Gap’s less-expensive sibling Old Navy debuted it’s newest marketing campaign this past week and it’s been hitting the airwaves hard. The campaign features a music video by a music group called The Audio Theads with their song “Super C-U-T-E.” Bright colors, catchy tune, and of course several costume changes show off Old Navy’s latest offerings for the upcoming Spring 2011 season.
What makes this campaign unique and interesting (not that we have anything against The Audio Threads, mind you), is its use of cross-media tools to drive ROI. In fact, the primary objective of the effort involves cross-media – to convince TV viewers to use the popular smartphone app named ‘Shazam’ to bring them online to learn more about the “Super C-U-T-E” campaign (Shazam’s logo appears in the lower right corner twice during the minute-long ad). In case you’re not familiar with this app, Shazam uses a mobile phone’s built-in microphone to gather a brief sample of any music being played nearby. An acoustic fingerprint is then created based on the sample, and is compared against a central database for a match. If a match is found, information such as the artist, song title, and album are relayed back to the user. Click Here to Learn How Shazam Works.
The Landing Page
So, while the ad is playing open Shazam on your mobile device and click “Touch to Shazam.” The app will listen to the song, locate the match, and bring you to a special landing page that allows users to view all the clothes featured in the video. Plus, while there users can also download the song for free (with an Old Navy email opt-in, of course), meet the band, watch the ad again, and even send share this page with friends using Facebook or Twitter.
In all, a very creative and effective use of cross-media tools to get people online to capture more customers. What’s your reaction to this new campaign? Let us know in the comments!
