Viral Viewtoothing Heralds the Future of Mobile Marketing

Posted: 04/08/2004

New Bluetooth tool from Forbidden opens the door to viral video campaigns on the mobile

London, August 04, 2004: Forbidden Technologies today launches FORmobile, the worlds first video viral marketing solution for the mobile phone. FORmobile opens the door to viewtoothing – allowing marketers to create video marketing campaigns that can be passed, free of charge, directly between the mobile phones of friends, colleagues and classmates via wireless Bluetooth connections found on most modern handsets.

With an established history in delivering video campaigns, Forbidden has become the first company in the world to develop this solution and has coined the phrase viewtoothing to highlight the process of sending video directly between mobile phones via Bluetooth.

"Allowing users to share video between mobiles – without having to pay for either the content or the air-time needed to download it – is a revolutionary step in the mobile marketing industry,"

said Liz Mackenzie, sales and marketing manager at Forbidden Technologies.

"With FORmobile, users can send and receive video and cinema trailers, promotional product videos, light-hearted video clips and even short films to anyone within a 10 metre radius."

Forbidden has already had interest from the UKs largest advertising and marketing agencies who recognise that mobile video is a clear proposition for brands. Mobile video alone offers significant opportunities for marketers to create and deliver the most impactful campaigns to a single targeted user. Add the ability for consumers to send the video directly to family and friends for free, and the viral possibilities are endless.

"Despite 47.5 million people in the UK being active mobile phone users, until now, mobile marketing has failed to realise its potential,"

said Mackenzie.

"The majority of campaigns are still text based, and the more dynamic services such as MMS are not finding favour in the marketing community due to consumer confusion and technical complexity."

FORmobile is the perfect vehicle for viral marketing on the mobile and addresses the challenges of technology, security, digital rights management and billing issues traditionally associated with Bluetooth.

FORmobile Key Marketing Benefits:

• Video delivery via Bluetooth requires no network connection so users can send video to one another for free
• Instant, no cost delivery of the video to other users' mobiles via Bluetooth
• Ability to track the movement of the video via SMS to ensure campaign review
• Mobile video player integrated into the video body to ensure instant play
• White label mobile player ensures no brand conflict
• Video can be locked to ensure content cannot be passed on or unlocked to allow users to send via Bluetooth
• Locked content can be released on payment via reverse charge SMS