What if livestreamers could do product placement without real products?

Live content drives sales. From street hawkers of ancient times to QVC hosts to lightning-fast, multibillion-dollar Chinese social streams, having a real person show-and-tell products in real time can be key to bringing in those dolla dolla bills.

Here’s proof in pudding: TikTok just released stats showing that a whopping 94% of Shop’s pricey luxury resale revenue in the U.S. comes from livestreams.

And ad tech company LIVAD Technologies thinks it can push creators’ contributions to ecommerce even higher.

At this week’s IAB Playfronts in New York City, LIVAD CEO Arda Genç unveiled its newest offering: Virtual Product Placements, which the company says will allow creators to place 3D versions of products in livestreams across Twitch, TikTok, YouTube, and Kick.

LIVAD’s core business is providing custom stream overlays and sidebars for creator x brand partnerships with clients like Adidas, KFC, and L’Oréal. Per GamesBeat, Genç said LIVAD sees Virtual Product Placements as an evolution of its current tools.

“We felt that the natural next step is making it fit even better with the livestream, so we started experimenting with these 3D placements,” he told GamesBeat.

What makes these ads different from LIVAD’s other overlays? Genç said the virtual placement system can analyze streams to detect real-world distance between physical objects in the creator’s space, then pick a place to drop the product. Once the product is in, LIVAD can change its lighting so it looks like a natural part of an RGB-bathed setup.

That being said, Genç was careful to note LIVAD wants all kinds of streamers to use this tool, not just gamers. He pointed to TikTok and its bevy of fashion & beauty streamers as a use case beyond gaming.

“We are trying to position ourselves at the forefront of all live content, because we find it exciting and not just limited to gaming, and we’re betting that live is going to keep growing,” he said.

He also made an interesting point: When LIVAD places 3D assets in streams, any clips made from the VODs of those streams will also include the virtual product–so creators can potentially rack up extra cash by spreading their sponsorship across platforms with a little minimal-effort clipping.

Genç said Virtual Product Placements haven’t been used in any campaigns yet, but LIVAD is in active discussions with clients about implementing it.

Obviously with more formalized and long-term creator x brand partnerships, brands often provide creators with products in hand to show off on stream. But platforms like TikTok and Amazon have increasingly leaned into affiliate marketing, luring creators (and regular citizens) to promote large numbers of products in exchange for a cut of sales. LIVAD’s new placements would appeal to creators who don’t want to order every product they endorse.