We originally built BizGreet for ourselves. It was to be a simple, incremental prospecting tool for our marketing agency’s own use. After we launched it and began using it for ourselves, we quickly discovered how appealing the idea of personalized video was to companies of all types…B2B, B2C and non-profits. What we built as a very simple “business greeting” tool has become something completely different. While we were building the specs for what would become BizGreet 2.0, we determined then that the name BizGreet no longer covered the vision of our company: “every video stream, on every video-capable device, dynamically customized for each individual viewer, anywhere”.

StreamVine is a name that speaks to our overarching goals and our enduring vision. We exist to make video streams morph to each viewer. Allowing advertisers and video producers to craft uniquely perfect video messages for every single person, in real-time, at scale, is a powerful application. We chose “Stream” because we are creating streams…dynamic streams are the centerpiece of our technology…and “Vine” because there are parallel vines that are unique and complete for each viewer. Hence “StreamVine”.

The logo design is still going to fluctuate in the coming months, but we felt this was a good foundation to launch from. It does successfully encapsulate our desire to create videos that communicate directly to the unique attributes of every viewer. In the future, this logo is likely to change…or perhaps “morph” is a better word?

Thanks for coming along with us…we are excited about the future!

There isn’t really a single answer to that – we’ve set up StreamVine to allow us to consume any sort of available data about a viewer, and with the way the internet works and the “interconnectedness” of the web, the applications in it (think Facebook, LinkedIn) provide countless data points that can trigger video forks and influence the video stream each individual viewer receives.

We want to lift the curtain here a little and demonstrate what we here at StreamVine call the “personalization stack” – the different layers of  data that become available when a media request is made – and how we can use them to influence the flow of each individual video.

However, before delving too deeply into the explanation of this stack, it’s important to reiterate a thing that’s very important to us here at StreamVine:

While we make use of a viewer’s data to offer him or her the best possible video experience, we do NOT collect and report this data to our clients. We know that personal information is private, and in most cases any record of this data is instantly destroyed after the video stream has been created for a viewer. Some data is aggregated across the entire viewer population for reporting purposes.

Whenever a viewer requests a video (be it inside of our Facebook application, through our landing page, hosted on a third-party website, or a mobile device) the requesting browser contacts our web service and asks for the media. At this point we have the first pillars of our personalization stack: The session layer tells us e.g. the viewer’s IP address (the physical location of which we can then look up through a geolocation service) and the preferred locale (i.e. “US English”, or “Latin American Spanish”).

The user status layer tells us what time and date it is where the user is, and possibly if he has been in contact with us or our clients before (if applicable).

The device layer tells us about the operating system, the screen size, and possibly the GPS location if the video is run on a GPS-capable device with location services enabled.

If the requested video is embedded inside a third-party website (i.e. an online store, a bank website, etc.) the hosting layer can add information from the website to the picture (think customer database information: recent purchases, account standing, promotions, etc.)

In some cases we will pull information from other external big data stores into the personalization picture – most notably through Facebook’s Open Graph API that allows us to get access to a viewer’s demographic information. Other data stores might be an external CRM system or through OAuth – all this happend on the External App layer.

Next comes the point where the request is actually hitting our web service. Here we first check in the pre-populated data layer whether there has been data pre-loaded into our database for this specific viewer. This is a lot like the hosting layer, except that the data is provided ahead of time by our clients.

Lastly the request is passed to the server layer – the server checks what kind of records it has for a visitor (i.e. is this the first request for a video, or a repeat) and what the server status is (what is the date/time on the server).

At this point we’ve gathered all the information needed about the viewer and the request to engage the media library and dynamically assemble the best possible video stream for this request. Once the stream is assembled and returned to the viewer’s browser – all the information gathered through the previous layers is destroyed and the server is ready to process the next request.

(note: we ran into some problems trying to get a good skype video connection with Noah, so this is audio only.)

http://bit.ly/seenocreepy
http://austin2011.sched.org/event/00337466a79ef53b2d0dbf91ad8de9a2
http://plancast.com/p/3xex

http://bit.ly/seenocreepy
http://austin2011.sched.org/event/00337466a79ef53b2d0dbf91ad8de9a2
http://plancast.com/p/3xex

http://bit.ly/seenocreepy
http://austin2011.sched.org/event/00337466a79ef53b2d0dbf91ad8de9a2
http://plancast.com/p/3xex

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704288304576171251689944350.html

…and not to take anything away from these brave companies who are pioneering TV ad targeting, they might be jumping the shark here.

I want to draw your attention to some alarming data gathering tactics that will undoubtedly alarm many Americans who won’t see it coming.  It is very discomforting to get a personalized or a targeted ad directed at you unless you a) approve it ahead of time or b) can easily see how the advertiser got the information to personalize an ad to you in the first place.  Cable TV providers know a lot of information about households that many viewers do not know that they know:

1) They know what you watch, what you rent on-demand, and what you DVR

2) They know how many TVs you have, and how many of them are on at once (family size) and what’s being watched on them (family members’ tastes, approximate ages, genders, and overall diversity)

3) They know your account history (Have you ever been late with a payment?  Are you routinely late? What’s your preferred method of payment? What’s your SSN? Do you own or rent your home? Plus dozens of other data points collected at the time the account is opened)

4) And…if your cable company is also your ISP, then they also have your clickstream data…meaning the sites you visit could even become part of your marketing profile.  As an aside…a little known fact…there are about a dozen different companies that actively purchase clickstream data from ISPs at the market rate of about $.40/user/month.  ISPs have no obligation to tell you if they are selling your data, and they won’t admit it if you ask them.

In addition to this, advertisers can blend data from other sources, unbeknownst to the viewers.  The article speaks of “prescription-drug records obtained from insurers” being one such source of information.

I’m not pointing fingers angrily here.  Cable companies are probably not “sharing” information about you as much as they are “leveraging” it…meaning that the data is probably never handed over to any advertisers in a way that is individually traceable.  I would definitely point out that there is no actual danger in advertisers “leveraging” this information for the purpose of giving you better commercials.  But I bet your average American TV viewer would be surprised…and perhaps feel a bit violated by these targeting practices.

We’re actively promoting a maxim…a litmus test for the use of personalization in advertising:  Personalization is fine for most people as long as they can clearly see how advertisers got the information used in the personalization.  But when advertisers are surreptitiously gathering and compositing data, it produces a black box that makes viewers jittery…even angry.  And I think that this has the potential to backfire on quite a few advertisers who are careless in their data gathering and targeting practices.

We’d be the last to cry foul and point fingers…that’s not the point.  The point is that advertisers have to take great care in making their targeting choices, and think long and hard about the data sources they bring in to select ads.  Is it fair to create targeting profiles by mixing cable viewer data, clickstream analysis, and “prescription drug records obtained through insurers”?  I think it very well might be fair, as in “they aren’t breaking any laws to get the data or use it”…but it won’t be tolerated by many.  And therein lies the trouble with this sort of effort.

The web is a lot easier…and a lot safer…for gathering data, creating context for viewer profiles, compositing multiple data inputs, and targeting viewers or even optimizing creative for them.  Here’s the deal: the web is intentionally personalized by web users through their escalating use of social networks, mobile devices, applications, and social games.  By and large, web users know that they are giving away datapoints for marketers to use.  They understand that this is the way the world works.  They clearly accept and condone a more targeted and personalized web experience by the very nature of adopting and using these tools.

Web users are building a personalized interface to manage their web experiences.  They are creating a personalization layer to provide context and relevance to their online lives.  This personalization layer…since it is created by and managed by each web user…is also a permission layer.  Consumers, for the first time, are beginning to have some sort of control over how their data is accessed and shared.  They control their profiles, who sees what, how much they share.  They are undoubtedly being heavily encouraged to share more and more.  They are being led into far more transparent lives.  But they are not being coerced.  And they are not, for the most part, being lied to or stolen from.  Consumers are in control on the web…and that’s a good thing.  When given the opportunity to be private…they have increasingly chosen to be public.  When given the opportunity to hide their activities or their whereabouts…they have shown an inclination to do the opposite…by checking into locations and accepting invitations for special deals.  All at the cost of giving up some data…but at least they know where the data came from, and how the advertisers got it.

Increasingly, we will all begin to see our own personalization layer as an important filter for our online lives…filtering in content we want, and filtering out content we don’t.  This is a good thing, and it is giving us control over our web experiences like never before.

Our advice to advertisers: don’t jump the shark by using surreptitious or secretive data gathering practices to better target ads.  Instead, be honest and completely 100% open about where data comes from…and give viewers the chance to opt out of advanced targeting that might make them squeamish.  Consumers are giving you a wide swath of access to present relevant ads to them and target them at will…today it happens to be on social media, but that will soon widen to include the entire web as filtered through this personalization layer.

http://bit.ly/seenocreepy
http://austin2011.sched.org/event/00337466a79ef53b2d0dbf91ad8de9a2
http://plancast.com/p/3xex

Does your CD Have What It Takes?

This rawks hard. Keeping it short and simple…here we go:

We’re looking for ad agency creative directors who have experience with creative optimization and/or are looking to try our video personalization platform before pitching it to your own clients.

It’s hard to describe BizGreet to your clients without showing them some compelling examples.  Our own examples aren’t good enough because they weren’t made by someone awesome such as yourself.

We don’t need anything at all from you. There’s no “catch” per se – we just want you to take BizGreet and use it…for free…to promote your own agency. You shoot the videos, make them crazy, make them exciting, make them engaging, and we’ll host and handle distribution for you. Put your campaign up on Facebook, post it to your own site, send out emails to prospects and clients…Twitterize…do whatever you like. Think up fun personalizations, come up with compelling use cases, drive substantial brand engagement for your own agency…AND FOR THE FIRST TIME…create virtually unlimited versions of your videos, changing your message for each unique audience of one.

Is there a limit to our offer? Yes, unfortunately, there is. The free access is limited to 6 months or 100,000 views, whichever happens first.  After that, we hope you’re sold on our platform and begin thinking of ways to launch these videos for your own clients.

Here is our wiki so you can read over our production guidelines and familiarize yourself with our distribution options:  BizGreet Wiki

When you are ready to get started, let us know by filling out this short form so that we can setup your platform access.

Ballroom B, Austin Convention Center · Monday, March 14, 2011, 9:30am

SXSW Schedule

Find Us on Plancast

After seeing the backlash over Instant Personalization from Facebook, many people have been nervous to approach the subject. But invariably, as we move forward into an increasingly data-driven society, personalization will need to become a larger and larger part of how we communicate with customers, site visitors, and consumers of online content. So the question is, how do you personalize content without making people feel violated and uncomfortable? Is it just a question of people’s preferences changing over time as they "come around" to the idea of personalization, or is it an implementation question? What’s the degree of personalization that is acceptable to most consumers? This panel will look at how to preserve users’ trust while personalizing content to them. It will also discuss some acceptable practices for personalizing content to individual users’ data, and shifts in the societal acceptability of content personalization over time & by demographic.

Presenters

Hugo Liu
Chief Scientist
Hunch

Hugo Liu is the Chief Scientist of Hunch – an internet personalization engine. Hugo is also a taste researcher at MIT, where he has taught courses in Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence. Previously he has worked in trend predictives, computational food, and wine and spirits design. He has a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT.

Jennifer King
PhD Candidate
University of California at Berkeley

Jennifer King is a social technologist who draws upon her training in the social sciences and human-computer interaction to investigate the issues that arise when technology and society collide. Most recently as a researcher at the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Ms. King focused on privacy and security on the Internet, in sensor networks, and in ubiquitous computing environments (including RFID and video surveillance technologies), usable security, and technology policy issues. Ms. King received her master’s degree in Information Science in 2006 from UC Berkeley’s School of Information (“I-School”). Prior to her research career, Ms. King worked in security and product management for several Internet companies, including Yahoo!, where she was an online community expert. She is currently a Ph.D candidate at UC Berkeley’s School of Information.

Mat Harris
Co-Founder & CEO
BizGreet, Inc.

Mat Harris is Co-Founder and CEO of BizGreet, an online video advertising platform for dynamically morphing video ads to each viewer using all types and sources of viewer data. He is also the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Good Goliath, an Austin-based digital marketing agency. Mat has studied personalization trends and practiced one-to-one marketing for over a decade. He is a serial entrepreneur, and currently resides in Austin with his wife and three children.

Noah Weiss
Product Manager
Foursquare

Noah is a Product Manager at Foursquare. Before joining foursquare, Noah spent two and a half years at Google working in search and display ads. Previously, he worked at Fog Creek Software, Cooliris, and Acumen Fund. Noah holds a bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology, and Society with a focus in computer science and economics from Stanford University, where he graduated with distinction. He is a current and lifelong New Yorker.

Vijay Ravindran
Chief Digital Officer
The Washington Post Company

Vijay Ravindran joined The Washington Post Company as senior vice president and chief digital officer in February 2009. In his role, he leads several new media innovation efforts at the company including the work of the WaPo Labs product development team and SocialCode, a Facebook advertising agency. His most recent initiative is the personalized news aggregator Trove. He also has his hand in technology start up investments made by the Post Company and advises the online media properties.

Prior to the Post Company, Vijay was the CTO of Catalist, a political technology firm that worked closely with progressive organizations including the Obama For America campaign. Prior to Catalist, Vijay was at Amazon.com from 1998-2005 in a variety of technical roles including Director of Ordering, where he oversaw product development for such areas of the Amazon site as “Checkout”, “1-click”, “Shopping Cart”, and “Your Account” as well as launching Amazon Prime.

Ravindran graduated from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the board of directors of the Alliance for Excellent Education, Ongo, and Fab.