Imagine watching the SNL rap parody “Lazy Sunday” and encountering a clickable Betty Crocker ad during the verses about cupcakes. That’s basically what the folks at the mysteriously named Dave.tv (…we have no idea) are cooking up. Currently a download application-based video sharing service, Dave.tv will go live with a web-based site in May…and an intriguing way to serve ads on its videos might not be too far behind.
The Business 2.0 Blog (via threadwatch) had a sit down with Dave.tv CEO Rex Wong, who formerly headed Applied Semantics – that’s the company whose contextual advertising technology now runs Google’s AdSense. Wong says that Dave.tv is working on applying voice recognition capabilities, “using the same technology used by Homeland Security to monitor [telephone] chatter,” to “allow us to contextually figure out where to sell ads and to place more than just pre- and post-roll ads” in video content – a process referred to as ‘audio keywording.’
Ad inventory for online video is now limited to those pre- and post-roll spots, but if Dave.tv can make audio keywording work – and the accompanying tech to serve the ads at appropriate times – it would increase that inventory just a teeny tiny bit. Once the technology works, though, questions still remain (beyond “why is the site is called Dave.tv again?”). The same pitfalls that befall text-based contextual advertising (ads for fireplaces next to a story about somebody’s house burning down, for instance) could be exacerbated with a visual component.
To that end (and also to attract “mainstream” advertisers and content providers), Dave.tv will employ both software and people to vet user-submitted videos; image-recognition programs will patrol for watermarks or other evidence of trademarks. And, says Wong, “We are setting up offshore teams in the Philippines to watch TV. We are paying them to watch TV for advertiser-specific campaigns.” We wonder – are they willing to hire moonlighting telecommuters?
