RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CALIF. – Could the narrative around connected TV be shifting? Once seen as a pure-play brand-building medium, a growing chorus of vendors and agencies now pitches CTV as a bottom-funnel conversion driver.
But for some, this view represents a fundamental misreading of both the medium and marketing itself.
Benoit Vatere, Chief Media Officer at beverage brand Liquid Death, believes the industry is chasing a flawed premise by trying to force CTV into a direct-response role, a move he calls “nonsense.”
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Vatere contended that CTV’s primary power remains where it has always been: on the biggest screen in the house, building mass awareness.
Back to marketing fundamentals
For Vatere, attempts to reposition connected TV are misguided. “This is not a conversion driver,” he said. “Whoever is trying to say that is trying to pitch TV as a conversion driver, and it’s the same nonsense that we heard from social before. Meaning that ‘this is an ad and it can drive conversions’. No, it doesn’t. You cannot do that in a single 30 seconds on the biggest screen.”
While he concedes that CTV can push consumers toward consideration with the right targeting and high frequency, the idea of it as a primary sales platform is a bridge too far. “People trying to build that storyline around CTV being a conversion platform are wrong, just flat out wrong,” Vatere said. “And it’s just a marketing stunt to try to sell more of it, and you don’t need that.”
The company is currently focused on building awareness for new product lines, such as its recently launched soda-flavored sparkling water.
Vatere views brand building and conversion not as opposing objectives but as sequential parts of a whole, dismissing the notion of a conflict between them. “They don’t work against each other; they work together,” he explained. “Why are we trying to reset marketing fundamentals? Marketing fundamentals are here for a reason because they’ve been working. Now, yes, we’re dealing with new platforms, so let’s use those platforms to do it the right way.”
The retailer data advantage
Liquid Death’s advertising approach is an entertainment-first, social-media-driven strategy that leverages humor, shock value, and a heavy-metal aesthetic to build a lifestyle brand around a basic commodity (water). It prioritizes creating viral, highly shareable content over traditional ad spend and have strategically expanded into connected TV for broad reach and data targeting.
If CTV isn’t for conversion, its real value, according to Vatere, is unlocked by a different set of partners: retailers. He said that retail media networks are the key to making the platform so effective because they possess the most valuable targeting information. “Retailers are why CTV is so good,” he said. “We should give credit to those guys because they have the best data set out there. They are first-party data.”
For him, that first-party purchase data – knowing what products shoppers buy, when they buy them, and in which stores – is what transforms CTV from a blunt instrument into a precision tool for awareness.
“You tell that story in front of someone that you know is most likely going to walk into their store to buy a product that they know they bought before in the category,” Vatere said.
Kroger tastes Liquid Death
Vatere highlighted his work with Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) as a prime example of a successful collaboration. The partnership goes beyond simply providing data for targeting and measurement, extending to a collaborative effort to connect ad exposure to on-site and in-store activity.
“What is very good and and very unique for them is they are building with me, they are talking to me,” he said. “Not all retailers are moving at that pace.”
This is happening as the CTV market continues its rapid expansion, with U.S. CTV ad spending projected to reach $33.48 billion in 2025.
