ITV airs first 2 Shazam for TV ads on UK’s BGT Final show

Rating: We’re hoping this isn’t another no-actual-winners TV scandal

Billed as the UK’s first Shazam-enabled ads, UK broadcaster, ITV, aired two adverts during the Britain’s Got Talent Final show last Saturday [12th May 2012]. GoMobile News isn’t sure how other viewers fared but the technology didn’t quite work for us. There were two ads involved: – one from soft drinks supplier, Pepsi and the other from confectionary supplier, Cadbury. Our problems could have stemmed from the fact that we were using a Nokia Lumia 800 (W7 Mango) handset. Such users surely represent a tiny minority of the over 10 million Shazam users in the UK. Another clue is that in the promotional blurb, says, “Make sure you have the latest version of Shazam, for the fastest tagging experience!”. We assume Shazam does actually mean the latest version not the paid-for Shazam Encore version. Curious, though.

The more ambitious of the two Shazam for TV-enabled ads was from Pepsi – ‘Crowd Surfing’.

This offered the opportunity to win tickets to popular festivals and unlock other prizes, free screen savers and merchandise.

There was also a link to Apple’s iTunes so that fans could download the Calvin Harris (featuring Ne-Yo) track, ‘Let’s Go’, which is the Pepsi Max ad’s official soundtrack.

The Cadbury’s ad –’Unwrap Gold’, offered viewers the chance to win a London 2012 Opening Ceremony package. This is where GoMobile News got nowhere.

What we saw was a graphic which read – “OOPS. SORRY POOR CONNECTION TRY AGAIN WHEN YOU HAVE A BETTER SIGNAL OR WIFI.”

Which is very strange indeed.

If – as is implied, we didn’t have a connexion, then how did we manage to actually obtain this tag in the first place?

Another attempt produced no tag – exactly what you’d expect when there’s no connexion.

Apparently, the idea and creative was devised by Drum and the deal brokered by PHD.

We’re not quite sure if The Drum is embarrassed by this episode because the relevant Press release on its site here was missing when we tried to view it.

We like the remarks in the release made by Cadbury London 2012 marketing lead, Clare Tasker, about the use of ‘Shazam for TV’.

She said, “This is a great way to use the second screen around event TV and the use of this innovative technology allows us to get closer to consumers.

It is something Cadbury have been doing more and more of over the last 18 months.”

GoMobile News wonders just how many people did get a chance to win the tickets. Perhaps we’d better ask her who won?

UPDATE: Cadbury has come back to us with an explanation. See here.