The Wisdom Of Gomer Pyle

by Doug Chavez, Mar 8, 2012, 12:22 PM

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Perhaps it was a late-night re-run of “Gomer Pyle” playing in the background that got me thinking about the wisdom of “shazam.” And just maybe Gomer was onto something with all his shazaming.

Over the past several months I’ve noticed several forward-thinking entertainment and CPG brands collaborating with the music discovery app, Shazam. The app plays at the intersection of entertainment and marketing – an intersection that a lot consumer brands have been playing for a long while. In fact, the first soap operas were created for such product placements.

Brands have always liked the reach and engagement that early soaps and sitcoms have provided for brands. However, brands have always struggled to determine effectiveness, engagement and, ultimately, purchase behavior. The lay-up for brands incorporating Shazam into their programming is that they can measure engagement and quantify the number of people sampling their audio file through the app. If the brand is able, they can complete the transaction with a trackable click from the app. For many brands, this level of engagement and purchase data is nirvana.

How many times have you heard a song on TV, the radio or in a movie and “Shazamed” it? Knowing the song name, and perhaps even downloading it, is the best instant gratification.

The utility value of Shazam is unquestionable and plays right to our need for instant gratification. The big actionable insight is additive to what we as marketers have known for years and have continually iterated solutions for: people multitask while watching TV – texting, surfing the web, reading, sending IMs, etc. Shazam enables brands to capture real-time engagement, actions and purchases.

The utility and purchase ability is a lay-up for a band and the platform that’s selling the tagged song, but what about brands selling something at shelf? Some forward-thinking brands have engaged with Shazam and some TV programs to integrate “tagable” content that can open access to recipe content, coupons or free products.

While those tactics are not new, tagging content collecting the massive data is a great new achievement for marketers. With print circulation rates in drastic decline, CPG brands now have access to this tagged info and a new channel to deliver content in a digital and much more efficient way. With this type of rich engagement available today, marketers that are still running 30-second sponsorships with a URL or call out to a social network should ask themselves, what are we getting from that level of digital integration?

Once again, the intersection of marketing and entertainment is rife with opportunity for brands that understand the constantly evolving behaviors of consumers, the ubiquity of smartphones, the power of real-time interaction data and how to deliver meaningful ad-supported experiences in real-time. I can just hear Gomer Pyle saying, “Shazam!”

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