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cartoonzi OP t1_ism45ua wrote

Announced a few months ago at NewFronts, Amazon and Peacock demonstrated new ad formats that use similar virtual product placement (VPP) tools, a post-production technique for inserting a brand into a TV show or movie scene.
Amazon presented its new VPP tool, currently operating in beta, that lets advertisers place their branded products directly into streaming content after they have already been filmed and produced. Meanwhile, Peacock’s new “In-Scene” ads will identify key moments within a show and digitally insert a brand’s customized messaging or product post-production so the brand is showcased in the right TV show/movie and at the right time.

The virtual product placement beta program has already been implemented in several Prime Video and Freevee original series such as “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” “Bosch: Legacy,” the overall Bosch franchise, “Reacher” and “Leverage: Redemption.”

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This is really interesting from a tech perspective, but I wonder if the personalization of these ads could alter or feel out of place in a movie. Example: can a virtual billboard ad be a mismatch with the genre or historical timing of the movie or show?

It makes a lot of sense from a streamer's perspective. They want to invest in creating more content without charging people more because they will leave (*cough* Netflix *cough*). And many streaming services now offer ad-supported tiers so they don't lose as many subscribers.

From Amazon's perspective, I can see them building this technology to the point where they can provide it as a service to Netflix and Disney Plus (like they do with AWS).

What does everyone think of this?

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blazelet t1_ismcpoy wrote

I worked in news, commercials and now vfx. I imagine it’s probably a more automated way of doing what we’ve been manually doing forever. I’ve worked on major Hollywood films where we’ve added a certain car parked on the street behind the characters because a car company paid for it, or swapped out billboards/signage/buildings to focus on a sponsor.

If they prep the footage adequately when they shoot, scenes could be templated where as long as you format the input image consistently it just swaps them out seamlessly. This month it features MMs, next month it’s coke.

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TheStupendusMan t1_ismdjms wrote

This. They’d probably just have project files / templates prepped to pump out changes per cycle.

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AlwaysL82TheParty t1_isp3q09 wrote

It's probably a bit more advanced than this. We actually put out a platform about 10 years ago doing it (going to have to go see if they violated our patents lol) Here's our platform so you can see how we were using it (and I suspect they are doing it roughly the same - if you look at things like the skateboard & football, you can see you don't even need flat blank spaces - we analyzed videos & recommended spots, then auto inserted brands): http://dolo.co/

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