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No meta­da­ta, no reach

Start-up Fas­soo uses an AI soft­ware to make video con­tent more visi­ble globally

The Inter­net is full of video con­tent - on web­sites, news por­tals, social media and video-on-demand plat­forms. How much of the dai­ly data volu­me this accounts for is hard to pro­ve sta­tis­ti­cal­ly. But the data volu­me of traf­fic from Inter­net vide­os via com­pu­ters alo­ne is expec­ted to reach 116,905 peta­bytes per month in 2021, accor­ding to one fore­cast. This rai­ses the ques­ti­ons over how a com­pa­ny can keep track of all the places whe­re the brand keeps appearing. Other issues such as how pro­fits be opti­mal­ly exploi­ted from the mass of data and how can a com­pa­ny beco­me more visi­ble and bet­ter attract the atten­ti­on of users?

The start-up Fas­soo is working in Pots­dam with its meta­da­ta soft­ware to offer intel­li­gent solu­ti­ons to cli­ents from the film, TV sec­tor and sports mar­ke­ting to do pre­cis­e­ly that. Their ana­ly­ti­cal soft­ware helps com­pa­nies to play­out and mone­ti­se video con­tent in the best pos­si­ble way. The sys­tem is based on arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence. Key com­pon­ents include, for exam­p­le, the auto­ma­tic reco­gni­ti­on of peo­p­le, logos, objects or inter­ac­tions. Sophisti­ca­ted meta­da­ta appli­ca­ti­ons that show search results going bey­ond title and name sear­ches are not only inte­res­t­ing for end con­su­mers of movies and vide­os. This tech­no­lo­gy opens up a wealth of oppor­tu­ni­ties, for exam­p­le whe­ther it’s is hel­ping to pro­vi­de bet­ter recom­men­da­ti­ons for the users, cura­ti­on oppor­tu­ni­ties from the plat­form or in hel­ping brands and con­tent owners under­stand how and whe­re brand logos and trade­marks are used in vide­os and whe­ther they are legal­ly pro­tec­ted. It can also help to iden­ti­fy sen­si­ti­ve con­tent that ought to be blo­cked. It takes an inno­va­ti­ve approach and ever-impro­­ving ana­ly­tics to pro­vi­de a spe­ci­fic break­down of the gro­wing mass and varie­ty of data for companies.

Foun­ded in 2018, Fas­soo began with a focus on the film and TV indus­try but is now incre­asing­ly acti­ve in the field of major sport­ing events. The audio­vi­su­al mar­ket, inclu­ding the Euro­pean one with its various lan­guages and cul­tures, faces the chall­enge of brin­ging its con­tent to the atten­ti­on of a glo­bal audi­ence, while the recep­ti­on beha­viour of inter­na­tio­nal audi­en­ces is con­stant­ly chan­ging and depen­dent on dif­fe­rent fac­tors. “Sim­ply put, we are working on making Euro­pean con­tent more visi­ble,” says Fas­soo CEO and foun­der Wil­liam Page. “Every sin­gle film has meta­da­ta. Some are more com­pli­ca­ted. The­se can be places, facial expres­si­ons, or inter­ac­tions which are being tra­cked. Or, very sim­ply, lan­guages or cer­tain gen­res.” If a film is ras­te­ri­sed with the right meta­da­ta, it can be bet­ter recom­men­ded to users, play­ed out and mone­ti­sed in a more spe­ci­fic way. This is essen­ti­al for both com­mer­cial and cul­tu­ral offe­rings in an ever-gro­­wing mar­ket and given the ple­tho­ra of video-on-demand plat­forms. To this end, Fas­soo has recei­ved fun­ding from the Euro­pean Union’s Crea­ti­ve Euro­pe MEDIA pro­gram­me, which has been essen­ti­al in get­ting the soft­ware developed.

The team uses auto­ma­ted pro­ces­ses employ­ing arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence for the meta­da­ta ana­ly­sis. They break a video down bit by bit into key frames and ana­ly­se it. This is based on models accor­ding to various para­me­ters in order to sim­pli­fy the auto­ma­ti­on. “The under­ly­ing meta­da­ta models can be any­thing: motifs like the Bran­den­burg Gate, come­dy ele­ments or vio­lent sce­nes. We can model wha­te­ver is nee­ded,” is how CEO Page descri­bes the approach.

Howe­ver, the cur­rent situa­ti­on with the pan­de­mic means that it is not the ide­al time for inno­va­tions. Many things are being put on hold, and some deve­lo­p­ments are being view­ed more con­ser­va­tively. Accor­ding to Page, inno­va­ti­on pro­ces­ses have slo­wed down in some places. On the other hand, the cus­to­mer base in the sports mar­ke­ting sec­tor is gro­wing at the moment.

But every second a spon­sor is in the frame counts at sport­ing events like foot­ball matches. At the same time, the­re is a need for a con­trol mecha­nism informing the com­pa­nies how much pre­sence they are get­ting. With the help of meta­da­ta, sports scan­dals such as the recent case of fraud invol­ving the sports mar­ke­ting com­pa­ny Infront can be bet­ter con­trol­led on the cor­po­ra­te side in future: Infront, a mar­ke­ting agen­cy for ban­ner adver­ti­sing, had sold 30-second slots at games, but only show­ed 29 seconds and sold the sur­plus time as addi­tio­nal ad slots. The inci­dent, known as “seconds theft,” was at the expen­se of the cli­ents. “This would not have hap­pen­ed with our pro­duct. We can screen every sin­gle game in order to iden­ti­fy such fac­tors,” Page says.

This makes it easier for com­pa­nies to track their return on invest­ment (ROI). Their own visi­bi­li­ty can be mea­su­red more accu­ra­te­ly with the help of the meta­da­ta. This ensu­re a more effec­ti­ve deploy­ment of the adver­ti­sing for poten­ti­al spon­sors and is worth its weight in gold

Ori­gi­nal­ly laun­ched in Berlin’s Wed­ding, Fas­soo is a start-up at the Media­Tech Hub Acce­le­ra­tor in Pots­dam and a part of the ever-gro­­wing media tech­no­lo­gy com­mu­ni­ty there.

By Chris­ti­ne Lentz

More blog posts can be read here.

About MTH Blog

The media technologies of the future are already being used today – not only in the entertainment sector, but also in a wide variety of industries. Christine Lentz meets up with tech enthusiasts, established companies and researchers for our monthly MediaTech Hub Potsdam blog to tell the stories behind the innovative business models.