Marketers Just Don't Get CTV

Plus, Diet Coke has its day.

March 29, 2025

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

This week we're covering:

  • 💢 The Unrealized Potential of CTV

  • 💊 Amazon is Now Complete

  • 🎥 Creative Spotlight: Priceline: “Basketball :15”

  • 🦸 Don’t Call It a (Diet) Comeback

Why CTV's Performance Promise Remains Unfulfilled

Despite connected TV's potential to revolutionize TV advertising, marketers are still treating it as a supplementary performance marketing tool rather than the cornerstone of their media strategy.

A new Samsung Ads report reveals a striking disconnect: By 2026, CTV ad spending will under-index viewer time spent by 60%, even though 81% of U.S. TV households now have smart TVs.

What's Holding CTV Back?

Three key obstacles are preventing CTV from reaching its full potential:

  • Mindset issues: Marketers view CTV as just another digital channel rather than a true TV replacement

  • Over-targeting: Hyper-focused audience targeting leads to inflated CPMs and limited reach

  • Measurement challenges: The industry lacks a unified cross-publisher database for proper attribution

"CMOs must scrutinize MMM models: many misalign social with linear, overlook CTV, misapply ad decay, and focus on short-term gains over TV's long-term value," says CTV expert Kelly Abacarian.

The Path Forward

While 40% of marketers plan to increase spending on measurable ROI media, experts warn against sacrificing brand building for short-term gains. Drew Olkowski, VP at Davis Elen Advertising, notes that "brands that stick to brand building no matter what tend to do better over time."

The solution may be a hybrid approach: Using CTV's targeting capabilities while maintaining a broad reach for brand awareness. As T.S. Kelly, managing director at Arima puts it: "It's system-driven. It's personality-driven. It's just a momentum of what the client expects and wants."

For CTV to truly succeed, marketers need to stop treating it as just a performance marketing add-on and start seeing it as the future of television advertising itself.

Read More:

TV Industry Updates

  • Amazon's CTV grab: The tech giant introduced Complete TV, an AI tool to manage streaming campaigns across Prime Video and other premium publishers.

  • WWE's new home: The wrestling giant's Monday Night Raw premiered on Netflix, marking a watershed moment in sports entertainment distribution.

  • Women's sports scores: Ad effectiveness in women's sports increased 56% year over year, driven by a 131% viewership spike in 2024.

  • Roku expansion: The streaming platform appointed a new VP of global ad sales and partnerships as a part of a comprehensive sales boost before upfronts.

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Creative Spotlight: Priceline: “Basketball :15”

Priceline launched a playful campaign featuring Kaley Cuoco as a whimsical travel guru who interrupts people's travel "dreamscrolling" to inspire them to actually book their dream vacations.

The Details:

  • The creative featured dreamers lost in pink-cloud fantasy worlds, with Cuoco appearing magically to snap them back to reality and encourage booking through Priceline

  • The integrated campaign spanned broadcast, digital, social, audio and podcast channels, supported by partnerships with DraftKings and special "Buzzer Beater" deals tied to March Madness

  • The ad specifically targeted Gen-Z and Millennial audiences, based on research showing over half dream weekly about vacation plans but face booking barriers

What We Loved: The campaign cleverly transformed the negative concept of "doomscrolling" into aspirational "dreamscrolling," while using surreal creative elements and Cuoco's charm to break through to young audiences paralyzed by travel planning.

Marketing Mix

  • Diet Coke's renaissance: Diet Coke has mounted a comeback through savvy social media campaigns as a trendy choice among Gen-Z influencers.

  • Chrome's fate: The DOJ continued to push for Google's forced sale of Chrome, despite Google's political connections and efforts to maintain its tech dominance.

  • Merger drama: Skydance accused a rival bidder of hijacking the review process of its $8 billion merger with Paramount.

  • Silver wave: The power of the silver influencer is rising, with brands hiring Gen X and boomer influencers to appeal to older audiences.

  • Impact grants return: NBCUniversal Local announced it is awarding $2.5 million in local impact grants to nonprofits across the US.

The TV Room is your go-to source for staying ahead in the world of television and digital media. Want to chat about these stories with other industry pros? Join our Slack channel to continue the conversation.