From Mad Men to the Age of Agentic

Plus, the new official tea of Arizona, NE

July 04, 2025

Welcome to The TV Room. Your weekly digest of television, streaming, and digital media insights that matter.

This week we're covering:

  • 📝 AI Is Rewriting the Old Ad Script

  • ✈️ JetBlue Takes CTV to the Skies

  • 🎥 Creative Spotlight: Ribena: “There’s No Taste Like Home”

  • 🍵 Nebraska Declares an Arizona Tea

AI Threatens Traditional Pricing Models

Advertising agencies are racing to adopt AI, but their traditional payment structures aren't keeping pace. While 75% of US agencies now use generative AI (up from 61% last year), a shocking 94% haven't figured out how to monetize these capabilities, according to Forrester.

"The inability to monetize AI is a death sentence to their current economic model," warns Forrester analyst Jay Pattisall. "It will most certainly result in agencies going out of business if this stays as it is."

The pricing paradox

The problem is fundamental: agencies still rely on full-time equivalent (FTE) models that charge for human hours, while simultaneously slashing those same humans with AI. Fewer people means smaller margins, regardless of output quality.

Pattisall initially predicted 7.5% of US advertising jobs (33,000 positions) would vanish by 2030, but now believes this figure could reach 15-20%, with impacts accelerating through 2026 and 2027.

Only 27% of agencies believe they're paid fairly for their work, while 58% report little progress in reforming commercial agreements.

Solutions taking shape

Agencies are exploring several alternatives:

  • tvScientific’s Guaranteed Outcomes lets brands choose the result they want to see, then sets a cost-per-outcome that matches their KPIs.

  • Outcome-based pricing tied directly to client business results

  • Integrated accounts where agencies control both media and creative

Grey London CEO Conrad Persons acknowledges the challenge: "The application of AI has gotten ahead of the commercial conversation on AI. We're at this point where there is amazing stuff we can do creatively, strategically, and efficiency-wise. But the conversation about how we monetize that is really fluid."

While CMOs appear open to new payment structures, procurement teams and competitive pitches remain significant barriers. Finance departments resist variable pricing models that don't fit neatly into budgets.

While the future is unclear, one thing is certain: the enduring presence of AI in advertising isn’t just a fad that can be ignored.

Read More:

TV Industry Updates

  • Creator crossover: Tubi brought 500 episodes from six YouTubers into its catalog, tapping into a combined audience of 50 million followers.

  • Smart TV surge: US households reached an average of two smart TVs, with Roku usage doubling to 8% and FireTV climbing to 5%.

  • MLB goes big: Major League Baseball launched a new wave of its “Baseball Is Something Else” campaign, with help from longtime creative partner Good Sports.

  • Cable split: Warner Bros. Discovery announced a breakup of its streaming and network businesses, aiming to sharpen focus following its $43 billion merger.

  • JetBlue onboard: United’s Kinective Media signed JetBlue as its first airline partner, combining data to offer advertisers access to 150 million traveler profiles.

  • FCC greenlight: The FCC approved Rincon Broadcasting’s $29.4 million acquisition of five Sinclair stations.

Creative Spotlight: Ribena: “There’s No Taste Like Home”

Ribena’s “There’s No Taste Like Home” campaign leaned into nostalgia to reframe the soft drink as a comforting symbol of childhood and belonging.

The Details:

  • The lead spot, “Rain,” followed two siblings as they sipped Ribena and relived a rainy summer day from their youth.

  • The visual storytelling used dreamlike effects to collapse time, placing the viewer inside a sensory memory.

  • The campaign elevated Ribena from a simple beverage into a cultural touchstone that connects generations through shared experience.

What We Loved: The ad’s ability to turn a living room into a childhood memory made the emotional core of the brand feel immediate, intimate, and unmistakably British.

Marketing Mix

  • Nebraska tea coup: Liquid Death convinced Arizona Township, Nebraska, to officially designate its products as the "Official Iced Tea of Arizona".

  • Search secrets lawsuit: PVC Fence Wholesale sued Google for allegedly failing to disclose which search queries triggered ad clicks.

  • Switch 2 saga: Nintendo and Amazon denied reports that Nintendo pulled its Switch 2 console from Amazon US.

  • Massive ad fraud: Google wiped 352 Android apps after uncovering a scheme that generated 1.2 billion fraudulent ad bid requests daily.

  • Beauty ride: Sephora partnered with Lyft to offer $20 rides to stores in five major cities from July 7-10, launching just before Amazon's Prime Day.

  • Spicy collab: Heinz partnered with hip-hop producer Mustard on a limited-edition "Heinz × Mustard" sauce available exclusively at Buffalo Wild Wings.