New Ads Injected Into Old Shows, Making Syndication Even More Profitable

Why does this 2006 episode of How I Met Your Mother include an ad for a 2011 movie? Because it can. Entertainment Weekly has a fascinating profile of SeamBI (Seamless Brand Integration), a company partnering with distributor 20th Television to inject new ad units into the content of old syndicated shows. The result might be a bit disorienting for some viewers, but it's a nice extra revenue stream for the distributor. Because few shows actually include advertising space such as billboards within a shot, SeamBI has had to digitally retrofit some scenes to include branded real estate.