Connected TV is moving beyond the broad-reach, fixed-timeslot model of linear television. A recent ADWEEK House Advertising HQ group chat co-hosted with Best Buy Ads made the case that CTV is becoming an interactive, commerce-aware channel that can take cues from social media.
Marketing leaders from Best Buy Ads, LG Ad Solutions, BrightLine, Roku and Hello Party outlined how shopper data and remote-control interactions could change who sees an ad, when they see it, and what they are asked to do next.
From fixed schedules to real-time relevance
Patrick Albano, chief revenue officer at Best Buy Ads, said the shift is about putting actual sales data and consumer purchase graphs behind television, rather than treating TV as a pure awareness play. “What you’re seeing now is actual sales information, actual consumer graphs that show what people like and what they might buy, and then applying that to television,” he said.
Catherine Fanone, senior sales director at LG Ad Solutions, described the combination as a way to connect TV storytelling to shopper outcomes. Best Buy Ads contributes commerce intelligence, she said, while LG adds scale, attention and a more advanced screen environment.
Ty Stafford, founder and CEO of Hello Party, pointed to cultural relevance as the biggest change. Linear TV required such long lead times that brands could not react to real-time moments. Now, he said, CTV allows polished creative that is also timely—and relatively few brands are using that capability.
Every remote click becomes a signal
Rob Aksman, president and co-founder of BrightLine, said the remote control has introduced data signals that never existed in traditional TV. Instead of relying only on ratings, advertisers can now see interaction data from each click.
Albano gave a consumer-electronics example: buyers often purchase phones every two or three years, and TVs or laptops every five to seven. By understanding where someone is in that refresh cycle, CTV campaigns can separate branding audiences from near-term sales audiences.
- Interactive remote clicks create behavioral data that feeds targeting and follow-up.
- Shopper graphs can identify who is years away from purchase and who is days away.
- Advertisers can sequence creative so viewers stop seeing the same ad repeatedly.
- Smaller brands may find streaming CTV access as CPMs become more approachable.
From repetition to sequenced creative
The group also called out the familiar streaming frustration of repeated commercials. Aksman said many campaigns behave like every ad is meeting the viewer for the first time: “Every commercial is just saying ‘hello, nice to meet you,’ as if you haven’t seen it 10 times before.” Sequenced, personalised creative is now possible, he said, but it requires brands and media teams to put the work in upstream.
Miles Fisher, VP of global strategic advertising partnerships at Roku, added that the opportunity is not limited to large legacy advertisers. As streaming becomes more democratised, he said, CPMs are becoming more approachable for growth marketers and small and medium-sized brands.
What marketers should do next
The takeaway for media and performance teams is to treat CTV as a data-rich, testable channel rather than a fixed awareness buy. Brands with first-party or retailer purchase data can use it to time messages, sequence creative and shift budget toward outcomes.
The capability exists now; the early movers are likely to capture the attention economy before CTV inventory becomes crowded.
Source: Adweek
