Monday, February 3, 2014

Shazam CEO's 5 tips for making it big, You Gonna Pick A Fight


        Rich Riley, chief executive officer at Shazam Entertainment Ltd., speaks during the Open                         Mobile Summit in San Francisco, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013
Certainly, the viral nature of Shazam's functionality—which lets users press a button and quickly identify a song or get more information from a television show or commercial—has been a key factor in the company's success. But Riley notes there were other dynamics at play. Here are his top five tips on how to get your business ahead of the pack.
1. Pick a fight.
Riley was a 13-year vet at Yahoo, where he last served as executive vice president of the Americas. That meant he spent a lot of time keeping a close eye on Google. While the rest of the world saw the Yahoo/Google search battle as a fight, he says Google never saw it that way.
And ultimately, that taught him a lesson about how to run a company.
"Google said 'we're always going to have the biggest index and a faster search time. Bring it on, but that's the way it is," he said. "And when I came to Shazam, I adopted that philosophy."
Competition certainly makes companies strive harder and perform better, but confidence (though not overconfidence) in your product and a drive to stay far ahead of the pack can boost your chances of success.
Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Inside the Shazam Entertainment Ltd. headquarters in London.
2. Don't waste the customer's time.
Time is the most in-demand commodity around today. There are so many goods, services and distractions, a product or service that can quickly solve whatever problem consumers are facing is more likely to succeed.

Sometimes this means bypassing traditional steps that many businesses take. In Shazam's case, that meant resisting the urge to get people to register (which would have given the company a treasure trove of user information).
"People open the app because they hear something they want to know about," said Riley. "We want to get that answer for them as quickly as possible. You push a button, and we do our thing. It's a little analogous to the Google search: You push a button, and you're going to get an answer."
Even today the company struggles with the registration question.
"It's definitely one we kick around," he said. "You can log on through Facebook, and a meaningful percentage of customers do so. But we need to create an incentive for why you would want to register."
3. Enlist evangelists.
Every month nearly 10 million people download Shazam, said Riley. But the company's marketing budget is virtually nonexistent.
Some of that success is tied to the app's 4.5-star to 5-star Apple and Google App Store ranking, but Riley credits the bulk of it to the word of mouth from users. Perhaps more importantly, younger users are much more influenced by referrals from friends than they are by any form of advertising.
"People love the Shazam brand, and that love grows as you go younger," he said. "I think that's because we're simple, we're authentic and we do what we're supposed to do."
4. Serve the customer.
No matter what industry you think you're in, you're in the service business. Shazam not only has to keep app owners happy, it has to ensure that its media partners are just as enthusiastic. In the music industry, that's not a problem these days. But the push into television and television advertising has been a bit more challenging.
"We can say we're going to deliver audience to a show," said Riley. "They'll do a call to action, which is great for us. A consumer only Shazams if they want to, so it's a good experience."
When the company began pushing into the television industry—encouraging viewers to Shazam an ad or television program to learn more—there was resistance. Companies feared that instead of driving customers to their own social media efforts, they'd be driving people to Shazam.
The results have proved otherwise, though, said Riley. During the Country Music Awards in 2013, Shazam sold 50,000 songs for artists during the broadcast in just a couple of hours. And Jaguar and other ad companies have seen a notable drive to their extended online media efforts.
"Our pitch is, 'Turn 30 seconds of engagement into several minutes,'" said Riley. "In 2014 you'll see a lot of strategic partnerships from us."
Chris Morris | CNBC

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