Anirban Datta is President and CMO at Anoki.ai. He was previously at Raise, Nasdaq Boardvantage, and eBay.
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Imagine settling into your preferred streaming app to watch a beloved film like 1997’s Good Will Hunting starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in their breakout roles. You get to the classic Boston bar scene where Damon’s character, Will, calmly destroys a condescending first-year grad student with his intellect, not a fight, while everyone looks on with a mixture of respect and awe. It’s such a satisfying scene: great character development, a “wicked smart” underdog who triumphs and a textbook jerk getting shown up by someone when he least expects it.
It would be an excellent place for a savvy advertiser to deploy, say, a beverage company’s campaign showing beer as part of a good-natured gathering of friends hanging out in a bar. Even better, showing a Boston bar in the campaign would fit almost seamlessly with the mood and sentiment of the film’s scene. It would feel like it was part of the programming, not simply a distraction for the viewer.
More likely: The film pauses for an ad, and you find yourself looking at diapers or dishwashing detergent or a luxury vehicle—all of which feel out of place with the scene in the movie.
Effective contextual advertising has historically been impossible to deploy in the television landscape, but there is good news for both streaming audiences and advertisers alike: The biggest screen in the house is poised for change. Leading the charge: AI-powered contextual advertising.
Contextual advertising is not a new concept. Years ago, Google’s advertising platforms revolutionized digital marketing by enabling advertisers to place their messages alongside relevant web content with remarkable precision. When you search for “best running shoes,” you see ads for athletic footwear; when you read an article about home improvement, you encounter promotions for power tools and paint.
This contextual alignment between content and advertising has become fundamental to digital marketing. It also makes the browsing experience better by channeling an easier, faster and more direct path to relevant information, products and services. This has only continued with the rise of TikTok and the “For You Page” effect placing yet more contextually relevant advertising content in their feeds.
Until very recently, achieving this same level of sophisticated content matching and ad placement in streaming video has remained frustratingly out of reach. While a small percentage of CTV advertising has used contextual placement, the contextual information available for targeting has been limited to genre or text-based programming information and speech-to-text metadata.
Along the same lines, automated content recognition (ACR) data can only tell what show is being watched, not what’s actually happening on screen. While these technologies are OK, we’re nowhere near where we could be. The scene-level targeting powered by multimodal AI that we can leverage today signals a huge opportunity for advertisers—and a better viewing experience for consumers. Both viewers and advertisers deserve more from their CTV experience.
Unlike text-based web content, video has historically been difficult for advertising systems to analyze and understand. Now, multimodal AI can comprehensively analyze scenes—from dialogue and facial expressions to music and emotional tone—enabling far more sophisticated ad targeting. Beyond just understanding basic context, these systems can also dynamically optimize creative elements, like swapping regional landmarks or seasonal imagery, to make campaigns more relevant without producing multiple expensive versions.
If you’re a marketer considering how to best incorporate contextual CTV targeting for your ads, here are a few tips for getting started or building upon your existing approach.
Start With Strategy
Begin with a strategic approach to content-message alignment. What kinds of content can your brand’s messages and campaigns naturally match? It’s a simple question, but the answer is likely to be complex and go beyond the obvious. If you’re a beverage brand, which products are best suited to audiences watching content with tropical beach scenes versus lively sporting events? While your CTV advertising partners should be there to offer guidance and technical assistance for ad matching, you’ll want to come to the table with a perspective to help guide the early experiments as your campaigns get up and running.
Combine AI-Powered Contextual CTV Advertising With Other Methods
Don’t think of contextual targeting in isolation. Combine it with audience-based targeting and other strategies for maximum impact. Additionally, consider how your creative assets can be dynamically optimized using AI. Modern platforms can personalize video elements using AI to customize specific elements such as swapping regional sports memorabilia, landmarks or weather conditions to match viewing contexts. This sophisticated approach to creative optimization, paired with precise targeting, can dramatically improve campaign performance and viewer engagement.
Potential Roadblocks
Prepare for technical hurdles related to content classification inconsistencies across streaming platforms. The current landscape lacks unified standards, which can complicate campaign execution. Many marketing teams aren’t maximizing available targeting capabilities, often settling for basic demographic approaches. The best way to address these challenges? Rely on controlled testing and methodical expansion of successful initiatives. It goes without saying that working with experienced partners will help navigate the complex implementation process while building internal expertise.
Looking ahead, streaming platforms are poised to deliver advertising that feels less like an interruption and more like a natural extension of the viewing experience thanks to sophisticated contextual targeting powered by advances in multimodal AI. For viewers, this means a better experience as content and advertising become more complementary, seamlessly surfacing products and services with true relevance. For advertisers, the next phase of CTV will deliver contextual targeting opportunities with the relevance and precision of digital platforms. With any luck, in the not-too-distant future, we may be able to call our smart TVs “wicked smart” and mean it.
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