Nick Ivanov: “We are focused on the viewer experience”

Graffiti Studio is a 30-year-old company that provides dubbing and subtitling services in all Central and Eastern European languages. "We serve as a one-stop point for both clients like streaming platforms, broadcast TV channels, and other language service providers that source the regional languages from us," said Nick Ivanov, CEO of the company, in a chat with Señal News.

What makes Graffiti Studio different is that they are focused on the viewer experience. "We don't just translate the content; we design the viewer experience in the native language and then work our way backwards," he explained.

Another element that makes Graffiti Studio stand out is their clear definition of quality. "We use an operational KPI called 'on-time, in-full, error-free.' We measure all our deliveries through this framework. For us, quality means the service is delivered on time, in full, and error-free—which means on specification. Whenever we meet our own definition of quality, we rest assured that the clients are satisfied and our employees are rewarded for that," he asserted.

One more point that makes Graffiti Studio stand out is that they are the only company that tracks cultural markers. "We track local idioms and specific expressions that are unique to certain countries, and we keep this in a database. It’s shared across our glossaries to ensure that all translators and voice actors are aware of how to adapt to the local culture and specific content, and to make sure that the output—the localized version—is compliant with the cultural markers we monitor," he added.

THE AI ERA
Local culture is especially important to understand in the current era of AI. "We are developing our own AI capabilities, but we are embedding our cultural understanding and competence into them. Our competitive advantage is being able to provide AI services with cultural understanding," Ivanov noted, expressing confidence about AI. "We can always look for opportunities instead of threats," he stated. “History always shows that what disruptive innovation does to industries is redefine them. It doesn’t destroy or completely replace them, but pushes them to find a new value they can bring to the market," he added.

The Graffiti Studio CEO also mentioned that we face major paradigm shifts every 10–12 years. "I always try to see this as an opportunity to revisit our value proposition," he said. "At the verge of this AI disruption, forward-thinking companies will adopt this technology, build new services in new ways, reach new markets with a renewed value proposition, and remain relevant. On the other hand, companies that don't see this as an opportunity and keep doing things the same way will suffer," he stated.

ACTIVE PARTICIPATION
Graffiti Studio attended the last Series Mania with great success. "We met very interesting people with very inspiring projects," said Ivanov.

What’s next for Graffiti Studio is to attend more markets this year. "We have a long list of markets we are going to visit, and we’ll try to spread our positivity on the future of entertainment to the people we meet," he concluded.