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2025 is the Year of CTV
Plus, Toblerone takes over TikTok with a viral tantrum.
Welcome to The TV Room. Your weekly digest of television, streaming, and digital media insights that matter.
This week we're covering:
📺 2025 Marks a Turning Point for CTV Advertising
🏆 YouTube Takes the Top Spot, Again
🎥 Creative Spotlight: Stellantis: “America Made Us”
🍫 Toblerone Stages a Tasty Tantrum
Connected TV (CTV) advertising is having its moment as a critical performance marketing channel. Unlike traditional TV, CTV offers measurable ROI by connecting the dots between ads shown and actual business outcomes.
Ad Age recently called out this year as a tipping point for streaming TV advertising. The numbers back it up.
More than 80% of consumers now subscribe to multiple streaming services, and nearly three-quarters watch those services on a connected TV. Better yet, over 90% of streamers opt for at least one ad-supported tier.
Why CTV now?
"This is the year when everything is coming together for streaming TV," writes Tejas Desai in a recent Ad Age article. The timing couldn't be better. Traditional TV viewership continues to decline while streaming platforms capture more attention daily.
What makes CTV particularly valuable is its unique position in the consumer attention economy. Unlike mobile ads viewed during busy moments, CTV ads appear on large screens when viewers are actively engaged. This heightened attention translates directly to brand recall and affinity, outperforming social media, websites, and mobile games.
The advertising landscape has evolved with various formats:
Unskippable 15-30 second in-stream videos
Interactive pre-roll/mid-roll ads with clickable elements
QR code integrations for easy performance measurement
Marketers can now target specific households or devices, and formats like interactive pre-rolls or QR codes let viewers respond instantly. Video completion rates for CTV ads hit as high as 95%, a figure that traditional digital ads can only envy. And with deterministic 1:1 attribution, advertisers can finally connect the dots between ad exposure and real business outcomes without guesswork.
As streaming continues to dominate viewing habits in 2025, advertisers who haven't yet explored CTV's potential are missing a significant opportunity. The revolution is here. The question isn't whether to invest in streaming TV advertising. The question is how quickly you can get started.
Read More:
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TV Industry Updates
YouTube dominates the dial: YouTube captured a record 12.4% of total TV viewing in April, holding the top spot in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge.
Tubi gets personal: Tubi pitched new ad formats and vertical-specific tools at NewFronts, including partnerships with Amazon, Moloco, and Kochava.
Amazon sharpens its edge: Amazon expanded its ad stack with InfoSum and Magnite, giving advertisers more ways to activate first-party data across Fire TV.
Publicis goes creator-first: Publicis acquired Captiv8 for a reported $150 million, adding 15 million creators and deepening its bet on influencer marketing.
News gets sidelined: At Media 360, execs warned that the ad industry is “sentencing news to death” by ignoring its proven effectiveness.
TNT takes the clay court: TNT Sports kicked off its $650 million French Open deal with wall-to-wall coverage from Roland-Garros.
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Creative Spotlight: Stellantis: “America Made Us”
Stellantis launched "America Made Us," a campaign that brought together Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram as the exclusive automotive partner for America250, marking the nation's 250th anniversary with a yearlong celebration and special edition vehicles.
The Details:
The debut spot appeared across social media and featured an AI-generated narration using the late Kevin Yon's voice, recreated using ElevenLabs technology.
Each brand will introduce a limited-edition America250 vehicle as part of the festivities.
The brands are providing a fleet of vehicles to support America250 events across the country.
Global CMO Olivier Francois described the effort as a meaningful way to unite Americans, rooted in the idea that America shapes the brands' identity.
What We Loved: Using AI to revive Kevin Yon's iconic voice gave the spot a sense of history and authenticity, while the campaign’s collaborative spirit set the tone for a sentimental national celebration.
Marketing Mix
Tantrum tactics: Toblerone staged a viral TikTok video of a girl having a meltdown in a London airport to show the brand's status as a classic travel gift.
Privacy shield: WhatsApp's largest campaign to date quiets skeptics with a "Not Even WhatsApp" message emphasizing end-to-end encryption.
Walmart ad shuffle: Walmart is evolving the structure of its US retail media arm, Walmart Connect, eliminating some roles while opening others.
AI for creators: Creator marketing firms are now deploying AI agents to execute creator deals, sparking both industry awe and alarm.
Search ad showdown: The Supreme Court refused to hear law firm Lerner & Rowe's appeal over a rival group’s use of their name to trigger search ads.
Economic loyalties: The new Axios Harris Poll showed Trader Joe's, Patagonia, Microsoft, Toyota, and Costco top the list of most respected companies.
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