RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA — Contextual targeting has evolved from supplementary tactic to primary solution over the past year, enabling advertisers to move beyond inconsistent audience-based signals toward more robust and reliable connections with consumers.
“A year ago at CES, we started talking about the idea of leveraging these signals in more interesting and meaningful ways. A year later, I think it’s important to recognize the degree to which things have evolved,” Alex Gardner, CRO at Index Exchange, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet Retreat LA. “We are literally seeing a revolution in how context ideas are being leveraged to better identify what advertisers are ultimately looking to connect with.”
Index Exchange enables these contextual connections through partnerships with vendors including Gracenote, which provides program-level insights through TMS IDs that augment audience targeting quality by using unique content identifiers that map every TV program and movie with rich metadata.
Emotional receptivity drives CTV value
Connected TV environments create unique receptivity moments when contextual alignment matches consumer mindset, such as serving snack food advertising during football games when viewers are primed for such messages.
“The mindset of a user or a consumer when they’re watching a football game is rather specific. You can imagine serving a Doritos ad when you’re watching that game. There’s this degree of receptivity that is incredibly unique,” Gardner said. “The marketer’s opportunity to capture that emotional condition is really powerful.”
This contextual approach addresses inherent CTV challenges around signal reliability and consistency by abstracting away from audience-based targeting toward content-based alignment.
Signal loss mitigation
As the industry grapples with declining people-based identifiers, program-level contextual insights elevate engagement quality in ways that fragmented audience signals cannot match consistently.
“Whether it’s the fragmentation or the inconsistency around the signals and the schemas being leveraged to apply conventional audience-based targeting, when we have the opportunity to leverage program level contextual insights, it dramatically elevates the quality of those engagements,” Gardner said.
Studies conducted by Index Exchange demonstrate meaningful lift from contextual approaches, with additional capabilities including Gracenote’s “do not air” and allow-list functionalities that provide brand safety controls even in basic implementations.
Regulatory respect required
Current contextual capabilities are live in campaigns today generating results, but implementation must respect regulatory guardrails including Video Privacy Protection Act constraints that limit certain data uses.
“These are campaigns that are live, they’re in the wild, and we’re seeing incredible results. We have to be very cautious and aware that they adhere to regulation policies,” Gardner said. “VPPA is an important example because those regulations exist in such a way they kind of limit or constrain, and so we have to respect those constraints.”
The capabilities available within regulatory boundaries remain powerful enough to drive increasing adoption as marketers see performance outcomes.
Deal sophistication accelerates
Private marketplace deals provide the mechanism for contextual targeting execution, with publishers now offering program-level and even scene-level granularity that creates transparent, controlled transactions.
“The level of sophistication and granularity is really impressive now. All of that is coming to bear with the context of deals,” Gardner said. “Deals are ultimately the mechanism by which all of this is being transacted.”
The deal structure provides transparency inherent in these transactions while giving publishers control over inventory availability and pricing, and ensuring buyers receive outcomes aligned with brand expectations.
“All of these things happen by virtue of a really open and transparent deal ID mechanic,” Gardner said.
You’re watching “The Road to CES 2026: Planning and Buying CTV the Way Viewers Watch”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series, presented by Gracenote. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
