Shazam does it again

This week at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, media engagement mogul Shazam announced the launch of a new TV advertising engagement service which will measure an advertisements effectiveness, not only by its penetration with standard Gross rating Points (GRP's), but by audience engagement as well.

Shazam broke onto the marketing engagement scene and made itself a household name with it's music identification app. Shazam users can tap a button and let Shazam listen along to a song they can't quite place. Shazam then uses it's magic algorithm to match that song to it's title, artist, and album, all in just seconds. Users can also "tag" a song on Shazam, much like "liking" a photo on Facebook.

The app was a huge success, with a reported 50 million users worldwide.

Now they're back. This time, with a back-end product to let companies nail in the bang for each advertising buck they spend by matching audience reach with second screen participation. Shazam takes viewer data, or GRP, and combines it with audience participation data through the Shazam app to let advertisers know how many people saw their add, and how many responded through their mobile device. Here is how the author of this article from Business Wire breaks it down it:

The Shazam Engagement Rate is defined as Shazam tag volume for each spot that airs divided by the gross rating point (GRP) for each of those airings. Shazam licenses this GRP viewership information from Nielsen, the global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, specifically for Shazam for TV performance reporting and generating insights. Shazam takes the industry-standard Nielsen viewership data and uses it to provide perspective and context to Shazam’s consumer engagement data.

When a viewer sees an add on TV, they can "tag" that add through their mobile device using the Shazam app. This brings up additional information and promotional material from the advertiser directly related to their product. By telling advertisers when and where their ads are not only viewed most often, but also engaged most frequently through second screens, advertisers can tailor advertising spending with surgical accuracy. Shazam CEO Rich Riley explains: "Now, we are able to help brand marketers measure the impact of their ad campaigns using powerful data-driven insights never before available, making it possible for companies to optimize their ad spend."

This is a new frontier for marketing. Where else can marketing pioneers bridge the gap between media and devices? Shazam has shown us TV to mobile. QR codes link print to mobile. What about radio to mobile? What about film to mobile? Fashion to mobile? Food to mobile? Who knows? If someone is creative enough, they may just be the first.