Even in the era of viral TikToks and Internet memes, TV remains a primary marketing channel for brands. Global TV advertising spend is nearly $340 billion per year, and in the US, it accounts for nearly one-fifth of overall marketing budgets. Many live sports and tentpole programming – from the NFL to the Olympics – continue to attract record audiences, often on new digital streaming platforms like Prime, YouTube, and Peacock.
But with hundreds of platforms and ad-tech partners, navigating the future of TV advertising is fraught with challenges. A single campaign with a connected TV (CTV) partner can become a sprawling measurement challenge, with content run across upwards of 25 or more distribution points, including national linear, over-the-top (OTT) streaming apps, smart TVs, programmatic ad platforms, set-top box addressable inventory, and more.
To help focus your ad dollars and team resources, and maximize your impact across every screen, these are nine major trends to keep an eye on in 2025.
1. CTV and streaming growth
Streaming viewership has already eclipsed both cable and broadcast TV in total viewing time. Now, CTV is the fastest growing media channel, with ad budget volumes increasing almost 20% each year, accounting for one-third of total TV ad spend. This growth is driven by:
- Increased “cord cutting” as consumers seek more flexible, on-demand viewing options outside of traditional cable
- The proliferation of streaming services offering both ad-supported and ad-free tiers
- Improvements in ad targeting and measurement capabilities on CTV platforms
For advertisers, CTV offers a powerful combination of digital precision with the high impact of premium video content. But the fragmented media landscape also presents challenges to CTV data activation and measurement, requiring brands and agencies to find new solutions together.
2. Addressable advertising
Unlike traditional TV ads broadcast to all viewers, addressable advertising allows for precise targeting of specific households or even individual viewers. This level of granularity allows for more relevant ad experiences for consumers, increased campaign efficiency, and superior return on ad spend (ROAS).
In the CTV ecosystem, traditional cookie-based targeting is largely ineffective. Instead, advertisers must adopt more sophisticated data collaboration platforms that can integrate various identifiers and data sources. This might include authenticated login data from TV apps or services, hashed emails (HEMs), or pseudonymized household IDs.
These data platforms enable the creation of trusted, addressable audiences across both linear TV and CTV environments, maximizing your overall reach and engagement.
3. Cross-screen measurement and currency
As consumer viewing habits splinter across devices and platforms, the importance of cross-screen measurement has never been greater. Advertisers need a holistic view of campaign performance across linear TV, CTV, digital video, and beyond to fully understand customer interests and ROAS.
This shift is leading to innovative adtech solutions such as:
- The emergence of new currencies beyond traditional gross ratings points (GRPs)
- Increased focus on outcome-based measurements tied to conversions or sales
- Advanced identity resolution technologies to connect TV ad exposures across screens
Cross-screen data allows brands to optimize their media mix, reinforce messages across channels with retargeted campaigns, and ultimately drive better business results through advertising.
Learn how Paramount and Circana personalize cross-screen TV inventory based on household-level purchases
4. Retail media networks
EMARKETER has called retail media the “third big wave” of digital advertising, following search and social, with expectations for it to become the biggest source yet of total ad spend. Growing over 20% per year, the industry will reach $165 billion in global spend next year, and is forecasted to account for a quarter of all US ad spend by 2024.
A retail media network (RMN) is an advertising business that retailers or marketplaces stand up to monetize their valuable first-party shopper data, through ad formats such as:
- Onsite placements on retailer websites and apps (e.g. sponsored listings)
- Offsite advertising across the open web, social media, and CTV
- In-store digital signage and other physical touchpoints
As RMNs mature, brands that can effectively integrate retail media into their overall TV advertising strategy will see outsized performance. Most importantly, since retailers control the transaction, RMNs offer closed-loop measurement – giving marketers trusted outcomes data to maximize every TV ad dollar.
5. Shoppable TV ads
With the rise of CTV and digital video, TV has transformed from a broad medium that boosts brand and product awareness to a performance channel that directly drives sales through enhanced targeting.
Shoppable TV ads allow viewers to purchase products right from their TV, streamlining the path from inspiration to purchase. Consumer behavior is already catching up:
- One in three viewers have used their CTVs to make a purchase after seeing an ad
- Interactive CTV campaigns achieve engagement rates 4.6x higher than mobile video and 10.3x higher than desktop video
These ad formats can be a game changer – but, given their premium CPMs and production costs, it’s also critical that marketers activate their audience data to ensure on-target delivery.
Learn how Albertsons partners with LiveRamp and Google to reach more customers with CTV campaigns.
6. Creative personalization and optimization
TV advertising used to be a matter of finding the right programs and audiences at the right times then blasting your message at scale. Now, TV creatives can be tailored to each audience segment or even individual viewer. With advanced marketing partners, brands can:
- Tailor TV ad creatives to specific custom audiences, demographics, etc.
- Dynamically adjust messaging based on time of day, weather, or location
- A/B test and optimize multiple creative variations in real-time
Creative personalization at scale requires a robust data foundation and the right technology partners, so marketers can quickly analyze performance data and adjust spend as needed.
See how NBCUniversal, LiveRamp, and Google’s Display & Video 360 partner to enable PAIR across CTV – powering better performance for marketers on the big screen.
7. Data collaboration partnerships
In the fragmented world of CTV and streaming, no single platform has a complete view of audience engagement. This is why data collaboration has become key, in helping advertisers:
- Combine pseudonymized first-party data from multiple sources (e.g. retail, affiliate) to build richer audience profiles and expand viewer reach
- Share aggregated performance data to benchmark and improve campaign effectiveness across CTV devices and OTT platforms (e.g. Hulu, Disney+, ESPN)
- Collaborate with partners to develop new targeting and measurement solutions
Often, data collaboration happens through a data clean room, a privacy-centric space for marketers to share pseudonymized insights and measure across channels. Brands can safely compare ad exposures and performance across media platforms (e.g., Meta, Google, Snapchat) and core business partners (e.g., CPG brands and retailers) to get a full view of marketing performance.
8. Cross-platform and portfolio advertising
With the explosion of CTV devices, streaming services, social networks, and digital platforms, the most effective TV marketers are embracing a cross-platform approach. Rather than juggling countless operational silos, fully integrated ad tech and a unified customer data strategy can enable marketers to:
- Reinforce brand identity with consistent messages across CTV and online video (OLV)
- Enhance audience reach with better deduplication and cross-platform frequency caps
- Maximize campaign performance and tilt budgets towards high ROAS segments
With a comprehensive view of every investment, you can deliver targeted messages to your audiences wherever and however they watch TV, today and in the future.
Learn how Pinterest and Snapchat use data collaboration to drive ROAS measurement.
9. Identity resolution
Arguably the biggest area of inefficiency in TV advertising is misidentified audiences. The lack of accurate identity can lead to over-delivery of ads, causing a negative sentiment with consumers; or it can lead to ads bypassing the intended audience altogether. Identity resolution is the process of connecting and verifying all relevant audience data to ensure accuracy
As consumer journeys spread across more touchpoints, and data privacy regulations get more stringent, the ability to create a unified view of the customer is both more challenging and more critical. Durable identifiers like RampID can make it easy to support person-based targeting everywhere your customers spend time.
Collaboration is key in the future of TV advertising
As the TV advertising landscape continues to evolve, your success hinges on embracing new technologies, like PAIR, data clean rooms, and identity resolution, as well as collaborative approaches. From the rise of CTV and addressable advertising to the emergence of retail media networks and shoppable ads, the opportunities for precise targeting and measurement are unprecedented.
However, these advancements also bring greater complexity. By breaking down silos and fostering partnerships across the TV ecosystem, brands can deliver more relevant experiences to consumers while driving improved and highly measurable business outcomes. The future of TV advertising is bright, but it requires a willingness to adapt, innovate, and collaborate. Are you ready to embrace the change?
