Mobile TV Apps Shazam, IntoNow Reveal Super Bowl Plans

When people watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, they may notice something different about the ads — many of them will be touting a new way to interact with the advertised brands. Shazam, an app that allows people to connect with extra TV content by listening to a few seconds of audio, says it has big plans for Sunday, and IntoNow, a Yahoo-acquired app offering similar capabilities, is announcing a big partnership, too.

Shazam is better-known as an app for identifying music, but it recently brought its technology to TV, where the experience is less about identifying a song and more about creating an easy way for TV shows and advertisers to spur viewers to action. The company has been ramping up its advertising efforts over the past year, and it sounds like the SuperBowl should give those efforts a huge boost — Shazam  already announced in January that it signed deals to include Shazam capabilities with nearly one-third of Super Bowl ads.

Now the company says it’s working with nearly half the advertisers at the Super Bowl, and it’s revealing a few key ones: Viewers of the Toyota ad will be able to use Shazam to enter a contest to win two free Camrys. When viewers tag the Cars.com ad, Cars.com will donate $1.00 to one of seven charities. Pepsi’s ad will feature X-Factor winner Melanie Amaro, and using Shazam on the ad will unlock an extra video. Viewers who tag the Teleflora ad will receive a special offer. And not only is Best Buy using Shazam to offer a $50 gift card to customers who buy and activate a mobile phone in 2012 — it’s actually featuring two of Shazam’s founders in its commercial.

Beyond the success of any specific campaign, this year’s Super Bowl will probably serve as an introduction to Shazam’s TV capabilities for many millions of viewers. After all, they’re going to be seeing a Shazam logo, or some other mention of the app, on-screen throughout the day. (Oh, and Shazam users will be able to tag the game and the halftime show, too.)

“There are going to be a hundred-plus million people watching,” says Evan Krauss, Shazam’s executive vice president of advertising sales. “We’re excited for that many people to see it, and for them to see that many commercials in one day.”

IntoNow, meanwhile, hasn’t been as aggressive about signing up advertisers — or at least, in naming them for the press. Instead, it shared plans for one specific campaign Pepsi. After viewers tag the Super Bowl on IntoNow, the app will automatically sync up when the Pepsi MAX commercial airs, giving them an opportunity to enter a contest to receive Pesi MAX for life.