UK Free To Air commercial broadcaster ITV is pioneering use of the Shazam content discovery technology for interactive TV advertising on iOS and Android smartphones.
The broadcaster transmitted the first adverts enabled by Shazam during the final of the “Britain’s Got Talent” show on May 12. These involved products from Pepsi Max and Cadbury, which ITV signed up as the first brands to provide Shazam functionality. Viewers with Shazam installed on their smartphones, of which there are over 10 million in the UK, can use the app to interact with the adverts. The Pepsi Max ad allows use of Shazam to win tickets to festivals this summer along with other prizes, free screensavers and merchandise. It also links to iTunes for users to download the Calvin Harris track “Let’s Go.”
Cadbury’s Unwrap Gold advert offers viewers the chance to win a London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony package as part of its wider Unwrap Gold campaign.
This all follows signing of a partnership between ITV and London-based Shazam last month, in which the broadcaster became the exclusive distributor for the functionality in UK broadcast advertising.
According to Clare Tasker, London 2012 Marketing Lead at Cadbury, “this is a great way to use the second screen around event TV and use of this innovative technology allows us to get closer to consumers. It is something Cadbury has been doing more and more of over the last 18 months.”
