• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 19, 2024

Netflix's series “Emily in Paris” will become shoppable through a feature called Shop with Google.

The technology will enable fans watching the show to shop for looks worn by Lily Collins‘ character Emily Cooper.

A shoppable Pause Ad feature allows viewers to scan an image on their screen using Google Lens -- mobile visual search tools that rely on image recognition to take action. The tool, available in the Google search app, finds and identifies similar items across the web that are available to purchase.

When a viewer pauses a TV show or movie and a shoppable ad appears on the screen, viewers can use Google Lens to find the product. It offers information such as price and availability.  

With Google Lens, the television screen becomes a personal runway with the ability to take a picture and automatically search for the item, then compares the object in the picture to other images and ranks them based on their relevance and similarity. It uses metadata to help determine the likeness.

Google also became the title sponsor for "Emily in Paris" season 4. The company has sponsored the previous three seasons, becoming Netflix’s first title sponsorships partner on an entire existing library of shows. 

The partnership with Google marks the first time that Netflix has allowed a sponsor to co-brand a Pause Ad on the service and the first time it has allowed title sponsorships on library content.

Some of the past challenges with connecting shoppable Pause Ads with Google Lens include technology complexities, privacy concerns, user experience that is less than positive and ad fraud.