An innocent music recognition application evolves as a key platform for Advertisers

There is no doubt that Shazam is a key application and lifestyle tool for any music fan, helping consumers identify song titles since launching in 1999.

But is has developed into much more than that and is fast evolving into a key digital Mobile channel.

Advertisers are already able to make their TV ads and in-store promotions "shazamable" meaning consumers can tag branded audio with their Shazam app to receive content to their phone.

Smirnoff do this well offering free itunes music tracks for consumers that "Shazam" their TVC. Through my experience, brands that offer a strong incentive (such as free music tracks) and strong TV weight support  can expect up to 10,000 Shazam tags of their TVC and those with no incentive and low TV weights can expect around 1,000-3,000 tags.

Calvin Klein ran an in-store promotion with music sound installation allowing consumers to receive benefits in the form of in-store coupons, free music download and Calvin Klein wallpaper. Driving user interaction in such a novel and engaging way so close to POS is a key point of difference for brands.

With over 250 Million Shazam users globally positions Shazam as a key tool to help drive consumer interactivity, which in my experience is a more effective and cost efficient solution vs. those ghastly QR codes.

Expect more advertisers to invest behind Shazam across TVC, in-store promotions and events.

60% of brands trailing with no Mobile Optimised Site

If you look at the UK market 60% of the top 100 brands still do not have a Mobile Optimised website - remarkable given the proliferation of Mobile becoming the most important device for consumers.
Baffled and bewildered we look at those brands in the market who are optimised and reaping business results.
Footwear retailer, Foot Asylum is one of those brands. After revamping their mobile site with more consumer purchase incentives and better navigation they experienced a sales increase of over 500%.

Brands that are still to optimise their websites for Mobile will continue to fall behind further with the need to optimise for Tablet. Less than a third of retailers own a Tablet optimised site which is a barrier to the growth of T Commerce. This, again is baffling given Tablet has become the most popular device for consumer shopping ahead of Mobile and Desktop.

NET A PORTER & Karl Largerfeld using Technology to Crack a Great Launch

Designer Karl Lagerfeld  has launched an edgy collection using augmented reality as the centre piece.

The launch, driven by NET A PORTER, happened in Paris, London, New York and sunny Sydney. Attendees had a chance of winning $1,000 worth of Net a Porter gear by tagging the shop window with their smartphone and tablets to reveal an augmented shopping screen that lead to a product purchase page. A few lucky ones received a winning message rather than the product purchase page.

I was impressed with the Sydney launch - it had buzz, intrigue and participation , all characteristics of a successful launch driven by cool and novel use of technology.

Participants downloaded the Karl app to take part in the shop front augmentation. The app  looks the part with a neat HTML5 cube that navigates the content, including info on the collection, a Kalify yourself tool, game and augmented reality tool. Download the app here from itunes

Smartphone and Tablet integration should be a key component to any luxury/fashion brand launch given audience penetration.  Mrs Porter and Mr Lagerfeld cracked a great launch, which drove strong participation vs the traditional stuffy  way of relying on goody bags, people signing up to mailing lists/competitions etc.

Karl Lagerfeld can certainly afford to crack a smile across that stern poker face for great use of technology.

A "Blipping" Good App driving augmented interaction for brands

 

 Blippar  launched a new Mobile Augmented Reality app in the UK with a host of high profile brands testing the app including Marmite, Pimms, Tesco, Guinness amongst others.

 The launch of Blippar provides brands with an easy and user friendly way to  drive augmented interaction- certainly no scary and horrible looking QR codes (which are possibly the most over used mobile branding tool by advertisers and publishers alike).

QR were initially designed for car production lines and adopted by the digital advertising world. Some say Blippar is a "QR code killer" and others say it's "QR codes on steroids" -I tend to agree with both.
Enough about QR... Back onto the good stuff...

The rate of adoption and the way brands promote Blippar across their media comms will have a big influence on its growth.

Entry cost is minimal ( rights cost, production, set up and reporting) as is return given low scale but I see Blippar as a key test and learn for brands, who need to allocate sufficient resource to test properly.

The key principle for any  innovation testing is to fully commit the brand - I.e tag the blippar app across all media - tag TVC,  print executions, Facebook tab, online display etc. The worry for any brand when tagging their comms with other brands is that it can compromise driving brand metrics as the tagged brand can sometimes receive much of the attention. I don't see this being a problem  in this case given Blippar has such low awareness levels.

A key value driver for brands is the global appeal of "blipping" particularly for Global brands - driving efficiencies across markets when blipping a brand logo and reapplying  creative that is used across markets/countries.

The dream for Blippar and any invested brand is to make "blipping" a commonly used term in society. That will remain to be seen but for now all eyes on its user growth, continued brand adoption and if global penetration of the app moves from it's current 20% of total downloads.