RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CALIF. — Connected TV is emerging as a performance channel, thanks to new ways of marshalling data that allow advertisers to zero in on consumers who are open to a brand’s offer. The only challenge, it seems, is convincing advertisers of the possibility after years of such promises by CTV platforms.
“Historically, there hasn’t been a lot of data. You didn’t necessarily know what was working, where it was working,” Field Garthwaite, co-founder and CEO of IRIS.TV, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet Retreat LA. “Now there’s capabilities where you can actually connect this through to understand what really is driving the performance outcomes. It’s starting to come right up against these demand capture tools.”
This shift transforms television from pure awareness medium to channel that competes directly with attribution-focused platforms for advertising dollars.
Emotional context drives measurable outcomes
IRIS.TV converts TV shows and movies into video-level data through partnerships with companies like Wurl providing emotional data sets that identify viewer sentiment in the two minutes before ad breaks.
Garthwaite pointed to the work IRIS.TV did with burger chain Carl’s Jr. They used geotargeting combined with contextual signals around store locations to drive foot traffic and sales, achieving “more than 2x better return on ad spend” than campaign norms, he said, calling the approach “always-on” rather than “test-and-learn.”
In another example involving an unidentified entertainment brand, IRIS.TV helped drive a 20% higher tune-in for a major show release at lower cost than alternatives through contextual targeting. Elsewhere, a champagne brand associated its product with weddings, travel, and emotions like anticipation or excitement. Those connections drove 5x improvement in brand consideration at the checkout counter.
Privacy-first real-time targeting
IRIS.TV enables privacy-first targeting by identifying what content is being viewed without tracking viewer identity. That, in turn, lets brands place ads during specific dramatic moments or comedic scenes when messages are more likely to resonate.
“We know exactly what’s being viewed, but we don’t know who you are,” Garthwaite said. “So we know it’s this emotion or it’s an actual comedic moment so that ad is actually going to really land. People are going to remember the brand and actually think about it more favorably.”
Incorporating contextual signals into identity-based planning requires working with brand and agency partners to analyze briefs, creative assets, and vertical-specific performance data before testing and optimizing.
CTV scale rises
IRIS.TV created over 90 million IRIS IDs for TV shows and movies, a new data signal distinct from mobile advertising IDs, cookies, household IDs, or IP addresses that required building infrastructure from scratch, Garthwaite noted.
Recent partnership with Tubi expanded reach significantly, with Whip serving as backbone for much of the free ad-supported streaming ecosystem and powering providers including FIFA ahead of major events in 2025.
“Those inventory partners that now we’ve enabled with the IRIS ID have increased our coverage to over 40% of the CTV ecosystem,” Garthwaite said.
The company is expanding into live content and live sports. It’s got solutions already rolling out as major partner launches are expected in 2026.
“We’re really excited about those capabilities in 2026,” Garthwaite said.
You’re watching Performance Marketing in Streaming TV: The Strategies & Innovations Driving Outcomes, a Beet.TV Leadership Series, presented by Wurl. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
