Dive Brief:

• Accenture Interactive, the agency division of the global management consultancy Accenture, is rolling out a programmatic tool that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) technology to overlay product placements on streaming video content, according to Digiday.
• For example, a video ad served by a streaming video service that includes a plane will brand the aircraft with the logo of a carrier specific to the region where the stream is being viewed such as Delta in the U.S. or Air France in France, per Digiday's description of the product in action.
• The format was announced at Cannes Lions this year but Accenture Interactive hasn't actually tested it with any brands, nor has the group determined how much it will cost while patents are still pending.

Dive Insight:

Accenture Interactive is often pointed to as one of the major consultancy arms stepping onto marketing turf typically owned by ad agencies, and the latest news suggests the shop might be edging further into the ad tech business as well. While the streaming tool appears to be early days, the descriptions of its use cases point to how marketers might leverage AI technology past simple customer service and e-commerce tools like chatbots or solutions largely used for data-crunching and insights like IBM's Watson or Salesforce's Einstein.

As video and streaming video, in particular, become growing focus areas for more marketers, the programmatic AI feature showcases how brand content might be more regionally tailored and targeted at relevant audiences in an efficient way. Accenture's product combines automatic semantic analysis with human insights and moderation to offer brand safety and provide contextual relevance, Alex Naressi, managing director of Accenture Interactive's research and development unit, told Digiday.    

Accenture isn't alone in looking to AI to craft more relevant advertising campaigns and product placement. Toyota is using IBM's Watson and The Weather Channel App and weather.com to serve cognitive ads that get smarter and more personalized with user interaction, combining machine learning, natural language understanding and integrated dialog tools.