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Bluetooth proximity marketing – or Bluecasting as it has been trademarked by one agency – doesn’t get a great press. Yet it has obvious potential for the marketer.

It works like this: you walk past Starbucks with your mobile phone set to discoverable. You receive a message. Such as: ‘Starbucks wants to send you something – accept?’

You say yes and you get their message - a discount voucher or perhaps an invite to stop for free coffee. If you say no, you don’t get their message.

That’s it. Read the rest of this entry »

Almost every university students’ union nowadays has someone responsible for selling on-campus media. Almost all of them talk to each other via a private network, sharing best practice, ideas, resources and of course gossip. If one brand or their agency has upset a union, it will only be a matter of minutes before every other union knows about it.

Now these unions have got together to market themselves independently. Students’ Union Marketing is a new website where anyone can access contact details of the UK’s most marketing-active unions. Over 130 universities are represented.

For more information contact John Abell, Senior Marketing Executive at Warwick Uni, on 02476 572800.

Dragons’ Den is back on our tellies. Beta Bunny recently tested the new youth-aimed mobile product Hotxt, so it seemed pertinent to post our review. Because Hotxt is owned by original dragon Doug Richard, the no-nonsense Californian tech entrepreneur.

Hotxt has been dubbed – initially by Richard himself – as the ‘Skype of texting’. It allows users to send unlimited texts to other Hotxt users for free. Other features include group messaging, larger character allowances than regular SMS, and PC to mobile capability. It was launched last March with the backing of over £4 million investment.

Beta Bunny is a more modest proposition. It’s a community of UK university students who enjoy testing new technologies, web innovations and ideas. I run it on a not-for-profit basis partly because I too enjoy looking at new web stuff, but also because I want to stay in touch with the prevailing student mindset and chew the cud. There are 650 Beta Bunny members, though typically about half take part in each project. Read the rest of this entry »

I met some of the graduate team at Barkers last week for several coffees and a plate of biscuits.

We got together to chat about digital marketing to students – Barkers manage the integrated communications marketing for over 40 major graduate employers including Accenture, McDonald’s and Toyota. Read the rest of this entry »