UNDER THE RADAR: Given the fact that students and teenagers seem to spend most of their days on mobile phones, it was only going to be a matter of time before somebody hit upon the idea of marketing to them through mobile media. It should also come as no big surprise that it took a couple of students to come up with the idea and technology to do it.

Two young Dublin entrepreneurs - Dean McKillen and Luke Keily - have launched Bluemedia, a Bluetooth proximity marketing business where they send out brand messages to mobile phone users in nightclubs, festivals, colleges, shopping centres and restaurants using their own innovative, self-created technology.

During their time as economics students at UCD, McKillen and Keily witnessed the growing popularity and effectiveness of Bluetooth as a medium to reach Irish students.

"Students are always sending each other video clips and sample tracks and music, and we thought that if you could develop a product that could do it on a commercial scale and could send out loads of messages, there would be a market," says Keily.

Market research took them through Europe and even to the US to research and trial different Bluetooth products.

"We travelled all over Europe and the US looking at various different products and we tested them out back here but we weren't really happy with them. So we just thought we would develop our own."

The two trawled through different colleges and put together a team of postgraduate students to come up with the goods. "Bluemedia has its own unique software developed by our software team and the advantage is that we can update it to keep ahead of competitors and tailor the product for our clients," says Keily.

How exactly it customises campaigns can be seen from the Oxegen music festival where MCD hired the company to provide information about the various acts. Big screens on stage told people to turn on their Bluetooth for a message.

"It was a cartoon informing the people what was playing on every stage and what was playing next. That's worthwhile content for people to get," says Keily.

And that is the key behind the success of the marketing campaigns, he says. "To have any sort of sustainable future in the business, we figured it would have to have relevant content because people have the option whether they want to accept it or not."

Bluemedia's business model ensures the company only sends out pertinent, valuable content through its Bluetooth hotspots.

The service is free to the public, with the clients paying Bluemedia to use the technology.

"We work out a deal with them where they pay us per accepted message or they pay a fixed or flat-rate fee, whichever they want," says Keily.

Bluemedia has also just developed a new product for Jervis Street Shopping Centre in Dublin where it sends out a file that allows shoppers browse store details, special offers, vouchers, maps and games, providing a useful service for the customer.

There's an element of fun to the service as well. At the Electric Picnic music festival, Nokia hired the company to use its technology to allow concert-goers upload their videos and pictures to a big screen at the gig.

"We had to censor the contents first, of course," says Keily. "There was a lot of censoring needed!"

If anyone knows what the text generation wants, these two should have a good idea. Keily started off organising class parties in fifth year at school when he was 17.

"By sixth year I was organising the parties for 34 schools in south Dublin. When I went into college I thought, 'this is great, I have access to over 30,000 students in UCD'. So I started organising events."

To date, the business has largely been funded by the proceeds of those past business ventures, although McKillen also sold his car to free up cash for the business.

However, the company has been categorised by Enterprise Ireland as a high potential start-up, a move that should provide the duo with access to a feasibility grant to further progress the concept.

"We are going into the Powerscourt Centre next and we are in talks with various other shopping centres and large footfall areas in Ireland," says Keily. "Then eventually we will look to move into the UK and other countries around Europe."