Soon, ads will be integrated into programs so that consumers can no longer avoid them

It is actually the digital version of product placement. The goal of advertisers is to be able to make changes in real time.

Rather than having traditional commercial breaks, the spots will be directly integrated into the programs. This is the new trick of advertisers to capture our attention on television, on the Internet and on streaming platforms. As we have become accustomed to going to the toilet during the commercial or simply looking elsewhere, they will arrange to slip the advertisement insidiously into everything that could attract the eye.

Taking the example of a film or a series, if in a scene there are people walking in the street, the idea is to recreate a poster on the wall in front of which they pass, a poster obviously with the advertisement. The hero is having breakfast, we virtually add a box of cereals on the table with the brand clearly visible. Same thing for an internet tutorial. We will casually insert a sponsored product on the shelf, again, arranging to see the brand clearly.

This is actually the digital version of product placement. Except that everything is done automatically, thanks to artificial intelligence. It is extremely well done since we directly modify the video stream to insert the advertising images.

This device is already used in sports, where advertising panels can already be modified in real time. As a result, we do not see the same panels if we watch the match in France, England or Germany. Now, this also happens in reruns of old TV series. We will replace the posters of the time with more recent ads; this is what was done on the series How I Met Your Mother. This allows for some modernization of the series. Rumor has it that the series Friends could undergo the same treatment.

In cinema, it takes more time since the authors’ agreement is required. But, on platforms like Netflix, Disney, Max, this could very quickly become widespread. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to make these changes in real time. That is to say, we could watch the same episode several times and we would have different product placements each time we watch it. Targeted advertising is now authorized on French television. So we could even imagine personalized advertising based on the region and the type of household. Advertising will become less intrusive, but paradoxically, it will also be more difficult to avoid.