RYFF AND MVAULT ENABLES VIRTUAL PRODUCT PLACEMENT FOR 20,000 TITLES
Brand dollars have always been important to production financing, but traditional product placement leaves a large swath of content creators behind. That’s the impetus for a new partnership between technology vendor Ryff and content distributor MVault, which will make possible AI-powered digital product placement in MVault’s catalog of over 20,000 films and TV series.
As consumers avoid ads at greater rates, brands have turned to content as a way to get their products in front of the right audience. But product placement can be time-consuming, expensive, and error prone, meaning that only certain brands and content creators can take advantage of it. Ryff solves that problem with 3D technology inspired by the world of gaming; new products can be inserted digitally without the need for post-production, as simply as a gamer could change out armor.
“Content creators and brands see the value in working together, but they’ve struggled to work seamlessly — especially in the independent world,” says Matthew Joynes, film producer and Chairman of MVault and film producer. “Ryff opens up that possibility for them.”
Ryff approaches the world of product placement from a unique vantage point: the founders have experience in gaming, graphic hardware, and film. Its Placer platform ingests content such as a film, and its AI-driven Scene Intelligence software analyzes the content for moments when products make sense to appear, such as a kitchen counter for a bottle of wine. Ryff then inserts 3D models of the product in place and renders them to match lighting and cinematography, so they look like they belong there.
Because the platform can insert products into thousands of scenes at once, brands can work a larger audience than traditional product placement would allow. “The new generation of content viewers doesn’t want to see ads, but they’re OK with brands in their content — as long as that placement feels authentic,” says Roy Taylor, CEO of Ryff. “This partnership helps advertisers reach people at scale — all in an environment where content can’t be fast-forwarded or skipped.”
Independent creators like the ones in MVault’s library have typically been shut out of placement deals because they can’t guarantee distribution, which means brands can’t safely predict what their return might be. The deal calls for MVault to integrate its real-time rights management technology with Ryff, which will let copyright holders sign new placement deals long after their content has launched.
“Ryff captures the key moments in a film or TV series, so brand integrations can be monetized downstream,” Joynes says. “Now independents can earn product placement revenue even after production.”
ABOUT RYFF
Ryff is an American multinational technology company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company delivers authentic brand integration into any visual media at scale. Ryff serves the needs of brands looking for audiences and content creators wanting narratively supportive advertising.
ABOUT MVAULT AND CDAX
MVault is a downstream distributor of film, television, and games. MVault has a digital rights management platform used by content owners to reach the widest audience upstream to Amazon, Apple, and other aggregators. It is wholly owned by CDAX, an emerging financial technology company leveraging proprietary blockchain security for fast efficient payment processing with new card payment features.
