• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, January 31, 2014

Twitter has taken center stage when it comes to second-screen activity around the Super Bowl, but Shazam isn’t throwing in the towel. The platform, which lets users tag commercials and TV shows for added content or offers, has teamed with Bud Light and Jaguar on special promotions when viewers “Shazam” their commercials during the game or halftime performance by Bruno Mars.
 
When the Bud Light commercial airs, the first 500,000 fans on Shazam who tag the ad for its Cool Twist bottles, will win free downloads of Afrojack’s new song, “Ten Feet Tall,” before it goes on sale at a midnight. And in connection with Jaguar’s “Rendezvous” ad, people who tag the commercial will be able to play an interactive game built around the “British Villains” theme of the luxury car maker’s new marketing campaign.
 
For the first time, in addition to those two spots -- which include special offers -- viewers will be able to tag all the ads during the Super Bowl via Shazam to get more product information and links to advertisers’ social media or online properties. They’ll also have the ability to replay and share favorite ads via social networks.
 
Apart from the ads, Shazam users who tag Bruno Mars’ performance during the halftime show will get an exclusive video of his live performance of “If I knew” from the “Moonshine Jungle” tour in Paris.
 
Taking a page from Twitter, Shazam is also launching a new Timeline feature -- which it describes as an “evolution” of its News Feed -- that allows viewers to get up-to-the-minute information on key moments of the Broncos-Seahawks clash, as well as game-related tweets and playlists of the Bruno Mars and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ performances.
 
The Timeline feature, which leverages Shazam’s auto-tagging function, means that once users Shazam any part of the show, it automatically provides updates throughout the broadcast. It doesn't requiring someone to tag programming through the app again.
 
Shazam, which initially gained popularity as a way to identify music, says it reaches some 420 million users in 200 countries, with more than 80 million monthly active users. The company raised another $40 million in venture funding last July from America Movil for a total of $72 million to date .