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AI virtual placement: Austrian Post and adverserve, in collaboration with ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4, embed virtual advertising elements in TV scenes for the first time
The 22nd season of the successful ATV show „Bauer sucht Frau” saw a first in linear and digital TV: as part of the Austrian Post’s „Love Brand” campaign, Austrian Post AG and adverserve integrated a completely AI-generated „virtual placement“ into live TV scenes for the first time – an advertising innovation that has never been seen before in Austria.
Austrian Post AG and the full-service agency adverserve, together with ATV and ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4, are showing what state-of-the-art advertising in moving images can look like today: with the help of AI, the companies seamlessly embedded digital billboards and outdoor advertising elements into ongoing TV scenes from „Bauer sucht Frau“ for the first time. And they did so in places where there are no advertising spaces in reality. This allowed them to create a subtle, modern, and completely natural brand presence without interfering with the plot of the show.
The innovative brand integration took place in a strong environment: with a market share of 25 percent on December 3, 2025, the current season of „Bauer sucht Frau“ set a new record, with an average of 367,000 viewers watching this episode on TV. On the free streaming platform JOYN, „Bauer sucht Frau” was the most streamed format of 2025 with 237 million minutes streamed.
„Virtual placements represent a new type of brand communication and an ideal extension of classic campaigns. Even campaigns and products without commercials can be integrated directly into our formats and moving images. With the Austrian Post and adverserve, we have found an innovative first-mover partner to implement this new special form of advertising in Austria for the first time in ‚Bauer sucht Frau‘”, says Marie Therese Repper, Director AdFactory at ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4 / ATV.
First mover in AI-based virtual advertising on TV
With the first „AI virtual placement” of its kind, the companies involved succeeded in authentically integrating advertising elements into a successful TV format. The first-mover project opens a new chapter in virtual brand integration and shows how it can be scaled in a forward-looking way in TV, streaming, and video on demand (VOD) content.
„AI opens up completely new degrees of freedom for us, as we have demonstrated with this virtual placement. Integrating brand presence naturally into moving images without disrupting the flow of the program sets a new benchmark for TV and VOD integrations,” explains Sabine Auer-Germann, Managing Director of adverserve Holding. Since the entire implementation took place digitally, the CI-compliant placements were completely flexible and could be used on a scene-by-scene basis. This new form of advertising can therefore be easily combined with classic and digital campaign logic.
The Post is satisfied with the implementation as part of its „Love Brand” campaign: „The AI placement brings our brand to life directly in the program. Since the story is not interrupted, audience acceptance is also significantly higher. This innovation shows how modern brand management and technological precision complement each other perfectly,” explains Myron Kohut, Head of Customer Insights, Advertising & Digital Channels at Austrian Post AG.