SeamBI Providing a New Way to See Television Ads

Faced with viewers who can avoid having to watch commercials, broadcasters and advertisers need new ways to get their message across. That’s where SeamBI comes in. The Sherman Oaks-based firm provides digital technology to place logos, vehicles and signs into television shows. This is not traditional product placement, said company co-founder and CEO Roy Baharav, but a way to target specific viewers in original broadcasts of a TV series and in syndication. SeamBI’s technology can place a billboard in the background of a scene where one didn’t really exist, and with a simple jpg file, pop in an ad. Depending on the advertiser, the make and model of a car shown in an episode can be changed. A syndicated episode of “How I Met Your Mother,” for example, had two characters in a silver Pontiac. With SeamBI they were in a red Chevy Camaro. The challenge with product placement is its limited use, need for advanced planning, and long-shelf life; once included in a show, it will always be there, Baharav said. SeamBI, on the other hand, removes those limitations. The insertion can be done after filming is complete and viewers in different markets won’t all see the same product. “We are moving into the targeted world and addressable advertising,” Baharav said. “Product placement is not addressable; it’s the same for everyone.” SeamBI uses three ways to integrate advertising: the main message ad, or digitally creating a billboard used in the background; a contextual ad in which, say, a food or drink product is advertised during a lunch or dinner scene; and the interruptive ad, or completely changing the look of a product as in switching car models. This last method gives the most potential in going after specific markets, whether domestic or international. “You can have a different car based on the advertising needs of that country,” Baharav said. “(The viewer) is seeing different models that are relevant for them.” To maintain the integrity of the shows and their characters, the executive producers are consulted and can set restrictions on the types of advertisers and where they ads appear. The networks and regional stations then sell the ad inventory in much the same way that commercials are sold. Baharav calculated the price of SeamBI based on research with Nielsen Media. The cost is comparable to that of a 30-second commercial depending on which of the three methods is used, he added. The annual TV pricing survey of media buyers by Advertising Age had prime time commercial spots for the 2010-11 season selling for $206,722 for “Two and a Half Men”; a 30-second ad for Sunday Night Football on NBC was more than $400,000, the survey showed. Those figures are only directional and indicate what advertisers paid during the upfront market in May 2010. The long term goal of the company is to become the standard in television product integration. Reaching that goal, Baharav said, will take a lot of time and work and will need a “critical mass” of advertisers and networks agreeing on the price point and the value proposition. So far more than 100 advertisers have used SeamBI and broadcasters include 20th Century Fox, Tribune Co., Cox Communications and CBS. “It is like a snowball and will grow,” Baharav said. Small Business of the Year: Counterintuity LLC Counterintuity LLC was named as the Small Business of the Year for the 43rd Assembly District. Assemblyman Mike Gatto nominated the Burbank marketing and design firm for representing California small business culture and for the involvement by its employees in the community. Clients of Counterintuity include the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, the City of Burbank, Cusumano Real Estate Group, Boeing Corp., and the Third Street Promenade. Recently the firm created a social media campaign for the University of Southern California to publicize to high school students the summer programs and class offerings at the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “This is a huge accomplishment for our entire team,” said President Amy Kramer. “We are awash with a ‘can-do’ spirit, and this award and our expected future success are direct results of our collective contributions.” Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected]