Video is the star of the show
We often think of YouTube as having lots of annoying ads that make you want to tear your hair out. Maybe this perception is about to change. Zyetric Technologies uses machine learning to place ads into videos by key opinion leaders (KOLs) in a non-intrusive way, making money from advertisements, while at the same time garnering data from the videos.
For retailers, online presence is of upmost importance, but the ultimate goal for many is to give customers the ability to click and check out. Using data, Zyetric empowers both brands and KOLs to know how to best promote their products by making minor tweaks to the videos, such as changing backgrounds, outfits or positioning of products, or making sure there is no overlap between the KOL and computer-placed graphics and ads. “Now our customers can’t even tell we are adding elements by computer, but it was a long process – we spent one year fixing this problem,” founder Patrick Lam says.
The company started when Lam was watching YouTube and found it irritating to have to sit and watch through ads. Zyetric was thus born, and initially focused on sports, then shifting its gaze towards KOL videos. “Once a computer, using AI and machine learning, can understand video content, it can do a lot of things. It can discover the best place to insert ads and understand the content of the video to place appropriate advertisements that won’t annoy users,” says Lam.
Zyetric now places ads in KOL videos for organisations that include Fortune 500 companies. “We are optimistic, especially since the KOL market is seeing strong growth with COVID-19 keeping everyone at home,” Lam says. The industry will grow exponentially over the next five years, according to Lam. “People are moving from TV to social media, and unlike other types of advertisements, they will be online forever, and they will always be evergreen” he says.
If you never have to sit through another irritating ad again in the future, Zyetric could be the company to thank.
Buckle up and get ready for the ride. Digital domination: Is physical retail dead?