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Every marketing channel has a moment where it stops being new and starts being misunderstood.
Connected TV is there.
With global CTV ad spend projected to reach $51 billion by 2029, streaming is no longer a test budget or a line item buried in “experimental media.” It’s where attention lives. It’s where brands are expected to show up. And increasingly, it’s where marketing leaders are expected to prove impact.
But as CTV has matured, many brands have brought the wrong mindset with them.
They’ve approached CTV like it’s simply another digital channel. Plug it into the programmatic stack. Optimize for CPMs. Let the algorithm do its thing. Measure what’s easy. Move on.
That approach makes sense on paper. But it misses the bigger story.
Because CTV isn’t just a new screen. It’s the evolution of television itself. And television has always been about more than efficiency. It’s about presence. Trust. Context. And scale you can feel.
When efficiency becomes the enemy of impact
Programmatic buying has earned its place in modern marketing. It’s fast. It’s flexible. It’s measurable. For many brands entering CTV, it’s the easiest door to walk through.
But doors aren’t destinations.
As Alex Visoky, director of client services at Tatari, notes, the CTV ecosystem isn’t evenly distributed. Nearly 90 percent of all CTV impressions come from just 10 publishers. That means the bulk of premium inventory isn’t floating freely in open auctions. It’s controlled, curated, and often accessed through direct relationships.
When brands rely solely on programmatic, they’re not just limiting reach. They’re limiting the story they can tell—and where that story gets told.
Nick Fairbairn, VP of growth marketing at Chime, summed it up perfectly during Advertising Week: “If anyone tells you you can programmatically do television forever, they’re full of it. The winners are going to marry data, technology and relationships.”
That marriage is where modern CTV strategy lives.
Chime: Turning television into a growth narrative
Chime didn’t come to TV looking for nostalgia. They came looking for performance.
Early on, programmatic CTV helped Chime move quickly and efficiently. It allowed the brand to test markets, control costs, and treat TV like a measurable acquisition channel.
But as the company grew, the limitations became clear.
Auction-based delivery made scale unpredictable. Premium placements were inconsistent. And as ambitions increased, the media strategy needed more stability than programmatic alone could offer.
So Chime rewrote the script.
By layering in direct CTV buys alongside programmatic, the brand gained reliable access to top-tier publishers and consistent inventory. Programmatic delivered flexibility. Direct buys delivered confidence.
More importantly, Chime could now see the full story. They identified customers who were acquired through TV without prior exposure to other channels, proving that CTV wasn’t just assisting conversions—it was driving them.
This wasn’t about abandoning technology. It was about using it with intention.
Tecovas: When the brand is the story
Some brands don’t just sell products. They sell identity.
Tecovas understands this better than most. Rooted in craftsmanship and Western heritage, the brand’s success depends on emotional connection as much as performance metrics.
So when Tecovas returned to television, the goal wasn’t reach for reach’s sake. It was resonance.
“Nothing is as impactful and as concentrated as television,” said Tecovas CMO Krista Dalton. “In an incredibly disparate world, television maintains a single point of communication to your audience about who you are as a brand.”
That kind of clarity requires more than programmatic impressions.
Tecovas leaned into direct media buys across linear and CTV, placing its story in moments where attention was undivided. NFL playoff games. College football. The World Series. WWE’s Monday Night Raw. And critically, Yellowstone—where Western storytelling wasn’t just relevant, it was amplified.
The result wasn’t just awareness. It was momentum. Search lifted. Traffic increased. Conversions followed.
For brands built on narrative, context isn’t optional. It’s everything.
Calm: Owning the moment, not just the screen
Calm operates in moments that matter.
Stress spikes. Emotions rise.
Culture shifts. And when those moments happen, the environment surrounding an ad can be just as powerful as the message itself.
Programmatic helped Calm understand its audience. But understanding wasn’t enough.
By shifting more investment into direct CTV buys, Calm gained control over timing, frequency, and context—ensuring its message appeared when viewers were most emotionally receptive.
One placement during the 2020 presidential election struck such a chord that it went viral and earned industry recognition. Not because it was optimized to death, but because it was right.
Right message. Right moment. Right environment. That’s not accidental. That’s strategic storytelling. The brands winning in CTV aren’t choosing sides. They’re choosing balance.
Direct buys unlock premium scale, transparency, and consistency. Programmatic adds flexibility, testing, and incremental reach. Together, they create something stronger than either can deliver alone.
This isn’t about rejecting automation. It’s about respecting what television still does best.
CTV has grown up. It’s no longer a shortcut. It’s a stage.
And the brands that treat it like one—who understand that storytelling, context, and relationships still matter—are the ones building campaigns that don’t just perform, but endure.