This year, it wasn’t James Corden cutting off Adele mid-speech that caused a stir at the Brit Awards, but a great example of how to effectively use a second-screening of the event. Mobile music group Shazam partnered with The Brits to give viewers access to exclusive content delivered straight to their smartphone.
Features included acts and guest presenters that featured in the show, as well as behind the scenes material and links to engage directly on Facebook and Twitter. The entire music ceremony was ‘Shazamable’ and when fans tagged their comments as the show was being broadcast, they could access special real-time extras using their handsets. Stephen Poole, multiplatform group sales controller at ITV, said the broadcaster was pleased with the offering. “The BRIT Awards is such an iconic ceremony in the UK and we are very excited to offer viewers this added interactivity and the opportunity to engage deeper with our content,” he explained.
Statistics from the show are yet to be released, but some hints of how successful the partnership was can be seen in the Shazamable Skyfall advert that ran during a commercial break in the show. With 13,078 tags on the day, 13,989 for the week, 18,500 impressions, a click-through rate of 0.55 per cent and 289 clicks to buy – this shows viewers were actively engaging with the programming, and using the app to drive actual sales.
MEC Opinion: While there has been a rise in the number of adverts and TV shows which are Shazam compatible, using the app to engage with the content of a live awards show in real time is a first. Taking the idea of a second-screening beyond its previous incarnations, this additional content offers the user exclusivity and enhanced engagement with the show.
As Shazam has over 275 million users across 200 countries – with two million new people joining every week – it certainly has a fair core audience to experiment with. This partnership provided massive brand exposure for Shazam, but didn’t require it to extend the remit of its app in order to fulfill the partnership. As the awards are already about music, it simply grabbed the attention of a huge audience of predominantly younger viewers who have a natural affinity with mobile devices.
And it’s not difficult to see why advertisers would want to engage with this technology. Beauty Bay’s use of Shazam during the broadcast of a Girls Aloud special in October 2012 resulted in 14,252 tags and 2,644 competitions entrant along with an uplift in website traffic of 235 per cent. These innovative relationships are revolutionary for creators, networks and consumers alike – and may encourage deeper engagement with communications in the futures.