PRESS RELEASE via Market Watch
Beginning with the Opening Ceremony on July 27 through the Closing Ceremony on August 12, viewers will be able to use the Shazam App anytime during the broadcast on NBCU’s channels to interact with the coverage, enabling them to:
— Download the NBC Olympics apps
— Keep up with the schedule of events
— Learn more about the athletes through competitor bios, news and photos
— Get up-to-the-minute results on all events
— Keep track of the medal count
— Participate in interactive viewer polls
— Check in and participate in the discussion on social media
“Download the NBC Olympics apps”? As in plural? How many apps will we have to use to interact with all the programming? Just asking.
via Lost Remote and Cory Bergman
What’s fascinating about this deal is the exclusivity provision, which is unusual for social TV efforts desperate for scale. But the UK second screen startup Zeebox adds a unique dimension here. Shazam says over 10 million people in the UK have downloaded the Shazam app, while last month Zeebox reported 250,000 downloads and growing fast — at one point, 15,000 new downloads an hour. As we reported earlier this year, Zeebox partnered with Sky TV, which has since been running on-air promos for the Zeebox app. And Zeebox has a click-to-buy feature tied on on-screen commercials.
1/3 of the ads in America’s biggest TV event are already in the social TV space. These early integrations are gimmicky and will amount to novelty footnotes in the industry, but clear proof advertisers are clamoring to spend on Social TV.
