Future television commercials must be more innovative if the industry expects to remain profitable and simultaneously retain traditionally superior employee compensation. As we’ve repeatedly noted, the two keys to better advertising are (1) improved targeting — especially behavioral targeting — and (2) interactive commercials.
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The cable TV industry has promised better targeting for over three years via its Project Canoe. But as explained in our analysis nearly two years ago we conclude that Project Canoe will fail because it can never match the innovative pace of the Internet.
Now arrives Old Navy using the popular Shazam mobile Internet application to bring Interactivity to a conventional television commercial — today.
By way of background, Old Navy is a mall store chain selling casual clothing targeted at ladies aged 25 – 35. Their shoppers are also often moms and owners of smartphones. Shazam is a smartphone application normally used to identify songs playing on the radio. Users activate the app, point their microphone-embedded smartphone at the music source, and Shazam normally identifies the track within thirty seconds. There are over 100 million Shazam users.
By way of background, Old Navy is a mall store chain selling casual clothing targeted at ladies aged 25 – 35. Their shoppers are also often moms and owners of smartphones. Shazam is a smartphone application normally used to identify songs playing on the radio. Users activate the app, point their microphone-embedded smartphone at the music source, and Shazam normally identifies the track within thirty seconds. There are over 100 million Shazam users.
But the Shazam app is capable of doing more than merely recognizing songs. It can also trigger user interaction. That’s why Old Navy and Shazam teamed-up for the former’s new TV commercial promoting its new lines of merchandise for the Spring of 2011.
Specifically, Old Navy created the short music video below to run as a conventional TV commercial. Smartphone users activating Shazam while the track is playing, not only identify the song, but also get directed to pages at the Old Navy website where they can inspect the Spring merchandise. Hypothetically, they could also be provided with a time-sensitive discount coupon enabling them to impulsively buy clothing spontaneously. Thus, Shazam and the Internet could enable viewers of the commercial to segue into purchasers of merchandise, without leaving their homes.
Old Navy Television Commercial
Shazam Enabeled for Interactivity (Click to Watch)
Shazam uses digital fingerprints to identify audio tracks. A digital fingerprint is created by applying feature-extraction algorithms to a track sample. The process yields a unique set of features corresponding to the original file segment.
Digital fingerprints are powerful identification tools when compiled in an online database. The Shazam app (1) “listens” to a song and (2) transmit the digitized sample to an online database where it is (3) matched with the most similar fingerprint in the index. Metadata in the index specific to the track can enable the user to buy the full song as a download, be directed to a shopping site, be presented with a time-sensitive discount coupon, or a variety of other actions.
However, digital fingerprints cannot identify the distribution source of the song. For example, fingerprints cannot “tell” whether the user watched the video on TV or via YouTube – unless the tracks are subtly different thereby yielding different fingerprints.
Another method capable of identifying distribution sources is the digital watermark. They are imperceptible codes uniquely imbedded in applicable copies of media. Thus, a Shazam-lke app that uses watermarks could identify which radio station is playing the song the user wants to identify. It could also direct users to web pages where the subject merchandise can be purchased and simultaneously credit the proper radio station for triggering the sale. The merchant could then pay a bounty to the applicable station and also know which stations are generating the most sales for the advertised product.
In sum, Shazam and Old Navy have pioneered a concept permitting conventional television commercials to conveniently evolve into spontaneous online purchases of advertised merchandise. It works on all televisions whether broadcast, cable, or satellite. By comparison Project Canoe is hardly out of the starting blocks and plans a gradual roll-out that will take years, even if it is ever completed.
