SARA (Shazam Audio Recognition Advertising) targets Brands andBroadcasters

Shazam has announced the launch of the Shazam Audio Recognition Advertising (SARA) program, which allows brands and broadcasters to extend the reach and depth of their campaigns to mobile. The program revolutionises interactivity with broadcast and with advertising by providing deeper consumer engagement using a mobile device.

Already used by clothing brand Dockers for its global "Wear the Pants" campaign at the Super Bowl earlier this month, the SARA program demonstrates how Shazam continues to evidence its market leadership of consumer discovery in the mobile applications space.

"Our partnership with Dockers has already shown how our technology takes consumers on an extended brand journey, allowing them to explore, discover and interact with all elements of a campaign," said Andrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam. "With the launch of the SARA program, we are enabling brands and broadcasters to achieve consumer engagement beyond traditional television whereby the promotion can be captured on a mobile with exclusive content and offers. For consumers this means the promotion can reside on their mobile and live on, such as 'two for one' pizza offers promoted via television and radio advertising, or unique media packages from a broadcaster that consumers can watch while on the move. Most importantly more than 50 million Shazamers have this capability already and we are expanding the value of what we bring to this community beyond music".

In addition, Shazam also announces its partnership with Augme Mobile to take the SARA program to the North American market. Augme Mobile has been a pioneer in mobile marketing technology and understands how brands and advertising agencies need to have the ability to create, deliver, manage and track interactive marketing campaigns.

David Apple, Managing Director of Augme Mobile says, "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."

The SARA program lets brand advertisers directly reach, influence and interact with target audiences using the company's immensely popular music recognition technology to tag a commercial. Advertisers can create campaigns that incentivise viewers to engage with the promotion and 'Shazam' the spot, meaning viewers access the Shazam service on their respective mobile devices, point the device in the direction of the commercial and hit the "Shazam " button. Shazam's audio technology recognizes the specific advert and returns a customized result.

Broadcasters can now use SARA for special promotions and hidden content - such as exclusive video's and interviews - by providing a click-through to a branded mobile web experience where viewers can interact directly with branded content. The tagged item remains in the viewers tag list so they can revisit it and share it 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.

"This unique and innovative approach to attract the attention of Brands' target consumers and to engage and interact with them in a meaningful way in a mobile environment enables an additional dimension to traditional advertising campaigns." adds Fisher.

More than 50 million people around the world have used the Shazam service, while Comscore recently named Shazam the most popular mobile application in Europe. Available across a range of platforms including iTunes App Store, Ovi store by Nokia, Android Market and BlackBerry App World, Shazam can help brands ensure that a campaign will have resonance and reach.