Simian, the showreel-building, review, approval, and reel analytics platform used globally by creative leaders, has released automatic AI tagging for its media library, making it easier to find specific shots within spots when building reels.
Simian’s AI has been trained on over 500 visual concepts including the following:
- Objects: Physical items, props, animals, vehicles and other tangible elements visible in the frame
- Genre: Production style and spot type, such as lifestyle, product demo, testimonial or animation
- Semantic: Themes, mood, setting, and contextual meaning – family, outdoors, celebration, urban, etc.
- Celebrities: Notable public figures appearing in the spot
“AI tagging is a sales team’s best friend,” says Jay Brooks, Simian’s Chief Technology Officer. “Combined effectively with user-created tags, it’s a simpler process than ever to comb through your library of work for specific visual elements. In an industry that works as fast as advertising, saving that kind of time when building reels is huge for winning new jobs.”
“Building a great reel can be tough; you need encyclopedic knowledge of your work to meet the boards or the brief,” says Brian Atton, Simian’s Chief Operating Officer. “Simian’s automatic AI tagging can help anyone build a reel, whether they’ve been with a company for years or are brand new to the sales team. It’s going to be an essential feature for companies with large media libraries.”
David Gioiella, Creative Director/Partner of the Northern Lights Family of companies, has already used Simian’s AI tagging and believes it will be an invaluable asset to his teams. “Media libraries are only valuable if you can easily find what’s inside them,” he says. “Simian’s new AI tagging feature lets teams search through content using natural descriptions instead of filenames, tags, or memory. This is a major leap forward in reel-making workflows.”
To support the launch of AI Tagging, Simian partnered with The Fifth Wall, the AI-native creative studio founded by Executive Creative Producer J.P. McMahon, Director Ben Howdeshell, and VFX Supervisor Mark Renton, to rapidly concept, produce, and finish a series of four 15-second social films showcasing the platform’s capabilities.
Created from initial concept through final delivery in just days, “UFO,” “Pizza,” “Burnout,” and “Mars” combine AI-driven filmmaking with editorial, visual effects, motion design, sound design, and finishing to transform sophisticated technology into memorable visual storytelling. Each spot presents a familiar advertising scenario before dynamically revealing AI-generated tags that identify key visual elements, culminating with the Simian logo and demonstrating the power of intelligent media discovery.
“When Simian approached us, the challenge wasn’t just to launch a feature – it was to make audiences immediately understand and remember its value,” says J.P. McMahon. “By blending rapid creative development, AI-powered production, and premium post craftsmanship, we transformed a complex technology into a simple, memorable idea that could be delivered in days instead of weeks, helping Simian bring its innovation to market with speed, creativity, and confidence.”
Kellie Atton, Simian’s Head of Sales, reflects on the company’s evolution: “At Simian, we’re all about helping our clients in any way we can. And that means keeping up with industry trends so we’re always offering the best tools possible. AI tagging is huge for this. It helps clients with tons of files stay organized, and even makes it easier for new sales reps to get up to speed with huge libraries of work and, of course, win jobs.”
AI tagging is available by request as a paid add-on service to existing Simian accounts. Simian’s AI is independently maintained and not trained on any files uploaded by Simian users.
For more information on Simian, or to get started with a free trial, visit https://www.gosimian.com/.
