Shazam Launches AR Platform For Advertising

Augmented reality is making its way into the advertising space with a new AR platform coming to a widely-used smartphone app.

Shazam just launched an augmented reality capability that it plans to establish as an advertising platform for brands.

The AR capabilities are powered by London-based Zappar, which has provided AR services for companies including Visa, Hasbro and Coca Cola, among others.

“One of the things missing from augmented reality for advertisers has been a frictionless way to deliver these experiences at scale,” Greg Glenday, chief revenue officer at Shazam, said in a statement.

“Because Shazam has such a massive install base, and consumers are already accustomed to using the app for discovery, we have now solved that problem,” Glenday said. “The possibilities for a brand to bring their products to life or make their advertising more engaging are only limited by the imagination.”

Shazam is first partnering with spirits holding company Beam Suntory, specifically the Sauza and Hornitas Tequila brands, and plans to roll out the first campaign in the U.S. in April, leading up to Cinco de Mayo.

Creative materials in stores will have so-called ‘Shazam Codes,’ which are quick-response codes that can be scanned with a smartphone using the Shazam app. Scanning a code can then trigger multiple types of AR experiences.

In the case of Sauza and Hornitas Tequilas, the experience triggered is a co-branded interactive memory game.

“This breakthrough technology offers an accessible, immersive platform with which to engage in a rewarded gamification experience at the point of purchase leading up to Cinco de Mayo,” stated Michelle Cater, senior director of commercial marketing at Beam Suntory.

Other possible triggered experiences include product visualizations, 360 videos, 3D animations and mini-games, according to Shazam.

The Shazam Codes can also be customized, tracked and printed at-will, according to Caspar Thykier, co-founder and CEO of Zappar.

“AR experiences can be uniquely triggered or tracked in places and on products other AR solutions can't reach whilst offering measurable data analytics,” Thykier wrote in a blog post. “They can be printed on the fly on tickets and till receipts with globally unique codes for every single product if needed.”

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