Pepsi Max and Cadbury First to Use Shazam in U.K.

Pepsi Max and Cadbury will be the first U.K. brands to run Shazam-enabled TV advertising when they appear during this Saturday 's finale of Simon Cowell's "Britain's Got Talent." The two have signed up to bring extra content and giveaways to viewers during the live finale of the series, which has been attracting an average of 10 million viewers. Last month, ITV signed an exclusive deal with Shazam, a U.K.-based company that became a popular music-identification app and now sells itself as a "media discovery company" through which users can share music, TV shows and other media. Pepsi Max is showing a "Crowd Surfing" spot that features a group of famous soccer stars storming an outdoor music festival. Working with Mindshare, Pepsi will give away festival tickets, merchandise and screen savers to Shazam users who follow an on-screen prompt and use their Shazam app to tag the commercial. It will also link to iTunes, so fans can download the ad's soundtrack, "Let's Go," by Calvin Harris and featuring Ne-Yo. Cadbury will feature its "Unwrap Gold" spot and offer the chance to win tickets to the London Olympic ceremonies. Omnicom agencies were behind the effort, with PHD's Drum credited with the idea and creative, and PHD brokering the deal. "This is a great way to use the second screen around event TV, and the use of this innovative technology allows us to get closer to consumers," Clare Tasker, Cadbury's London 2012 marketing lead, said in a statement. "It is something Cadbury has been doing more and more of over the last 18 months." Tiffany Welsh, Pepsi Max U.K. digital manager, emphasized in a statement the brands desire to be first with the technology because "Pepsi Max consumers are always at the forefront of digital trends." Pepsi Max's ad is by CLM BBDO in Paris and media is by OMD. Shazam claims to have more than 200 million users in 200 countries, with 1.5 million users joining each month. The privately owned company raised $32 million last summer to fund expansion beyond its music focus -- it built the business on helping users to identify tracks -- into tagging TV shows and commercials. Several Super Bowl advertisers this year ran Shazam-enabled ads. Cars.com's use of the technology let viewers who tagged the commercial earn $1 for one of seven children's charities. Old Navy has also used Shazam, linking to an e-commerce site where users can buy outfits in the commercial. And in case you were wondering, the hot favorite to win this year's Britain's Got Talent is Pudsey, the performing dog.

Pepsi Max and Cadbury First to Use Shazam in U.K.

Featured Stories