At Wednesday night's MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), new technology allowed fans to shop the styles of their favorite artists seen on screen.
While the drama at last night's event focused on Chapel Roan confronting rude paparazzi and Sabrina Carpenter kissing an alien onstage, fans also raved about the lavish and intricate outfits worn by some of the industry's most beloved singers.
Paramount's partnership with technology company Shopsense AI gave viewers the opportunity to purchase similar outfits from the service's suggestions.
Shopsense AI, which launched in January, offers software that lets viewers capture images of their favorite outfits projected on a screen and then explore similar options suggested by Shopsense's detection models — the “AI” in this case referring to a type of computer vision technology that matches the on-screen fashions with the online retailer's clothing database.
Currently, Shopsense recognizes more than 1 billion items from over 1,000 retailers, including AllSaints, Macy's, Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters and Revolve.
Viewers can visit shop.mtvvmas.com/vmas to upload photos of their favorite looks from the VMAs or take photos of their outfit of choice with their phone camera. For Roan's medieval warrior-inspired outfit, the software recommends either the $500 AllSaints maxi dress or the more affordable $56 Boohoo milkmaid dress. Roan's outfit is from Y/Project's fall 2024 collection and is quite pricey, so having an affordable alternative is a good option.
The online store doesn't have a built-in checkout, instead it uses direct links to each product, allowing brands to keep their traffic on their own platforms.
Image credit: Shopsense
We found that Shopsense’s technology still had some issues to work out.
During our testing, the suggestion was a black dress rather than the actual deep merlot color. There were also a few outliers that didn't seem to match, such as a metallic dress that Shopsense seemed to have pulled from Roan's acrylic nails to resemble metal armor. However, the company points out that some items are only intended to match the “aesthetic” of the first look.
“We're continuing to develop our technology,” Amazon president and co-founder Brian Quinn, who worked at Amazon for more than a decade, told TechCrunch. “In terms of the accuracy of the technology — the frame rate of the TV, how the image translates, how far you can zoom in — we've compared it to the best. [AI models].”
Shopsense AI, which launched earlier this year, aims to compete with major media companies that have deployed similar shopping technologies to boost revenue. Disney recently unveiled “Gateway Shop,” a new shoppable ad format that allows viewers to purchase products without interrupting their viewing experience. Peacock's “Must Shop TV” ads identify shoppable products within content and display a QR code on the TV screen so viewers can purchase the item.
Quinn argues that ShopSense's AI model is more cost-effective than other tools: “We can do it for a fraction of the cost,” he said.
Image credit: Screenshot from TechCrunch
Paramount announced the partnership with ShopSense AI during its annual Upfront launch in April. The company debuted the technology at the CMT Music Awards red carpet event, and Paramount plans to roll out the technology to more of its shows in the coming months.
“We plan to roll this out across a range of content across the Paramount portfolio – everything from live sports to scripted content to daily programming to reality programming. We see this as making all of Paramount's content shoppable,” Quinn added.
Plus, shoppable technology isn't limited to apparel.
“This isn't just about distributing information,” said CEO and co-founder Glenn Fishback. “We have travel destinations, sports gear, hats, everything. The ultimate goal was always to be able to pre-curate items that match the content and the theme.” Fishback is an e-commerce industry veteran who sold his own startup, Toplooks, to Klarna for $133 million in 2021.
The company's business model is to take a cut of in-store advertising and commerce revenue — MTV's online store, for example, features a collection sponsored by Macy's.
Quinn explained that “most of our commerce revenue is done on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis,” meaning that when a customer clicks through to a retailer's storefront, Shopsense AI gets a cut of that click. The other revenue model is based on share of purchase volume, meaning if someone buys something for $100, Shopsense AI shares a portion of that revenue with the broadcaster.
The company said it has raised $2.2 million to date at a post-money valuation cap of $20 million.