Shazam Connects TV and Mobile for Brands

• Tweet
• Buffer

As it continues to build out its ad sales efforts, mobile audio discovery service Shazam says it's seeing repeat buys from major advertisers for its "Shazamable" TV ads product.

Paramount Pictures and Proctor and Gamble are among ten advertisers launching initiatives with the company over the next couple months, over half of which are repeat customers, the firm's executive vice president of advertising sales, Evan Krauss, told ClickZ.

The Shazam for TV product invites users to "tag" TV ads by letting the smartphone application recognize the audio that accompanies them. Once an ad is tagged, users are driven to a custom branded experience, which can feature a range of calls to action such as click to shop, and social actions.

According to Krauss, the company stumbled upon the idea while experimenting with its platform, which was previously monetized primarily with display ads. "We did Shazam for TV initially as a collaboration whim, and then went back to research it more and see why it worked so well," he said, adding "We know people are sitting on their couch with their mobile devices, so that to me is the real second screen experience." Shazam has already run campaigns for brands including Old Navy, Honda, Paramount and American Express, and Krauss said around 75 percent of users that tag TV ads click through to visit the advertisers' landing page. He added that 27 percent of users clicked through to view clothing in the Old Navy online store after tagging that brand's ad, and that one of its advertisers saw more traffic from Shazam than it did when it included a URL in its ad. "The key is the engagement, and what people actually go on to do after tagging the ad," he said.

The Shazam app is currently available for a range of devices, including iPhones, BlackBerrys, and devices running Google's Android OS. It's been downloaded a total of 150 million times to date, and users tag around 4 million pieces of audio a day, the company said.