Mediaboss Marketing

Events when they havent been cancelled altogether in the last 12 months due to the global health pandemic have gone virtual and online, and a wave of startups that are helping people create and participate in those experiences are seeing a surge of attention and funding.

In the latest development, New York video startup TouchCast which has developed a platform aimed at companies to produce lifelike, virtual conferences and other events without much technical heavy-lifting has picked up funding of $55 million, money that co-founder and CEO Edo Segal said the startup will use to build out its services and teams after being overrun by demand in the wake of COVID-19.

The funding is being led by a strategic investor, Accenture Ventures the investment arm of the systems integrator and consultancy behemoth with Alexander Capital Ventures, Saatchi Invest, Ronald Lauder and other unnamed investors also participating. The startup up to now has been largely self-funded, and while Segal isnt disclosing the valuation, he said it was definitely in the nine-figures (that is, somewhere in the large region of hundreds of millions of dollars).

Accenture has been using TouchCasts technology for its own events, but that is likely just one part of its interest: Accenture also has a lot of corporate customers that tap it to build and implement interactive services, so potentially this could lead to more customers in TouchCasts pipeline.

(Case in point: My interview with Segal, over Zoom, found me speaking to him in the middle of a vast aircraft hangar, with a 747 from one of the big airlines of the world I wont say which parked behind him. He said hed just come from a business pitch with the airline in question.)

A lot of what we have seen in virtual events, and in particular conferences, has to date been, effectively, a managed version of a group call on one of the established videoconferencing platforms like Zoom, Googles Hangout, Microsofts Teams, Webex and so on.

You get a screen with participants individual video streams presented to you in a grid more reminiscent of the opening credits of the Brady Bunch or Hollywood Squares than an actual stage or venue.

There are some, of course, that are taking a much different route. Witness Apples online events in the last year, productions that have elevated what a virtual event can mean, with more detail and information, and less awkwardness, than an actual live event.

The problem is that not every company is Apple, unable to afford much less execute Hollywood-level presentations.

The essence of what TouchCast has built, as Segal describes it, is a platform that combines computer vision, video streaming technology and natural language processing to let other organizations create experiences that are closer to that of the iPhone giants than they are to a game show.

We have created a platform so that all companies can create events like Apples, Segal said. Were taking them on a journey beyond people sitting in their home offices.

Yet home office remains the operative phrase. With TouchCast, people (the organizers and the onstage participants) still use basic videoconferencing solutions like Zoom and Teams in their homes, even to produce the action. But behind the scenes, TouchCast is taking those videos, using computer vision to trim out the people and place them into virtual venues so that they appear as if they are on stage in an actual conference.

These venues come from a selection of templates, or the organiser can arrange for a specific venue to be shot and used. And in addition to the actual event, TouchCast then also provides tools for audience members to participate with questions and to chat to each other. As the event is progressing, TouchCast also produces transcriptions and summaries of the key points for those who want them.

Segal said that TouchCast is not planning to make this a consumer-focused product, not even on the B2B2C side, but its preparing a feature so that when business conference organisers do want to hold a music segment with a special guest, those can be incorporated, too. (In all honesty, it seems like a small leap to use this for more consumer-focused events, too.)

TouchCasts growth into a startup serving an audience of hungry and anxious event planners has been an interesting pivot that is a reminder to founders (and investors) that the right opportunities might not be the ones you think they are.

You might recall that the company first came out of stealth back in 2013, with former TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld one of the co-founders.

Back then, the companys concept was to supercharge online video, by making it easier for creators to bring in interactive elements and media widgets into their work, to essentially make videos closer to the kind of interactivity and busy media mix that we find on web pages themselves.

All that might have been too clever by half. Or, it was simply not the right time for that technology. The service never made many waves, and one of my colleagues even assumed it had deadpooled at some point.

Not at all, it turns out. Segal (a serial entrepreneur who also used to work at AOL as VP of emerging platforms AOL being the company that acquired TechCrunch and eventually became a part of Verizon) notes that the technology that TouchCast is using for its conferencing solution is essentially the same as what it built for its original video product.

After launching an earlier, less feature-rich version of what it has on the market today, it took the company about six months to retool it, adding in more mixed reality customization via the use of Unreal Engine, to make it what it is now, and to meet the demand it started to see from customers, who approached the startup for their own events after attending conferences held by others using TouchCast.

It took us eight years to get to our overnight success story, Segal joked.

Figures from Grand View Research cited by TouchCast estimate that virtual events will be a $400 billion business by 2027, and that has made for a pretty large array of companies building out experiences that will make those events worth attending, and putting on.

They include the likes of Hopin and Bizzabo both of which have recently also raised big rounds but also more enhanced services from the big, established players in videoconferencing like Zoom, Google, Microsoft, Cisco and more.

Its no surprise to see Accenture throwing its hat into that ring as a backer of what it has decided is one of the more interesting technology players in that mix.

The reason is because many understand and now accept that similar to working life in general its very likely that even when we do return to live events, the virtual component, and the expectation that it will work well and be compelling enough to watch, is here to stay.

Digital disruption, distributed workforces, and customer experience are the driving forces behind the need for companies to transform how they do business and move toward the future of work, said Tom Lounibos, managing director, Accenture Ventures, in a statement. For organizations to harness the power of virtual experiences to deliver business impact, the pandemic has shown that quality interactions and insights are needed. Our investment in Touchcast demonstrates our commitment to identifying the latest technologies that help address our clients critical business needs.

More:
TouchCast raises $55M to grow its mixed reality-based virtual event platform - TechCrunch

The Los Angeles-based commerce and content platform StackCommerce has been acquired by Integrated Media Company, a holding company set up by the massive private equity fund TPG to acquire new media businesses.

StackCommerces affiliate buying platform has distributed more than $175 million on its platform by going directly to merchants. Through its platform, publishers can make between 15% to 20% of gross compared with 5% on an affiliate marketing site. StackCommerce takes 30% to 40% of the transaction, according to a person with knowledge of the companys operations.

As a part of Integrated Media, StackCommerce will join properties like Fandom and Goal.com. With the firepower of TPG behind the combined entity, Integrated Media could bolt on other media companies and then monetize them using the sales engine developed by StackCommerce.

Josh and the team at Stack have already built a large and important company in the e-commerce ecosystem with almost no outside investment, said Andy Doyle, Operations director at TPG. And yet were still in the early stages of the markets evolution. We feel fortunate to partner with a team that has such deep expertise in commerce and technology. We look forward to supporting Stacks rapid growth as it serves more publishers and influencers and provides an even better shopping experience for audiences.

Its a business thats been incredibly profitable for the Los Angeles company, which raised $1 million from the LA-based accelerator and incubator Amplify and a few angel investors. That $1 million round took the company to a business that employed around 90 people and was generating $80 million in revenue in 2020, according to a person familiar with the company.

StackCommerce has partnered with more than 1,000 publishers and 5,000 brands, including CNN, CNET, Verizon Media, Hearst, Mashable, NY Post, TMZ, MarketWatch and more, according to a statement.

We founded StackCommerce nearly a decade ago to reimagine affiliate commerce for publishers by enabling them to own the customer data and user experience top to bottom. Weve been pioneering the commerce and content space ever since, helping publishers to build and scale this new revenue stream at a higher rate and with access to content creation services, user acquisition, and more, said Josh Payne, the founder and chief executive of StackCommerce, in a statement. Today is not just an important day for Stack, but for the future of shoppable content. TPGs in-depth media expertise will make for a brighter future for our partners through further investment in our industry-leading commerce tools and services.

StackCommerce was advised by investment bank CG Petsky Prunier, part of the Canaccord Genuity Group. Cooley LLP acted as legal advisor to StackCommerce.

Read the original:
After pulling in around $80 million last year in revenue, LAs StackCommerce is acquired by TPGs Integrated Media Company - TechCrunch

Cathy Yan wishes she had "more control" over 'Birds of Prey'.

The 38-year-old director helmed the DC Extended Universe movie and confessed that she wanted to have more of a say over the final cut of the film.

Cathy said: "I would have loved to have more control over the edit of ('Birds of Prey'). But that's just kind of how it is.

"I don't know if there's a Cathy Yan cut out there, but I think for any filmmaker, all of us are in it because we want to express ourselves as wholly as possible. And to match what you ultimately see on screen with what's in our head."

Cathy admits that her experience on 'Birds of Prey' which starred Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as The Huntress and Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary - has left her unsure about taking on a blockbuster in the future.

Asked if the superhero flick will impact on her plans, she told The Playlist: "Yes and no.

"I never did ('Birds of Prey') in the first place so that I could say I did a big movie or blockbuster movie. I actually very much did it because I thought the script was interesting. And the fact that I got the chance to depict women, especially female superheroes, in a way that we haven't really seen before, like neither perfect nor weak, you know?

"I think it's (typically) either-or really. I enjoyed that challenge of being able to subvert the genre a little bit."

Cathy added: "I would never discount ever doing it again. I try not to think of whether I would do this type of movie or that type of movie again. Or whether I'd work with this studio or that.

"But more like, 'Is this story compelling?' And I'm also a writer/director. So, in that case, my big lesson is that I want to continue to do that and have a little bit more control over the story I'm telling."

Link:
Cathy Yan wanted 'more control' over Birds of Prey - Crow River Media

Facebook, which has long enabledadvertisers to control what content their ads appear adjacent to on its audience network, Instant Articles and its in-stream video, will soon be able to do so across the most organic content itpublishes: its newsfeed.

The initiative, which is in its early stages of development, will enable advertisers and agencies to exclude their ads from running next to or near topicsthey deem inappropriate or harmful to their brands image.

Providing advertisers topic exclusion tools to control the content their ads appear next to is incrediblyimportant work for us, Facebook Vice President-Global Business Group Carolyn Everson said in a statement announcing the effort this morning. She added that the steps are being taken as part ofFacebooks commitment to support the World Federation of Advertisers recently announced GARM (Global Alliance for Harmful Media) initiative.

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Withprivacy at the center of the work, were starting to develop and test for a control that will apply to News Feed, she said, adding that, It will take time but its the rightwork to do.

Marketers and agencies have a long history of requiring media to ensure that their ads do not appear adjacent to objectionable content that might harm their brandmessages by association. The criteria vary by brands and the context of the media they place it in, and the process is constantly evolving. Some brands, for example, may have different criteria forthe same objectionable content in an entertainment environment vs. a news programming environment, but as social media has evolved -- especially so-called user-generated content -- some of theircriteria have fallen off historic guardrails, because they have not been easily classifiable, and/or because the platforms -- like Facebook -- didnt have the controls to enable them.

A Facebook spokesperson said explicit details were still being worked out and characterized the plans as early days, but offered the following example of how it might work:

The current design is a control that helps address concerns brands have of their ads appearing around ads appearing next to certain topics, based on their brand suitabilitypreference, in News Feed, he said, adding, For example, the control may allow an advertiser to select a topic, such as Crime and Tragedy. That selection would inform how our ad systemsdeliver the ads. The control may change as we test and learn.

Read more:
Facebook To Give Brands Control Of Ad Buys Next To Its Most Organic Content: The Topics Of Its Newsfeed 01/29/2021 - MediaPost Communications

Shagmag

The famed Hollywood sign that overlooks Tinseltown briefly read "Hollyboob" on Monday. And now we (may) know why.

Social media influencer Julia Rose says she changed the sign to protest what she sees as censorship of racier content by Instagram. Police arrested Rose and five others for trespassing, and park rangers quickly restored the iconic sign to its usual status.

Entertain your brain with the coolest news from streaming to superheroes, memes to video games.

"This was way uncool (not to mention the terrain is quite steep and dangerous)," Captain Steve Lurie, commanding officer of LAPD's Hollywood area, tweeted Monday.

Rose is founder and CEO of Shag Mag, a digital publication that features "exclusive and uncensored content of Julia Rose and other up and coming Instagram models" (yes, there are lots of boobs). In an interview with The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, Rose said she first came up with the Hollyboob idea last year after Instagram warned her about nudity on her personal and company accounts. The accounts had about 6 million followers combined before they were disabled, the Times reports.

Rose told the newspaper she knew she was "pushing the boundaries of censorship" on the accounts by featuring other scantily clothed influencers, but believed Instagram and its parent company, Facebook, targeted influencers more aggressively than established brands like Playboy.

"We don't allow nudity on Instagram, and we removed these accounts for repeatedly breaking those rules," a Facebook company spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday.

Rose, and fellow influencer Jack Tenney, one of her prank partners, maintain that the stunt had unanticipated benefits, like raising breast cancer awareness and bringing a smile to people's faces.

"It's awesome," Rose told the LA Times. "All of it combined together has been really, really great."

The Hollywood sign was built in 1923 as a giant illuminated ad for an upscale real estate development called Hollywoodland and quickly became a tourist attraction and symbol of Hollywood glamour. It's appeared in numerous films, including Argo, Sharknado and San Andreas, and in video games including Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. The W on the sign, the tallest letter on the current version, stands at 45 feet high by close to 40 inches wide.

Accessing the landmark atop Mt. Lee requires climbing steep terrain, but trespassers have managed to alter it before. In 2017, an artist changed it to read "Hollyweed," and in 1987, it briefly became "Holywood" to coincide with a visit from the pope.

Rose also made headlinesduring the 2019 World Series, when she and some friends flashed their breasts to TV cameras from seats behind home plate. At the time, they also said they were raising awareness of breast cancer.

Rose and Tenney face court appearances for their Hollyboob hijinks later this year.

Read more:
Why an influencer turned the Hollywood sign into the Hollyboob sign - CNET