The long-held ambition for connected television advertising is finally coming into focus: recreating the immense, immediate reach of traditional linear TV, but with a new layer of intelligence that its predecessor could never offer.
As viewers increasingly self-select their content, ad spending is following them into the streaming world, with US CTV ad investment projected to hit $40.90 billion by 2027.
This evolution is creating an environment where the best of both worlds – the efficiency of mass reach and the precision of digital targeting – can be achieved, according to Nick Hartofilis, EVP of investment at Zenith. In this video interview with Beet.TV, he explained how the agency is harnessing new data signals to drive tangible business outcomes.
Getting past the scale phase
For Zenith, the journey in CTV began with the fundamental need to build a large enough advertising environment. The initial priority was to establish a supply waterfall that could capture as many impressions as possible, ensuring that the agency was not missing out on valuable inventory and could achieve the necessary scale for its clients’ campaigns.
“We were first more concerned with achieving critical scale in CTV, making sure that we could create our supply waterfall correctly so we can pretty much make that sandbox as big as possible,” Hartofilis said. From there, the agency could begin layering in first-party audiences while still maintaining that scale and efficiency, setting the stage for more advanced tactics.
Now, with that foundation in place, Zenith is moving into what Hartofilis called the “fun part” of its CTV strategy: appending metadata. This allows for more precise targeting without sacrificing reach or creating a “negative cost proposition.” “It’s allowing us to be more selective while still not losing that scale,” he added. “We’re learning some really great things about how we can really move the needle and drive outcome.”
A broader role for CTV
This newfound sophistication is also prompting a strategic rethink of CTV’s role within the marketing funnel. For years, the channel has been somewhat “pigeonholed” as a next-generation, upper-funnel awareness driver, according to Hartofilis.
“Based on the way that we’re able to transact and optimize within CTV and the different things that we can do, we don’t have to look at it just as an upper funnel metric anymore,” Hartofilis said. The agility of the channel allows it to be deployed for a variety of objectives. “It can deliver awareness, consideration, more real-time short-term transactional strategies.”
Looking ahead, a key focus for Zenith will be educating clients on this expanded potential. The agency plans to use its learnings from aggressive testing of metadata and other signals to demonstrate how CTV can be leveraged across the entire customer journey. “We’re going to be looking at it based on what we’re learning of how we can broaden the breadth of what it’s doing,” he said.
Liberated by algorithms
Combining multifaceted audience strategies with a growing number of new signals can quickly become “chaotic” if handled manually. EMarketer forecasts show that 43% of US marketers plan to use AI for campaign optimization in the coming year.
“That’s where AI comes in, that’s where predictive learning models and re-optimization models come in, us being able to build within our infrastructure, custom algorithms to bring all those things together,” Hartofilis said. These systems are necessary to process the raw data and make sense of the myriad signals flowing in.
Ultimately, Hartofilis believes these technologies will liberate buyers from outdated performance metrics. When implemented correctly, AI can change the industry’s very definition of efficiency and effectiveness by revealing what different combinations of signals can achieve. “It’s essentially liberating us that we can look outside of traditional metrics and traditional fears of efficiency,” he said. “Then it’ll finally make everybody more confident to just get off of traditional metrics and just look at value and currencies in a different way.”
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.
