UK tech start-up WeSEE has launched a visual-based ad tool, letting brands target images and videos in the same way as keywords.
The tool, called WeSEE:Ads, makes user generated videos and images become targetable ad space for brands using proprietary image recognition technology.
The tool is able to analyse images found on the web, even when there is no metadata to indicate what that content is. The technology automatically processes images, visually detects the content theme and serves up relevant data for ad delivery.
WeSEE’s technology also uses a web page classification algorithm to help ensure that the ad delivery is safeguarded against appearing alongside adult content.
“Previously, if a car insurance company wanted its ads to appear on websites that discussed the automobile industry, great pains would be taken to feature its content on websites where the written content used terms like ‘used car’ and ‘car trade-ins,’” explains Adrian Moxley, WeSEE Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer. “However our technology creates new targetable ad inventory as it first scrapes and identifies that a web page is adult content free and brand safe, second identifies that the page is classified as ‘Automobile’ due to it containing images and text relating to cars, so that finally the web page can call for the most relevant car related ad to be delivered.”
The firm claims that, unlike comparable photo and video-based engines that employ a team of people to identify and program visual cues, the WeSEE engine “learns” this content automatically, without manual intervention.
Currently WeSEE:Ads and the WeSEE:Filter works across 125 IAB categories to recognise content related to Travel, Leisure, Countryside, City Landscapes, Interiors, Automobiles, Winter Scenes, Faces and Adult.
“Many ad-supported websites thrive on user-generated content, but recently some of those sites, like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other social sharing sites have come under fire for featuring their clients’ advertisements alongside questionable—or at least questionably relevant—content,” continued Adrian Moxley, Co-founder of WeSEE. “Because our ad solution can detect such content and create a request to block our customers’ ads from appearing beside it, we not only offer better ad targeting but also foster better, more trust-based relationships between companies on the buy and sell side of the online advertising ecosystem.”
www.wesee.com
