Shazam urges brands to consider value

Andrew Fisher, Shazam’s CEO, told Marketing Week that it is working with UK brands and agencies to help them deliver valuable rewards and incentives for consumers within their TV activity.

Shazam for TV allows consumers to get extra content from ads by opening the Shazam app on their mobiles and holding their handset up to their television sets. The app “recognises” the sound on the ad and can link users to the additional online content.

Fisher said: “We are focused on giving user the feeling that [Shazam for TV] is a worthwhile enough experience that they will [Shazam an ad] again. There are so many use cases: it doesn’t just have to have to be about the coupon.”

He said food brands offering recipes of the products featured in their TV spot, extra videos, social media linkage and humorous brand extensions are examples of rewarding the consumer for Shazaming an ad.

Fisher said in North America, where Shazam ads have delivered purchase rates as high as 27%, the company has “politely” told brands they need to think more about the consumer pay off before their ads go live.

In the UK, Shazam has an exclusive deal with ITV for brands to use the tool in its ad breaks. It promotes the tool to consumers via PR activity, social media and the app’s notification system.

The functionality was first trialled this year during the final of Britain’s Got Talent, by Cadbury and Pepsi. Of the 15 million viewers that tuned in to watch the final, 50,000 people Shazamed the optimised ads.

Fisher said: “ITV were anticipating around 10,000 to 20,000 [viewers would Shazam the ads during the final] so 50,000 is a lot, especially considering people only had a 30 second window in which to process the offer, pick up their phone and engage – and all this with no pre-marketing.”

The results also suggest Pepsi and Cadbury’s audiences have strong purchase intentions because they were willing to engage with them, Fisher said.

He added: “The reason why we’re so successful is because we have a large audience. Shazam could be pivotal for the industry in terms of convergence; brands have the opportunity to turn the 30 second spot into two to three minutes of engagement.”

Shazam is encouraging more brands to adopt the marketing method by offering data on brands’ Shazam for TV campaigns, on metrics such as intent, social media uplift and how else people engaged with the content.

Fisher said: “We will share results, good and bad. Some people will get it wrong but we will be open, honest and transparent.”

Click here to read a Q&A with Shazam’s VP of marketing and communications Beatrice Farina