Shazam users have hit quarter of a billion and it has expanded its service to allow US users to scan any TV show for more content.
Today Shazam has announced it hit a milestone quarter of a billion users worldwide, for both its TV and music service. The company has also announced that its TV service, which in the UK currently allows people to scan specific TV ads for additional content, will now allow people to scan any Tv at any time to get extra content and information.
Miles Lewis, VP advertising sales at Shazam spoke to new media age about what the company plans for the UK and clarifies that both music and TV will still be important for the company.
How much of the business is now split between TV and Music? How you expect this to change?
Obviously, music remains at the core of what we do, and currently, it’s still what most people know us for, and we will drive $300 million in sales of digital goods. Our Shazam-enabled advertising service is our fastest growing revenue source; however, we don’t provide a detailed split of our revenue.
How will your efforts between the two be focused going forward?
Shazam is expanding the different types of content that people can engage with, adding new capabilities rather than shifting focus. We have the best music team in the industry who are constantly innovating the ways people can discover new songs and artists. The Shazam for TV service builds on this success, using the same audio recognition technology that people already know us for – in fact, 54% of Shazam fans surveyed already use the app with television once a week. With the new service, we think that percentage will continue to grow as people find the rich engaging content such as celebrity news, cast and episode information and, yes, music featured in the show.
When do you expect the full Shazam TV service to be rolled outside of the US to the UK?
Shazam-enabled ads are already available in the UK (the latest ads are for VO5 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 9) with programming to follow soon.
What’s the feedback been from advertisers that have been using the TV service for ads so far?
The reaction from our advertising partners has been incredibly positive, as thousands of people use the app to interact with the television ads, turning a 30-second spot into 2-, 3- even 5 minutes of engagement with the brand.
We’ve done a variety of implementations from simplifying the process to get insurance quotes to sending away for product samples to even purchasing movie tickets for summer blockbuster movies. In fact, during the Olympics, P&G Shazam-enabled their US campaign saluting athletes’ mothers so that people could meet the moms behind some of the American athletes in the 2012 Olympics.
I think the most important measure of success, however, is in the fact that we have repeat business – a number of our clients such as P&G, Sony Entertainment, Progressive Insurance and many others are repeat customers. And, now, brands are integrating us into their campaigns here in the UK as well as Australia, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
What’s the next step in terms of technology and interactivity? What do you see as the next step for Shazam after this?
In the coming months, Shazam will continue to innovate around music and television, expanding these services internationally. Our goal is to become a part of people’s everyday lives, so we will always be looking for new ways to delight our fans.
