'Big Brother' Is Just That With Anonymous Bus Stop Bluetooth Campaign

The hugely (and, well, inexplicably) popular "Big Brother" is living up to its name with a new campaign in Australia in which bluetooth messages from transmitters embedded in bus stops inform unwitting passersby that "Big Brother is watching."

According to Trendhunter, some of the messages are location based, along the lines of "I'm watching u. Ur at the (customized current location). Fortunately, a second message arrives within 30-40 seconds to pay off that the missives are from "ig Brother" on an Australian TV network.

It's possible this sort of thing is copacetic in Australian culture - the unsolicited bluetooth message. As I write in BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I personally believe marketers need to be a little more careful in the way they approach consumers.

I think this campaign is really creative - and kudos to its creators, it's perfect for the show and the medium. But it's the exception rather than the rule. As marketers, we need to entice consumers, passersby, etc. to initiate such interactions, perhaps through short codes on billboards.

Otherwise, the efficacy of such efforts is going to go down very fast.

Read all about it, here.

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