'Shazam for Brands' Will Track User Activity to Launch Brand-Specific Ads

[MacRumors]

First making its name as the go-to app for music recognition software, Shazam has expanded into other media content like TV commercials, movie trailers, and radio ads in the past. This week, however, the company is officially announcing its push into brand-specific advertisement with a new initiative called "Shazam for Brands" (via AdAge).

Using data accumulated from how users interact with the app, and a company's integrated brand advertisement, Shazam will attempt to pick out which artists and musical genre each brand should use to attract the widest swath of their particular audience. Before the official launch of Shazam for Brands, some of Shazam's past partners have included Marvel Studios, Nike and Clinique. Those partners provided fans with experiences like Shazamable movie posters and interactive music videos.

"Advertising had always been secondary, but now we are putting it front and center," said Greg Glenday, chief revenue officer at Shazam. "We are taking advertising seriously by adding stock and people. We sold ourselves short with the advertising industry by just selling banner ads and being transactional."

With such data, a brand will be able to purchase the landing page of a specific Shazam, called "clickable listening screens," so that their products can be displayed in conjunction with the a particular artist's song. Glenday said the new ad-push for the company won't bring any noticeable changes on the user side of things, and that all of Shazam's fans "will still receive the results they want without interruption."

Shazam for Brands will also allow the company's partners to incorporate Shazam's technology -- using the same, traditional Shazam app -- into their own marketing materials. For example, earlier in the month Coca-Cola introduced a Shazamable bottle design that prompted users to film a video of themselves lip-syncing to one of a handful of songs displayed on the drink's label.

Furthermore, the company is looking to get into the live-event business, in a festival centered around up-and-coming artists set to open later in the year. Shazam intends to use beacon technology to create an event where each performer will be able to be discovered by the app. Following today's launch, the company hasn't said who its next major advertising and brand partner will be, but it has created a new Shazam for Brands Twitter account so users can follow its progress on the social network.

Shazam is available on the App Store for free [Direct Link]. Users can also download Shazam Encore for $6.99 [Direct Link], negating all of the company's attempted advertisements.

Article Link: 'Shazam for Brands' Will Track User Activity to Launch Brand-Specific Ads

 

[macduke]

I fail to see how which songs someone "Shazams" has any bearing on an advertiser trying to target a certain market. I've used it to ID so many different random songs—even ones I didn't like but was just curious because I couldn't remember who made it. I'd likely never actually listen to a playlist of the songs I've searched for because it's a bunch of completely random crap. I just can't see how this is useful? Can someone explain??

 

[bushido]

I fail to see how which songs someone "Shazams" has any bearing on an advertiser trying to target a certain market. I've used it to ID so many different random songs—even ones I didn't like but was just curious because I couldn't remember who made it. I'd likely never actually listen to a playlist of the songs I've searched for because it's a bunch of completely random crap. I just can't see how this is useful? Can someone explain??

just as bad as the whole big data personlized and curated ads / news crap. just because i looked at something doesnt mean its what i actually like. its in fact quite dangerous cuz you miss out on general content or things u may like but didnt actively look for.

Facebooks horrible "Top News" Feed comes to mind

 

[ButteryScrollin]

Sounds horrific

 

[Crusoe]

Shazam was a very handy tool for identifying music.

Then it was a handy tool with other tabs telling you what other people were looking for.

Then it was a handy tool with half a screen for identifying music and the rest all about sharing and recommendations.

I mostly understand that they're trying to monetise something that otherwise had a limited possibility of generating income, but I hate the app now. Five tabs, of which half of one is what I'm interested in, and statements like the above don't give me hope it'll get any better.

 

[chasemac]

I haven't used the Shazam app in years. Don't need to and don't care. This isn't going to help.

 

[now i see it]

Just another example of how retarded the whole advertising scam is.

 

[2457282]

I fail to see how which songs someone "Shazams" has any bearing on an advertiser trying to target a certain market. I've used it to ID so many different random songs—even ones I didn't like but was just curious because I couldn't remember who made it. I'd likely never actually listen to a playlist of the songs I've searched for because it's a bunch of completely random crap. I just can't see how this is useful? Can someone explain??

just as bad as the whole big data personlized and curated ads / news crap. just because i looked at something doesnt mean its what i actually like. its in fact quite dangerous cuz you miss out on general content or things u may like but didnt actively look for.

Facebooks horrible "Top News" Feed comes to mind

I actually work in the Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing/Big Data space. At an individual basis it can be difficult to look at limited and potentially random data points, as you both describe, and make any reasonable extrapolations or assumptions. However, over large amounts of data trends do show up that can be useful. Even some basic stuff that feels hit or miss can move the hit rate on ads by a few percentage points and that equals real money. As they get more data and do more sophisticated analysis this could allow for better target ads that yield higher hit rates and higher revenues. As someone who has made a career and money on this, I can assure you that this stuff works overall even if it misses at an individual level.

 

[Porco]

"It all starts here."

No. 'It all ends here' for you on any of my devices Shazam.

 

[canadianreader]

It has become very difficult to shazam a song because so many buttons. Is there a viable alternative as good as Shazam ?

 

[Avenged110]

This reminded me, I just downloaded version 3.something of the Shazam app the other day from '09 or '10. It's amazing what a focused little app that was, and it still works. If I ever use this service again, I'll only use that version; it's super simple and doesn't have any of that distracting crap.

 

[BuffaloTF]

It has become very difficult to shazam a song because so many buttons. Is there a viable alternative as good as Shazam ?

SoundHound... been using it for years. You can even hum or sing the words of a song you've heard but couldn't search for fast enough.

 

[macduke]

"It all starts here."

No. 'It all ends here' for you on any of my devices Shazam.

I agree, but in the longrun I doubt us not using Shazam will have much of an impact. Most people don't know or don't care about this. Their data set will still be huge when averaged across all users. Then factor in that we're not the target for this—they won't miss us because we're the types who have ad blockers installed and don't trust Google or Facebook, and typically don't fall for most ads either without doing a bunch of research, and yeah. We're no loss to them, which is too bad.

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Uninstalling now.

 

[dysamoria]

I actually work in the Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing/Big Data space. At an individual basis it can be difficult to look at limited and potentially random data points, as you both describe, and make any reasonable extrapolations or assumptions. However, over large amounts of data trends do show up that can be useful. Even some basic stuff that feels hit or miss can move the hit rate on ads by a few percentage points and that equals real money. As they get more data and do more sophisticated analysis this could allow for better target ads that yield higher hit rates and higher revenues. As someone who has made a career and money on this, I can assure you that this stuff works overall even if it misses at an individual level.

Happy for you making a career and money to live on. Disgusted that marketing has gotten so obsessive over the tiniest data and that data mining is a thing.

Wall Street is a disease the USA is possibly terminally ill from. The further this crap progresses, the further corporations are from the people they insincerely claim to serve in a symbiotic capitalist relationship. It's parasitic. It chooses for people, and it controls markets, rather than following and taking advantage of what people choose for themselves. Between the incessant advertising and the way people are conditioned to choose the worst possible cheap garbage... This is not the ideal of capitalism that my capitalist friends promote, but it IS a very good model for dystopian nightmares already written about and filmed as "entertainment" countless times before.

It has to stop somewhere or we will drive our civilization to its end. The human element is so lost at this point, and the environment is so damaged, and so few people in positions like yours (benefitting from the system as it is) are willing to see the reality of it all... I'm not sure there's room to come back from this insanity before current civilization starts to actually visibly fail.

 

[2457282]

Happy for you making a career and money to live on. Disgusted that marketing has gotten so obsessive over the tiniest data and that data mining is a thing.

Wall Street is a disease the USA is possibly terminally ill from. The further this crap progresses, the further corporations are from the people they insincerely claim to serve in a symbiotic capitalist relationship. It's parasitic. It chooses for people, and it controls markets, rather than following and taking advantage of what people choose for themselves. Between the incessant advertising and the way people are conditioned to choose the worst possible cheap garbage... This is not the ideal of capitalism that my capitalist friends promote, but it IS a very good model for dystopian nightmares already written about and filmed as "entertainment" countless times before.

It has to stop somewhere or we will drive our civilization to its end. The human element is so lost at this point, and the environment is so damaged, and so few people in positions like yours (benefitting from the system as it is) are willing to see the reality of it all... I'm not sure there's room to come back from this insanity before current civilization starts to actually visibly fail.

Well, there is truth in your statements, but the anger misses a big part of the situation. These techniques that you rail against are not just an absolute bad used by advertisers to ruin American minds. These techniques are used in medicine to figure out what treatments work and to predict causes to illnesses. These techniques re used to predict weather patterns and other environmental issues. In other words, there is significant good that comes from all this when used correctly. A better way of positioning your anger is to recognize that it's a double edged sword and as a people we should work to use it as best as possible to aid our society, recognizing that there will always be a group that will use it for less good things. Because people use knives to kill does not mean we eliminate all knives from the world.

Thankfully I have moved into a place where I use my knowledge and skills for a good cause. My days of using it for more questionable activities has long passed.