Shazam Intros the SARA Program

Leading mobile discovery provider Shazam announced recently that it had launched a new program for brands and broadcasters, namely the Shazam Audio Recognition Advertising (SARA). According to the company, the new program is meant to offer revolutionary interactivity with broadcast and advertising through delivering a deeper consumer engagement on mobile phones. The new solution has been already used by clothing brand Dockers for its global “Wear the Pants” campaign, and is expected to show Shazam's leadership of consumer discovery in the mobile-application space.

At the same time, Shazam also announced a partnership with Augme Mobile for the introduction of the SARA program on the North American market. According to the company, Augme Mobile is one of the pioneers in the mobile marketing technology, thus having a deep understanding of the capability to create, deliver, manage and track interactive marketing campaigns that brands and advertising agencies need. Shazam also notes that the program can be used for special promotions and hidden content, while enabling viewers to interact directly with branded content. Moreover, it also offers viewers the possibility to share tagged items with friends.

“This form of advertising is 100% ‘opt-in’ and, unlike other interruptive advertising formats, is wholly controlled by consumers who can choose to interact with only those adverts or programmes that are relevant and of value to them. The SARA program also provides brands with a unique opportunity to assess the effectiveness of a campaign. By capturing the details of user click-throughs brands will be able to tailor future campaigns around content that is highly targeted and relevant to consumers,” Shazam also notes.

According to the company, the SARA program is meant to offer brand advertisers the possibility to “directly reach, influence and interact with target audiences using the company's immensely popular music recognition technology to tag a commercial.” Advertisers can come up with special campaigns for users, through which the latter can point the handset towards the commercial and then hit the Shazam button, so as to receive a customized result through the Shazam service. “We are excited to be working with Shazam to bring the SARA program to the advertising and media industry here in North America. We believe SARA and our relationship with Shazam delivers a unique opportunity to brands,” David Apple, managing director of Augme Mobile, said.