Prisoner of its prestige – big screen, emotional impact – CTV advertising has long been confined to the straitjacket of notoriety. A reassuring but strategically outdated read.
LReceived ideas resist for a long time, even in the face of facts. For years, Connected TV advertising has suffered from a default positioning in media plans: premium setting, large screen, strong emotional impact – and therefore, necessarily, reserved for awareness objectives. The logic seemed unstoppable. Above all, she was lazy.
This categorization reflex has cost many advertisers dearly. While they confined Connected TV advertising to the top of the funnel, the data began to tell a completely different story: that of a channel intended to increase both the memorability and performance of campaigns.
Connected TV plays yoyo between top and bottom of the funnel
The IAB has developed a reference guide on conversion APIs for Connected TV, the conclusions of which are clear: almost two thirds of advertisers using these tools report a measurable improvement in their return on advertising investment. Connected TV advertising thus comes closer to the logic specific to Search and Social, in terms of measurement: with the structuring of benchmarks dedicated to performance.
Retail media further amplifies this dynamic. Thanks to the integration of checkout or loyalty data, Connected TV campaigns directly contribute to increasing turnover: and no longer just in impressions or completion rates.
And if another signal were to confirm this shift, it would undoubtedly be this: the agencies are now enriching Connected TV with formats designed for conversion, starting with QR codes, Pause Ads and other interactive devices compatible with smartphones or desktops. Players like Amazon and YouTube are among those accelerating this movement, facilitating dual navigation journeys where exposure on the big screen can immediately extend to mobile. When the market is banking on new formats dedicated to TV performance, it is because the big screen has definitely joined the conversion camp.
In a context where the market is gaining momentum on measurement and formats, continuing to treat Connected TV advertising under the sole prism of branding amounts to piloting the most powerful conquest tool of the moment with a rear-view mirror.
Time to question
What is happening today around Connected TV advertising goes beyond a simple channel evolution: it is a reconfiguration of the media logics themselves. Continuing to oppose notoriety and performance no longer makes sense in an ecosystem where signals cross, enrich and activate in real time.
This imposes a double rupture. Firstly on the side of advertisers, who must move away from a logic of silos to think about their investments in an integrated way. This development must be based on Global Video: integrating Connected TV advertising into a global vision of formats, audiences and budgets, rather than considering it as a set of isolated levers. Then on the measurement side, where the challenge is no longer just to prove, but to connect: linking exposure and action, branding and business, attention and transaction.
Because ultimately, Connected TV has never been limited to notoriety. It was simply under-exploited for strategic comfort. And as is often the case in marketing, it’s not the channel that is behind. It was the way people looked at him.
