Bluetooth marketing has been picked up by brands as an effective way of reaching out to consumer’s mobiles with marketing content, for instance by delivering a message to a phone as its user passes by a Bluetooth-enabled advertisement or sales point – the Bluetooth element, the ‘hypertag’, is a transceiver that can actually be embedded in a promotional display. The problem is that Bluetooth will try and send content to every other device with Bluetooth switched on, whether or not the recipient has opted in to receive that content. Hypertag has adapted its Bluetooth technology to offer a lowpower, short range version that will only communicate to devices within 1-2m. The company says this means the consumer will have to deliberately stand next to the unit in order to receive content, rather than just being sent it as they pass by. Rachel Harker, co-founder of Hypertag, said: “Bluetooth marketing is here to stay – its already been used by some of the world’s leading brands and we’re seeing an ever increasing demand for it from around the world. However, Bluetooth was never developed as a marketing technology and, until now, it’s been very susceptible to accusations of spamming. With these technology developments we’ve now removed that risk.”