720384Mirriad Marketplace for Native Invideo AdvertisingClosedGRD Development of PrototypeInnovate UKThe 24-month project will research and develop new ways of identifying opportunities for digital brand integration in online and broadcast video entertainment, previewing the results of placements (‘embeds’) and buying placement services. It will create an online Marketplace that connects the content entertainment programme owner to the advertiser and makes it possible to buy space in videos as easily as buying the banner ads around them. It will also prepare a draft standard for ways of valuing and pricing embedded advertising. TV and video advertising is changing. Digital video recorders catch-up services and connected TV make it easier for audiences to skip; online audiences don’t like banner ads, and find ways to block pop-ups. Embedding brands seamlessly into content offers an alternative that keeps the viewer happy, and is more likely to generate a positive response to the brand. The Marketplace will automate the identification of embed opportunities (‘avails’) and recommendation of suitable opportunities to brands; evaluate the size, duration and value of the opportunity; and provide previews of the embed. The proposal is highly innovative in terms of business process and computer science. It will create a much more transparent and efficient means of selecting and valuing opportunities, and streamline the decision-making process. We are addressing a new and very challenging problem in the automatic suggestion of product categories for video content. Many attributes can be involved in the decision process, including visual descriptors, audio, text (from audio transcription, subtitles) and semantic metadata (locale, show description, genre for a music video, mood and affective associational factors). MirriAd is a world leader in digital brand integration technologies and services. The Marketplace will significantly augment its a unique end-to-end platform to insert brands digitally into professionally produced video content at scale.