Dancing on the street corner...

Courtesy of Hope the (very big) dog's blog from the cool guys at Modern Green (hello Steve, Gavin, JB the DJ and Amanda), I came across this Elbow video. In the video, a guy standing on the street corner does some great tricks with a "Condos for Sale" placard. While Hope thinks that all placard folks should do this, I kinda liken this guys antics with some of the retail bluetooth deployments I've seen - to quote Shakespeare - "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". What's the point in having to wait to download and install an application on your phone, and then to have to browse through it to find that you've got a token for a free coffee with your sandwich and all you came in for was a pint (litre these days) of milk! Mobile media is all about content. Provide targeted, relevant, location aware content and people will use it even if it's branded. Send just ads, and people will do what they do with their TV's - change channel, or turn it off. In the bluetooth world the customer has the power to choose - so give them what they want - not what you think they need. By the way - buy the Elbow album "The Seldom seen Kid" - it's superb...