Paramount Integrates Commerce as Media Giants Compete With TikTok Shop

With social apps leading the charge in shoppable content, more traditional entertainment companies such as Paramount are seeking new solutions to hold their own amid the rise of commerce-integrated media.

The entertainment provider recently partnered with Shopsense AI, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered retail media platform to integrate mobile shopping opportunities into its content, both televised and streamed. In an interview with PYMNTS, Bryan Quinn, president and co-founder at Shopsense AI, spoke to the opportunity this presents for traditional media giants.

“There’s this fight going on in the living room for that consumer’s attention where they have the big screen on, but they also have their second screen device on,” Quinn said. “As we talk to broadcasters there’s a real desire to win back that attention of the living room and get back to where … they’re not competing with TikTok and with Google and with Amazon for the attention of that user.”

Additionally, Glenn Fishback, the company’s CEO and co-founder, noted that integrating retail opportunities into a given platform helps it get closer to being a super app — a single, unified platform for a wider range of consumers’ day-to-day digital needs. He cited his experience as global head of commercial for Klarna Media, launching the financial services company’s retail media arm.

“Shopping was a great way to allow them to build a super app kind of mindset,” Fishback said. “Tiktok’s doing it today. They’ve been showing that shoppable videos is big. They’re building a huge business off of that. Why can’t the streamers do the same thing?

Certainly, consumers are using mobile devices to multitask, according to PYMNTS Intelligence’s “How We Will Pay Report: How Connected Devices Enable Multitasking Among Digital-First Consumers.” The study, which drew from a survey of more than 4,600 U.S. consumers, found that more than three-quarters of consumers used connected devices in the previous month while engaged in leisure activities.

Plus, many consumers are open to shoppable media. The same study found that, among the 95% of consumers who own connected devices, one-third would be interested in an internet-connected buying experience wherein, if they are watching a live-streamed series on an iPad or mobile device and they want to purchase an item of clothing or jewelry that they see on an actor, they could touch the screen to navigate to the product page and complete the purchase.

Quinn argued that movies and series are already playing a large role in influencing consumers’ purchasing, for instance crediting Yellowstone with the growing popularity of Carhartt.  As such, Fishback added, the media companies behind this increased demand, having invested in creating the content, should “have the first bite of the apple” when it comes to the retail sales it generates.

Looking ahead, Quinn predicts that shoppable media will gain ground very quickly.

“We just we started this journey just a couple of months ago and seeing how fast we’ve been able to build the technology and evolve has been just absolutely mind blowing,” he said. “How do we use AI to scale this and be able to really transform the end consumer journey and that relationship that a broadcaster has with that consumer? … I get giddy with excitement for where we’re going.”