Viant’s Chris Vanderhook: Attention Metrics are Driving CTV Growth
CANNES, France — Connected TV advertising growth is accelerating beyond the simple linear-to-streaming shift as marketers who measure CTV’s true incremental sales impact redirect budgets from branded search, social, and display — a structural reallocation that is pushing Viant’s CTV growth above 40% annually for three consecutive years.
“Marketers who are measuring CTV’s impact are now growing CTV even more because they’re taking money away from branded search, social and display advertising and pushing that into CTV,” Chris Vanderhook, co-founder & COO of Viant, told Beet.TV editorial director Lisa Granatstein at Cannes Lions. “At Viant, CTV has been growing north of 40% for the last three years.”
This measurement-driven reallocation depends on proving incremental sales impact rather than attributing last-touch credit — a fundamental shift in how CTV justifies its place in the media mix.
TVision acquisition brings attention data to activation
Viant’s acquisition of TVision, the only US television panel competitor to Nielsen, provides camera-based attention measurement that tracks who is in the room, how many viewers are present, and whether they are actually watching content and advertising.
“TVision is a US television panel and it’s the only competitor to Nielsen. They have a camera that sits on top of their panelists television set and it measures who’s in the room and what’s the attention being paid to the content that they’re watching and then also the ads,” Vanderhook said.
This attention data enables activation across CTV, linear, and walled garden environments including YouTube and Prime Video through attention-adjusted CPMs that reflect actual viewer engagement rather than assumed exposure.
Marketers’ expectations
Attention metrics become strategically actionable when connected directly to sales outcomes, enabling marketers to move beyond acknowledging attention’s importance toward quantifying its precise business value.
“Marketers all know that attention matters, but they may not know how much. When you take attention and actually link it to sales, now they’re able to quantify how much it actually matters,” Vanderhook said.
From there, attention-adjusted CPM optimization enables more precise publisher evaluation across CTV environments based on demonstrated sales impact rather than delivery metrics alone.
Premium’s attention advantage
Attention measurement reveals clear quality hierarchies across television environments, with premium streaming services and live programming generating significantly higher engagement than long-tail video content.
“You see the premium apps, the big streamers, Disney, Paramount, NBC Peacock, they have very high attention scores. A lot of their programming is live, that does really well. And then you see kind of a longer tail where YouTube doesn’t really get as much attention as some of the premium streamers,” Vanderhook said.
Linear programming also demonstrates strong attention performance for quality content, reinforcing the case for measurement-driven investment decisions across both traditional and streaming television environments.
Incremental measurement wins CTV
Brands that move beyond last-touch attribution toward true incremental sales measurement will gain clearest understanding of CTV’s contribution to business growth rather than credit-claiming that obscures actual performance.
“Brands in CTV need to start measuring the true impact that CTV has on incremental sales,” Vanderhook said. “Everyone knows you can show a display ad right before someone’s going to buy and a display ad gets credit for it in last touch attribution. But in CTV, they need to measure the incremental sales impact, not just the same sales.”
You’re watching The Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Viant. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
CANNES, France — Connected TV advertising growth is accelerating beyond the simple linear-to-streaming shift as marketers who measure CTV’s true incremental sales impact redirect budgets from branded search, social, and display — a structural reallocation that is pushing Viant’s CTV growth above 40% annually for three consecutive years.
“Marketers who are measuring CTV’s impact are now growing CTV even more because they’re taking money away from branded search, social and display advertising and pushing that into CTV,” Chris Vanderhook, co-founder & COO of Viant, told Beet.TV editorial director Lisa Granatstein at Cannes Lions. “At Viant, CTV has been growing north of 40% for the last three years.”
This measurement-driven reallocation depends on proving incremental sales impact rather than attributing last-touch credit — a fundamental shift in how CTV justifies its place in the media mix.
TVision acquisition brings attention data to activation
Viant’s acquisition of TVision, the only US television panel competitor to Nielsen, provides camera-based attention measurement that tracks who is in the room, how many viewers are present, and whether they are actually watching content and advertising.
“TVision is a US television panel and it’s the only competitor to Nielsen. They have a camera that sits on top of their panelists television set and it measures who’s in the room and what’s the attention being paid to the content that they’re watching and then also the ads,” Vanderhook said.
This attention data enables activation across CTV, linear, and walled garden environments including YouTube and Prime Video through attention-adjusted CPMs that reflect actual viewer engagement rather than assumed exposure.
Marketers’ expectations
Attention metrics become strategically actionable when connected directly to sales outcomes, enabling marketers to move beyond acknowledging attention’s importance toward quantifying its precise business value.
“Marketers all know that attention matters, but they may not know how much. When you take attention and actually link it to sales, now they’re able to quantify how much it actually matters,” Vanderhook said.
From there, attention-adjusted CPM optimization enables more precise publisher evaluation across CTV environments based on demonstrated sales impact rather than delivery metrics alone.
Premium’s attention advantage
Attention measurement reveals clear quality hierarchies across television environments, with premium streaming services and live programming generating significantly higher engagement than long-tail video content.
“You see the premium apps, the big streamers, Disney, Paramount, NBC Peacock, they have very high attention scores. A lot of their programming is live, that does really well. And then you see kind of a longer tail where YouTube doesn’t really get as much attention as some of the premium streamers,” Vanderhook said.
Linear programming also demonstrates strong attention performance for quality content, reinforcing the case for measurement-driven investment decisions across both traditional and streaming television environments.
Incremental measurement wins CTV
Brands that move beyond last-touch attribution toward true incremental sales measurement will gain clearest understanding of CTV’s contribution to business growth rather than credit-claiming that obscures actual performance.
“Brands in CTV need to start measuring the true impact that CTV has on incremental sales,” Vanderhook said. “Everyone knows you can show a display ad right before someone’s going to buy and a display ad gets credit for it in last touch attribution. But in CTV, they need to measure the incremental sales impact, not just the same sales.”
You’re watching The Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Viant. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
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