Livad Technologies has launched a new tool to help creators place three-dimensional, virtual products directly inside their livestreamed content.
The advertising tech company announced its Virtual Product Placements product during a presentation by Livad chief executive officer Arda Genç at IAB Playfronts, the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s gaming-focused conference in New York City today, Sept. 17. The product will allow creators to place 3D objects into their streams on Twitch, Kick, YouTube Live, and TikTok Live. Livad has not yet used virtual product placements in a live campaign, but Genç said his team is currently in discussions with clients about this new form of livestreaming ad inventory.
Genç described Livad’s virtual product placements as an evolution of his company’s other forms of livestreaming ad inventory, like ads that take the form of sidebars playing alongside livestreamed or video content.
“We felt that the natural next step is making it fit even better with the livestream, so we started experimenting with these 3D placements,” Genç said in an interview with GamesBeat.
Livad’s Virtual Product Placement product represents more than just a 3D graphic overlaid on top of a livestream. The company can analyze creators’ videos in order to detect the distance between different objects in the scene and determine the best place to drop a virtual product. The tool analyzes parameters like lighting in real time, changing the lighting of the 3D object to match the lighting of the streamer’s real-life location. To create its virtual assets, Livad’s team takes two-dimensional images provided by clients and converts them into 3D renders using Blender.
“When the streamer has a desk, we can detect it and insert it there — and if not, we also make placements that feel like they belong, but without it being contextually aware,”
Although gaming content dominates the livestreaming creator economy, Genç said Livad’s virtual product placement tool is intended for creators across all categories, not just games. He said it would be possible to integrate 3D virtual products into game environments using Livad’s technology, but that this is not one of the company’s goals in the near future. He noted that the tool is available for creators across a range of livestreaming platforms, with platforms like TikTok indexing higher on lifestyle and beauty content.
“We are trying to position ourselves at the forefront of all live content, because we find it exciting and not just limited to gaming, and we’re betting that live is going to keep growing,” Genç said.
Genç noted that the value of placing 3D assets into a livestream could extend beyond the stream itself through short-form videos clipped from longer livestreams. Clipping has become a growing element of the broader creator economy; compared to more traditional forms of livestreaming ad inventory like pre-rolls, stream-integrated ads like the Virtual Product Placement format make it easier for brands to follow creators as their clips are shared from one platform to another.
“Another use case is integrating this into TikTok, in the vertical,” Genç said. “So, when clipped, the streamers’ monetization will not be limited to live moments, but they can also monetize it by inserting these into their TikToks.”