Three Things Brands Need for CTV to Flourish in 2026
Now that audiences have shifted to streaming in earnest, brands are ready to break down the old walls between linear and digital to make the most of streaming. In 2026, they will be looking to rewrite the rule book and test all of the incredible opportunities streaming has to offer.
Creative, metrics, and campaign management are three areas that can make or break the streaming transformation for brands in 2026. Instead of 30-second spots, brands want new formats that help them be relevant to audiences when they are most engaged. Rather than GRPs, brands are looking for new metrics that connect media to outcomes. And instead of time consuming manual work, they want automation that unlocks a more scalable media strategy.
Creative Nirvana Becomes Normal
When it comes to CTV, brands are just getting started with creative. There are so many CTV creative options that brands are excited to try, from dynamically generated messaging to shoppable ads and high-impact formats. CTV is arguably the most exciting creative canvas that brands have to work with. It’s a big screen with digital addressability.
The programmatic and publisher side needs to open up space for brands to experiment. Linear and digital advertising has been defined by standard ad sizes, standard times, and standard placements. CTV is already showing signs of blowing standards up. Brands want creatives that show up all over the place, during live events, as sponsored placements, and on the content menu. With AI, brands also have limitless opportunities to try new designs and formats.
As an industry we honestly don’t know where CTV creative could go. We could end up with live streaming ads overlaying reality TV that involve the audience in real time, and match advertising with viewer preferences. There could be ads that open up a store so audiences can shop on the spot. Already, brands can overlay ads on replays in live sports. We need to embrace this period of variety and experimentation rather than suffocate it with talk about standards.
New Metrics Emerge as Big Screen Winners
CTV will not be defined by GRPs or clicks. “Completed views” and “conversions” mean something entirely different on CTV. Brands are also starting to embrace metrics that give them a richer picture of what the true value is of their media buy - metrics like attention, engagement and cross-platform activity.
More brands have measurement in place to tie CTV advertising to actual sales and want to incorporate CTV media targeting and buying with retail media strategies. This shows that brands are investing in outcomes-driven CTV media strategies, not just brand strategies.
With both of these trends happening at once, it’s clear that CTV will be a true hybrid of linear and digital. On one side, brands want rich metrics that show that value of brand messaging. On the other, they want to take advantage of performance opportunities as directly as possible.
Compare this to linear TV where nearly every ad was measured the exact same way. In 2026, brands are going to define the measurement standards for every campaign in a unique way.
Optimization for Cross-Platform Outcomes
To complicate things further, brands no longer see TV as a monolithic advertising channel. Linear TV enjoyed two decades of relative isolation from digital advertising, but the wall is coming crashing down.
As brands increase their level of creativity and measurement variety on CTV, they’re doing the same thing on digital channels, too. They want to reach audiences wherever they are, and they want it to be easy to shift their media plan in real time to do it. This requires more unified cross-channel media workflows and automation that eliminates the manual work required to run relevant creative across many different placements and channels.
Opening up the advertising landscape to this level of agility and flexibility will require a lot of change. The rise of agentic AI will help a lot - making it easier to measure and optimize campaigns. But we all also need to embrace the chaos and find strategies that give brands value. 2026 is really a year of experimentation, so keeping an open mind and devoting more time to testing and learning is the key to success across creative, measurement and campaign optimization.
[Editor's note: This is a contributed article from Kargo. Streaming Media accepts vendor bylines based solely on their value to our readers.]
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