet experience. These smart phones are increasingly popular and people expect to be able to surf the net.”

...

Tony Neate, of Get Safe Online, the government-backed service, says: “Mobile banking is relatively secure because there are not as many viruses, trojan horses or malware that target mobile users. However, it is important to protect your phone in case it is lost. Use a PIN to lock your phone and remember not to store internet banking username or passwords in your phone memory.”

...

Smart phones with Bluetooth, which allows wireless communication between devices, are also open to attack. However, Mr Corke suggests that you cannot be the victim of an attack if you remember not to accept or download attachments or software from individuals you do not know. He says: “If a message appears on your phone asking you to accept a programme sent from someone you do not know, reject it.”

Also, it looks like mobile payments (as in payments done using your mobile instead of your debit/credit card) are soon becoming a reality:

Handsets to offer rival payment option

In less than 18 months you will not only be using your phone to check on your most recent bank transactions, you could be using the handset to make payments too.

...

Barclaycard and Orange are working together to introduce Near-Field Communication technology across Britain next year. Orange says that this will offer more flexibility than contactless cards, which are limited to payments of less than £10 because no PIN is required. Using a mobile phone, customers will be able to type a PIN into the handset, allowing bigger payments to be made securely.

The article also contains information about charges for these types of services from various banks, so if you're thinking of venturing into the area, you might find this is a good guide.


Analysing Specific Proximity Marketing Campaigns - Interview with Mr. Antoniadis (part 2)

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Written on Wednesday, May 06, 2009

As promised, here's also the second part of my interview with Mr. Antoniadis, Sales Manager of the Proximity Marketing System Bluevibe. The first part of the interview was published on Friday, make sure you also read that for some very interesting insights into proximity marketing from Mr. Antoniadis' point of view.

The second part contains Q&A specifically analysing two projects Bluevibe has recently been involved in:
  • Installation at Athens International Airport
  • Johnnie Walker - Don't Drink & Drive Mobile Marketing Campaign

Athens International Airport

  • What is the project about?
The project is about giving interactive mobile services to as many visitors as we can. The first phase is the pilot. AIA and Cytech wanted to test the feasibility of this project as there aren't many such project all over the world. The aim was to develop a number of simple and valuable services that would be tested by the AIA personnel. Not just IT but also marketing and administrative personnel. We wanted to have feedback so we make any necessary alterations before we go public.
The first thing was to install 7 Bluevibe Hotspots at the departure terminal. These hotspots were not able to cover all the terminal but they are in such locations that cover the cafeterias and the corridors. After the installation we made all the connections to the Bluevibe Server installed at the AIA premises.
There were a number of challenges such as, power over ethernet, remote power cycling, decoration of the hotspots to look pretty and we achieved all these with the aid of the AIA personnel in about two months. Especially the decoration issue was hard as the rules are very strict.
If you visit AIA you can see the blue plaques at the ceiling, these are antenna containers. After the installation we train the AIA personnel to use the Bluevibe Manager, our web based administration and monitoring tool. They now are able to operate it mostly by themselves.
We also developed a special application for AIA for managing their content and of course a special version of the Bluevibe Browser, the mobile application installed in the visitors' mobile phones.

  • What kind of services are you intending to provide?
The most important service during the first phase is the Flight Information. You enter the flight number and get information about the departure/arrival time, status etc. The other service is about the retail shops of the airport.
It is a mobile shopping catalog. All retail shops inside AIA can present their products and offers. The marketing department of the Airport can change dynamically the images, texts etc using a CMS. We also provide a number of information concerning the airport itself, like left-luggage" areas or safety rules.

  • Do the users accept to install a Java mobile application?
We ve just ended our test phase so our users were AIA personnel. They dont have serious objection on installing a new application as lons as this application is useful and not create any problems to their mobile phone. When the number of employees started to install this application and they saw that there is no problem and that they are able to use it we overcame any hesitations.
I think that the most important thing when you ask someone to install an application is to give him a good reason why to do it. If it is something really useful and "alive" they'll accept it and try to install it.
We confront the same hesitations during the DontDrinkandDrive campaign we currently run for Johnnie Walker. We have developed a mobile application containing all the necessary information (taxi call numbers, bus itineraries, metro time tables) so if you decide to drink to take public transportation and not your car.
Most of the people find this application useful and at the moment they undestand what it is, they are willing to install it. It is 100 times better that a piece of paper containing all this information and that you ll probably throw it away after 5 minutes.

  • Since it's not yet public, and you don't have any numbers on use, do you have any numbers regarding how many users have their Bluetooth turned on?
You will be surprised, and so our partners at the AIA did. More than half a million different devices have been scanned during the last 10 months and only at 7 hotspots at the departures terminal. I have to add that there is currently no signage and no one knows that there is a Bluetooth system active in the area. We know that we will double or triple this number if we cover the whole terminal and inform people about it.
  • What would you identify as the main problem with this project?
I think the major problem hasn't appeared yet. I strongly believe that when we go public there will be such great demand that we ll have problem to serve them. As you understand, our goal is to serve more than 300.000 unique users in a year.
Based on this assumption and some statistics concerning the number of people per hotspot and the time a user browse the services, we make our plans for the full scale installation. But, I am afraid, the real number will be greater. We are trying to be ready for this case also. I ll keep you updated but I am sure you will be informed from your sources when we go public.


Johnnie Walker Mobile Marketing Campaign

  • Could you please also describe the JW campaign to us?
The concept is simple. Don't drink and drive. It is about responsible drinking. Johnnie Walker has great tradition in this kind of events that contain messages like this. This time they have decided to include proximity marketing to the whole scenario. GetItRight marketing services, in cooperation with Cytech have designed a campaign with the following innovation.
Instead of giving people a plain paper with information about the means of transport during late hours, they also send this information to their mobile phones.
This way, this information which includes, taxi call numbers, bus and underground time schedule, is stored at the mobile phone and can be used anytime. The paper version is OK but it is most of the times misplaced somewhere and you can't find it the next day.
These events take place at crowded squares of Athens from 20:00 till 24:00 just before people enters the bars and pubs for a drink. Everyday we setup a kiosk where promoters call people to play an internet game and win prizes. At the same time Bluevibe is responsible for sending the mobile application to the people as they stop in front of the kiosk.

  • Can you share the penetration rate there with us?
I can't disclose our statistics as the campaign is still running but I have to say that we believe that the penetration rate will be greater than 10%. We can discuss it again when it is over, at the end of May.

  • What would you identify as the main problem with this campaign?
The main problem is the infrastructure. As you understand, we are in the open and we have constantly problems with electricity and network. We are lucky to use a system like Bluevibe because it is very versatile.
We use it as we think appropriate during each event day. If we see that the network is not stable enough we operate the Hotspots in standalone mode and when the network is back again they are synchronised with the server, uploading all the statistics and downloading new campaign settings. On the other hand if the network is stable we operate them in Networked mode, having all the advantages like online monitoring and administration and live statistics.
Mr. Antoniadis' views provide a very interesting inside view on the workings of proximity marketing campaigns. I believe those of you interested in starting out in the bluetooth marketing sector, have plenty to learn and I highly recommend you keep some of these hints in your mobile marketing notebook.

I hope you enjoyed it, and found it valuable as much as I did.. Feel free to share your views, or questions, if you have any. I'm sure Mr. Antoniadis will be more than happy to follow up.

Proximity Marketing Insights - Interview with Mr. Antoniadis (part 1)

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Written on Monday, May 04, 2009

After a long delay (on my part) I finally managed to meet Mr. Antoniadis, Sales Manager of the Proximity Marketing System Bluevibe, for our promised interview. Bluevibe is one of the very few bluetooth marketing systems developed here in Greece, so it is with particular pleasure I welcomed this meeting. Our interview turned out rather long, as Mr. Antoniadis was very happy to answer all my questions extensively. I apologise for the lengthy posts, but I think they make a pretty interesting read in return. Below you will find the first part of the transcript of our interview:


  • How long has your company been doing what you guys do? Give us a bit of background.
Cytech Ltd, started off as a technology provider for the mobile marketing field back in 2001, by building mainly sms marketing tools for bulk sms, and interactive sms services. Based on that very positive experience and success - mainly in the greek market - we decided to invest in bluetooth marketing by purchasing a share in a bright startup company then called Bluebird. Bluebird later evolved into Bluevibe, the company that develops the synonymous proximity marketing product for us.

I am quite pleased to say we identified the potential in the mobile marketing field very early on, and we are very happy with our choice! (laughs) At the time we invested in Bluevibe, it was the only proximity marketing platform built in Greece, and one of the very few worldwide. Since then, we have concentrated on constantly pushing our product one step ahead of the competition, in order to be able to cope with marketing giants from around the world developing their own solution. Today our system is the only system in the world that can offer free web access via Bluetooth wherever a Bluevibe Hotspot is covering the area.
  • In your experience, do you think people are still afraid of using Bluetooth? - Is that any different in Greece than abroad?
I am not sure if the word "afraid" is the right one but it is definitely right that most of the people are circumspect about accepting files over Bluetooth. The main reason is that they have heard that viruses can infect their mobile phones and they are coming from Bluetooth. This is something common all over the world. From my point of view there is only one solution and this is trust. When a well known brand runs a mobile marketing campaign and makes it visible to the people, they tend to trust it. According to our experience if the brand informs people about the proximity marketing event the penetration rate doubles. So there are hesitations about accepting mobile content over bluetooth but there is always a way to overcome them.
  • You've run a couple of very interesting campaigns lately in Greece.. Do you see the market opening up?
Indeed, we have run a number of different campaigns, in expositions like Thessaloniki International Expo (Helexpo) or Taxi Show and DTE-Comdex, in events like the Dont Drink and Drive campaign we are currently running, and of course at the Athens International Airport. We are in the proximity marketing field for about 4 years and we know that you have to be patient. We see that marketing agencies adopt this medium day by day and that in the next years will be part of their tool set. In the beginning we had great difficulties to make marketers understand the role of this new medium at the whole marketing landscape. Now we receive daily phone calls and emails all over the world asking about Bluevibe. They know the basic features and want to know more about centralized management, web access over Bluetooth etc.

  • What is your favourite mobile marketing campaign / proximity marketing campaign, from any that you might have seen?
I have read a great number of campaigns all over the world and many of them were very successful. But I have to say I am biased. My favourite campaign is the one we are currently run with Johnnie Walker. I like it because it is in combination with other marketing activities, field promotion, internet marketing and because the mobile application we send is very useful. It is not easy to run such a campaign as the events take place at squares where there is no electricity or network coverage and sometimes you have to overcome issues like bad weather etc. I will come back if you want with numbers when this campaign is over.

  • How do you see proximity marketing in the economic crisis?
I think that proximity marketing and mobile marketing in general will benefit from this crisis. No one can say for sure, but my thinking is that these types of marketing media are relatively cheaper that the legacy ones like press or radio. Marketeers are trying to find new media to use, cheaper that the ones already have because the marketing budgets are lowering. We ll see about that in the next months but I have to say that the demand for Bluevibe is greater than one year ago.

  • Do your customers prefer opt-in campaigns, or opt-out?
As you understand opt-out campaigns are easier. There is no need for acceptance and there is no need for special mechanisms to manage the opt-in lists. So, in the beginning, customers try this type of campaigns. They soon understand that even if the numbers are good they tend to lower as people get used to proximity marketing. During the first campaigns we run, people accepted to receive mobile content, most of time because of curiosity. They didn't know what exactly this bluetooth message is and they wanted to see. Now most of the people and mainly young ones, are accustomed to the whole procedure and they want to receive only valuable information. They dont want to be disturbed and as proximity marketing events are more frequent, they want to know what they will receive before the click on OK button. I am sure that opt-in is the magical word for the next year and we, as technology providers, are obliged to provide the appropriate technology to support it.

  • How do you avoid being thought of as SPAM?

This is one of the first things we tell our customers. It is crucial to inform people about the proximity marketing event so they are not annoyed. In addition, Bluevibe platform has a number of features to ensure that the person who says no will not be receive anything in the future. But I think the final and more antispam policy is the Bluevibe mobile application. One of the most advanced components of the platform is the interactivity. Bluevibe mobile application is installed at the user's phone and it is s/he that begins the interaction with the system. There is no need to send him/her nothing and on the other hand s/he has access to rich content like multimedia, internet websites, facebook, wikipedia etc. Finally, in order to void being thought of as a spammer you have to:
    • inform people,
    • give them the right to opt-out easily
    • and, if the application permits it, provide interactive services.

The second part of the interview will be published on Wednesday, where Mr. Antoniadis answers my questions about the two specific campaigns from Bluevibe I recently posted about, namely the Athens International Airport, and the Johnnie Walker proximity marketing campaigns. ...Isn't 'Stay tuned' what they say now? :)