Millions of people use Shazam on their smartphones to identify songs they hear playing.

But did you know that for the past 2 years, Shazam has also been used to make TV ads interactive?

Here is an update from Shazam on the most most popular adverts, as well as some advice for effective 2nd screen advertising.

Shazam has been actively working in the TV ad area for a couple of years, initially launching in the US, but now also available in the UK, Western Europe, Turkey, India, Australia and New Zealand. Shazam enabled ads have run during some of the most watched TV – including the US Superbowl and the final episode of the X-Factor.

With Shazam for TV, a consumer uses Shazam as usual, but they ‘tag’ a TV advertisement, which provides an immediate level of interactivity.

For example, viewers might receive additional information about the product, they might get access to special offers or be entered into an exclusive competition. This is a much more interactive experience compared with a standard TV ad.

Shazam recently produced a list of the Top Ten most tagged ads globally. As you see, some of the biggest brands in the world have successfully used this new approach to 2nd screen advertising.

Based on their experience over the past 2 years, Shazam has shared their top tips for successfully integrating Shazam tagging into a TV ad.

• Start with great content – a good, compelling ad will be more likely to encourage people to tag it (humour always helps)
• Include the Shazam on-screen call-to-action early in the ad, and for at least 10 seconds, so that people know quickly that they can interact with it
• Make it simple to understand why people should interact giving them a clear, compelling call to action
• Leverage your extra content – do you have a rich video content that you can use to extend the engagement with the brand? Special offers?
• Make sure the entire experience is mobile-friendly, including content or actions that might be done at the brand’s websites (e.g., buying the product, getting a quote)
• The larger the nationwide campaign, the better
• Great music in an ad has long been proven to work in advertising, and that’s still the case here with people who use Shazam, who are known music fans

For more on 2nd screen advertising, read Shazam & Dockers Make TV A “Clickable Media” During Superbowl