In a little less than two minutes, the video for French clothier Petit Bateau shows how a dress comes together: The fabric is chosen, the dyes mixed, the dress appears. A model sports the finished product.
But the process does not stop there. A viewer can touch the image, tagging the dress. Any tagged items are stored in a queue in the lower right corner of the screen, ready to be accessed when the video is complete, leading the viewer to a digital store to buy the dress.
The technology behind the video is not new, but Kyle Heller and Randy Ross, co-founders of Culver City’s Cinematique, the company that made the Petit Bateau video “shoppable,” have found a way to develop a seamless experience. Unlike other applications of the technology, Cinematique’s program does not immediately navigate shoppers away from the video to the digital store but let’s them continue browsing.
Ross and Heller’s two-year-old business has already signed contracts with 200 clients, among them Gap, Jimmy Choo, Temperley London and luxury e-commerce site Net-a-Porter.
Now they have their eyes on the big screen. Heller and Ross are talking with major movie studios interested in adapting its technology for film.
“We’re very conscious of having a concise, short-term plan to look at fashion-branded content and the fashion space,” said Ross, the chief executive. “But we have plans to expand to both feature film and the episodic and a whole bunch of other places where people place their business on video.”
Though no deals have been signed yet, the Cinematique technology would allow small-screen viewers to touch an actor, for instance, and link to a site like IMDb for more information. The company would charge a flat fee based on the amount of usage the service generates.
The idea, said Heller, is to keep viewers, whether they are shopping or being entertained, engaged and not distracted.
“We’re seeing consumers disengage within content,” he said. “Our platform provides the ability to stay engaged and get that info at their fingertips, but when they want it, so they’re no longer leaving (the video).”
That is the value Heller hopes will appeal to the film industry.
“Randy and I are filmmakers at heart,” he said. “We feel like the exploration and the information component to this platform is what makes it unique and gives it legs to really evolve storytelling in cinema.”
Cinematique expects to announce its first entertainment deals in the fall.
Just touch
Heller, a film producer, and Ross, a former commercial director, co-founded the company in 2012 and launched the service in July 2013. It has a second office in New York and a staff of nine.
The two have experience in technology, but hired staff from Google Inc. and video music platform Vevo to bolster the tech side of the business. Ross, who heads the company’s New York office, handles fashion and advertising clients while Heller focuses on movie studios at the Culver City office.
Heller, Cinematique’s president, declined to state startup costs but said the company was initially bootstrapped. It finished its first round of funding in December, raising $800,000, and is seeking to start its second round soon.
Clients pay a monthly subscription to use the service, with additional costs based on the number of items featured and the number of touches per month. Fashion client Maiyet, for example, can create up to 10 videos featuring a total of 50 items and up to 5,000 touches at a cost of $100 a month. Rates increase based on the number of items linked to and the number of touches they get, up to 500 items and 100,000 touches for $1,000 a month.
Cinematique handles the technology component while the client is responsible for creating the video, but Cinematique will consult with brands to guide them on the best way to shoot as well as offering video analytics.
The short films, video catalogs really, are generally a couple of minutes in length and viewable on any platform or website.
Jerry Jao, chief executive of customer retention marketing firm Retention Science in Santa Monica, said it’s an interesting concept that may be best for the impulse shopper.
“If it’s an impulse buy, then maybe I’d really want it to be the click of a button away,” said Jao. “But if you’re a slightly more sophisticated shopper, especially if it’s an expensive item, you may want to do some research and see if there’s alternative options.”
He said as more brands see the value in shoppable videos many will do the type of tagging provided by Cinematique themselves.
“In terms of technology, it’s not that difficult to embed a link into a video,” he said. “You just click on it and it gets you to a separate page. So, in other words, it becomes touchable. … It’s just a matter of a brand wanting to hire an agency or do it internally.”
