Dockers Plans to Shazam Super Bowl Viewers
Dockers has found a new use for a popular music identifying technology.
The technology, Shazam, was developed for smartphones to let users identify music by simply pointing their handheld in the direction of the music and clicking the “tag now” button. The technology recognizes the music and opens a Shazam landing page that identifies the song and artist, and offers other information, like where to buy the song and musical recommendations.
Dockers may just be one of the first brands to use the technology as a means to market to consumers, driving viewers of its Super Bowl ad, “Men Without Pants” to a splash page it created. During the ad, the song, “I Wear No Pants,” is sung. People who tag the song will be directed to Dockers content that includes information about its new campaign to drive sales of men’s khakis, learn about its products, purchase the “I Wear No Pants” soundtrack or enter a contest.
The technology offers the opportunity to apply a fresh take on its use for marketing. Dockers is incorporating Shazam as part of a major campaign launched in December in a bold move to revive sales for men’s apparel.
Interestingly, the Super Bowl spot, created by Draft/FCB, will not include the Shazam logo to let people know they can tag the music, however, ads running before and after the Big Game will. Dockers likely doesn’t want the millions it’s spending on the ad to promote Shazam, or cause confusion over exactly which brand is advertising. The commercial is the first that Dockers has aired on the Super Bowl since 2002.
Prior to the game, a “Men Without Pants” teaser is running on hundreds of Web sites from Feb. 1 to Feb. 7. In it a long-haired guy wandering through an open field sings, “I Wear No Pants,” with the words: “On Game Day, Shazam this Man,” also appearing, followed by Dockers branding and its Web address.
After the game, the TV spot continues through 2010—and will include the Shazam logo—on a variety of shows and networks including NBA on TNT, FX, Comedy Central and the Discovery Channel and will also air online immediately following the Super Bowl debut.
Shazam launched the technology in 2002, but it wasn’t until it launched an application for the iPhone a year and a half ago that things really took off. The company had 15 million users in February and now has about 50 million. Ignition Factory, the creative media specialty unit of Dockers’ media buying agency OMD, developed the Shazam partnership.
The potential for marketers seems there for the taking.
