Jay Partners with RTL+ and Zalando for In-Stream Shopping Tech

In a challenging market environment with increasing competition and demanding audiences, Jay, a Raw Ventures portfolio company, enables streaming services to offer shoppable content and bonus feature experiences, changing how viewers interact with their favorite content.

Today, Jay announces that it is teaming up with the leading German streaming service, RTL+, and Zalando - one of the leading online fashion destinations - to bring its innovative in-stream shopping tech to the masses. 

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The service will be piloted with the hit series "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten'' - a huge opportunity for Jay, given it’s the most popular daily series in Germany.

Through interactive features, Jay allows streaming providers to take a significant step forward with viewer engagement, and this scale of partnership with RTL+ and Zalando, represents a new paradigm in how audiences interact with streaming content.

The Future of Streaming

There is a key shift in content consumption habits, one where viewers no longer passively consume content but engage directly with it, searching out information on the cast, locations, music and featured products as they watch, sharing updates via social apps.

Currently, however, most viewers have to turn to a second screen to discover this information, meaning they must leave the streaming environment, which decreases viewer engagement.

The new collaboration between Jay, RTL+, and Zalando introduces an in-stream shopping feature that seamlessly integrates e-commerce into the streaming experience, removing the need for audiences to turn to a second device. Shoppable content and bonus features can all be accessed within the streaming application. 

Jay is focused on delivering two primary components that significantly enhance engagement and convenience:

1. Shoppable Content: Viewers can now purchase products similar to those seen in "Gute Zeiten schlechte Zeiten," directly through the RTL+ platform. This eliminates the need to search for items elsewhere, providing a direct link between the product on-screen and the consumer - without interrupting the viewing experience

2. Bonus features designed to drive engagement: Jay offers viewers access to additional content related to the series - background info about the cast, music, locations and costumes - providing deeper context and details that fans love to know.

For RTL+ and Zalando, this initiative opens up novel avenues for monetisation and brand integration, leveraging the captive audience of streaming content for direct sales while gaining valuable insights into viewer preferences.

Henning Nieslony, Chief Streaming Officer for RTL+ says, they are continuously developing the all-inclusive entertainment offering on RTL+. “In doing so, we always keep a close eye on our customers' feedback. The pilot project for ‘Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten’ is particularly exciting for us because it covers many frequently expressed wishes of our users.” 

As streaming companies are competing for edges over one another, Jay offers a model for future innovations that enhance viewer interaction and satisfaction.

The Pilot

The pilot (starting March 11, 2024, over at least 20 episodes) works by linking and storing data on a scene-by-scene basis. By collating metadata from the production, Jay accesses and integrates detailed information about the cast, locations, costumes, and props directly into the streaming experience - something new worldwide.

Jay will also provide its partners with valuable insights into viewer preferences. Interactions with certain items, during certain scenes, or the volume of searches related to specific cast members, locations and music  can provide crucial insights for enhancing customer acquisition and retention strategies, informing creative decisions, and tailoring advertising campaigns more effectively.

Through this pilot, Jay will demonstrate its capability to enhance streaming services for both provider and consumer, which we believe will turn into more opportunities for the company.

Raw Ventures and Disrupting MediaTech

We at Raw Ventures are proud to back companies which are adeptly applying modern technologies to traditional media forms, signalling a significant shift in how media is created and experienced.

In an era where content creation and distribution are rapidly evolving, we see Jay as a key enabler in allowing traditional streaming platforms to keep up with the next generation of streamer behaviour.

Media is an exciting field to be investing in right now, and Jay is set to be a key player in the space.

There is more to come too. As platforms keep growing, increased mobile viewing could unlock a world of opportunity for technology like Jay. The West is largely behind on mobile led features, whilst in China - a mobile-only not just mobile-first society - social apps like WeChat and Little Red Book have taken product discovery to the next level.

The coverage of these apps in Eastern markets demonstrate that streaming platforms will become a natural place for product discovery as platforms will ease the friction between inspiration, purchase intent, and completed purchases. All the more so in the future, as technologies like AR and VR will offer customers ‘hands-on’ experiences.

Jay is a huge step in this direction for the streaming industry.

“We are thrilled by the research and development of the technology behind Jay, which seamlessly combines streaming and shopping experiences. This is just the start of a journey that we believe will be highly successful. We are incredibly proud to support Jay's CEO Peter Effenberg and his Team," Raw Ventures Investment Director Maria Zherebtsova said.

Its innovative technology provides a new way for the distribution of film information and opens up new business opportunities for streaming services.

With the team’s expertise in metadata technology and the unique features of in-stream shopping and data quality analysis, Jay is set to be a big part of the in-stream revolution.