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Posted:
September 21, 2021

All Things Video with James Creech

In this episode, Teresa and I discuss the challenge of localizing and cultural fitting content for international audiences. Entertainment companies must navigate complex regulatory, economic, and cultural environments in each new market, so it’s no surprise that cultural missteps are fairly common – from Netflix running afoul of the Singaporean government for hosting drug-related content to the infamous Cuties movie poster debacle here in the U.S. In response, Teresa shares how Spherex uses technology and human expertise to help media companies successfully localize and extend their content to foreign markets. Finally, we comment on Netflix’s recent foray into gaming, ARPU differences between AVOD and SVOD platforms, and future M&A targets as media consolidation continues.

Teresa Phillips is the Co-Founder & CEO of Spherex, a technology company that uses machine learning to adapt entertainment content for international audiences. Teresa started her career in the U.S. Army, serving tours of duty at the Pentagon and NATO’s Allied Command Operations. She later worked as a Group VP of Business Operations at Time Warner Cable and VP of Business Intelligence at Yahoo before launching her first company, an educational video marketplace called Graspr in 2006. She then served as SVP for V2 Solutions before co-founding Spherex in early 2018.

Host: James Creech

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Spherex, which offers video content compliance and analysis for the media and entertainment industry, has expanded its flagship product, SpherexAI, to power contextual advertising.

The new feature enables advertisers to target audiences more precisely based on the cultural and emotional context surrounding the content they are viewing to maximize campaign effectiveness, according to Spherex.

SpherexAI’s multimodal platform analyzes streaming video by evaluating thousands of visual, audio, dialogue, and on-screen text signals to generate scene-level metadata. This scene-level intelligence helps advertisers match ads at the right moment based on the mood, theme, and tone of the content to strengthen connections with audiences, according to Spherex.

SpherexAI further allows advertisers to deliver more relevant ads within content, ensuring cultural sensitivity and brand safety, according to the company.

“Leveraging its patented Cultural Knowledge Graph, SpherexAI helps advertisers tailor campaigns for audiences in any market, ensuring they align with local market regulations and cultural norms across more than 200 countries and territories,” according to a Spherex press release. “Spherex’s deep understanding of regional values and local sensitivities enables advertisers to convey culturally relevant messages while avoiding ad placements in potentially controversial or offensive scenes, reducing the risk of backlash that could harm a brand’s reputation.”

According to the company, SpherexAI uniquely enables advertisers to:

  • Ensure Strategic Ad Placement: Scene-level intelligence understands key moments within scenes, enabling ads to be positioned precisely when viewers are most emotionally receptive, increasing engagement and effectiveness.
  • Boost Engagement and Recall: By identifying context at the scene level before the break, ads seamlessly integrate into the storytelling experience, reinforcing brand messages rather than disrupting them.
  • Scale Across Global Markets: SpherexAI is the only platform with global cultural intelligence to accurately predict how local audiences perceive video content in more than 200 countries and territories, aligning with local values, norms, and cultural expectations.
  • Enhance Brand Safety: SpherexAI prevents ad placement in contexts that may be inappropriate, offensive, or conflict with brand values or cultural sensitivities.

“Spherex is leveraging its expertise in video compliance to help advertisers navigate the complexities of brand safety and monetization,” Teresa Phillips, CEO of Spherex, said in a statement. “SpherexAI is the only solution that blends scene-level intelligence with deep cultural and emotional insights, giving advertisers a powerful tool to ensure strategic ad placement and engagement.”

Spherex will demo SpherexAI at Booth W1456 at NAB 2025 in Las Vegas. To book a meeting and demonstration at NAB, visit the Spherex Booking page.

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