Premium mobile ad agency 4th Screen Advertising is launching in the US, with Shazam, the popular mobile music discovery service, as its foundation client. The launch extends the successful partnership that the two companies have enjoyed in Europe and enables 4th Screen to offer US-based clients innovative marketing campaigns around Shazam’s increasingly popular music discovery service.
With a reach of over 75m Shazam users, the deal will see 4th Screen’s Mpression Engagement platform serve targeted mobile ads based on the music tagging information at the heart of the Shazam service, as well as a host of other campaign parameters such as handset type, time of day, age and gender. With sales teams on both the East and West coast of the US, 4th Screen will also be working in tandem with Shazam to sell integrated advertising and sponsorship opportunities around the music tagging service.
The deal comes on the back of a successful partnership with Shazam across Europe, and particularly in the UK, where user preference data is spliced with concert information from The O2 music arena to deliver relevant ticket information, content and priority offers to O2 customers.
“4th Screen has been a highly effective partner for Shazam across Europe and we’re excited to be their foundation client as they expand into the US market,” says Jonathan Symons, executive vice president, business development at Shazam. “They really understand the unique customer engagement that Shazam can deliver to brand marketers and agencies, using people’s love of music as an entry point. We are looking forward to working closely with 4th Screen to deliver innovative and valuable campaigns in the US as well as Europe.”
4th screen MD Mark Slade says he believes the company’s approach will resonate well in the US market. “We are excited about the opportunities and are already getting some positive feedback,” he says. “I firmly believe one size doesn’t fit all in mobile advertising – it is about developing unique concepts for each of our application owners, so the interaction of the brand and consumer is engaging and relevant to the mobile experience. 
“The partnership with Shazam underlines our expertise in both creativity and technology, as it has allowed us to really innovate and show our commitment to helping publishers deliver value and relevancy to their advertisers. This in turn stimulates the value of Shazam’s inventory, because it is based upon a much deeper and relevant advertising experience for users.”
4th Screen’s Mpression Engagement Platform offers new software developer kits (SDKs) for Android and iPhone (with RIM and OVI to follow), enabling advertisers to take advantage of 4th Screen’s rich media mobile ad formats, including iSlide, video, location and Augmented Reality.
It also offers a separate innovation hub to develop bespoke formats for individual applications and publishers; advanced data mining powered by Vertiga for real-time campaign planning and segmentation; engagement research and reporting; campaign-planning tools; and access to 4th Screen’s premium global publisher network, which includes an inventory of premium publishers in Europe, N. America, S. Africa and Asia.
