The Brit Awards 2013 are to be Shazam-enabled. The music ceremony which is the UK’s version of the Grammys, will be broadcast live with opportunities for viewers to ‘Shazam’ the program to access exclusive content.
The access has come about via ITV Commercial and Shazam working together and music fans can get into the action on February 20 in the UK between 8pm and 10.15pm local time.
When music fans use the Shazam app to tag the show while it is being broadcast, they should be able to see content behind the scenes of the show, material with guest presenters and more from the acts involved in the ceremony.
Naturally given the state of two-screen viewing, there will also be ample opportunity to engage with the event via Twitter and Facebook.
It’s a smart move by ITV to get involved with a young audience that would more naturally use mobile devices to engage with broadcast content. Stephen Poole, Multiplatform Group Sales Controller at ITV is pleased with the offering and says, “The BRIT Awards is such an iconic ceremony in the UK and we are very excited to offer viewers this added interactivity and the opportunity to engage deeper with our content.”
To work on the Brits is also a big deal for the app-maker. David Jones, EVP Marketing for Shazam said, “We are excited that our first live Shazam-enabled program in the UK is one of the biggest nights of the year for the music industry, the BRIT Awards. People who know and love us for music will now get to experience all the great features we now bring to television.”
The Shazam app helps users find content by identifying sound via mobile devices. The company has been going great guns with assorted media advertising deals including Microsoft’s UK TV ad for Internet Explorer last year, a deal with Major League Baseball to deliver scores, stats and highlights during games and further international news as it opened up offices earlier this month in Australia to target the APAC market.
Targeting the right audience with an audio-led event is a good idea, the proof will be in the number of users that take up the activity during the show. As Shazam claims more than 275 million users in 200 countries, with 2 million new people joining each week, it certainly has a fair core audience to experiment with different applications.
Image Credit: Steve Snodgrass / Flickr
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