Samsung Ads’ Travis Howe Discusses Their NewFronts 2025 Announcements: Interactive Ad Formats, the Samsung Television Network, and Full-Funnel Performance Solutions
At IAB NewFronts 2025, Samsung Ads, the advanced advertising division of Samsung Electronics, called on brands to go beyond the status quo and unlock the full performance potential of CTV.
Kicking off the suite of announcements at NewFronts was the debut of STN, the Samsung Television Network, the broad-FAST channel of the future available exclusively on Samsung TV Plus, the #1 FAST app on Samsung Smart TVs. Offering an extensive slate of live sports, music, movies, and late-night programming, it will give brands unique opportunities to tap into the full power of the Samsung TV ecosystem at an unrivaled scale. Additionally, Samsung Ads unveiled a bold lineup of interactive and innovative, data-driven solutions, including Optimal Reach, GameBreaks, Performance Conversion, and Data+, further transforming TV from a mass-reach channel into a powerful, performance-driven service built to achieve a multitude of advertiser KPIs.
In this Q&A, Travis Howe, Global Head of New Product Solutions, discusses the details of these new offerings and how they will uniquely benefit advertisers and viewers.
The new Samsung Television Network (STN) offers personalized curation. How will this personalization uniquely benefit advertisers?
Samsung Television Network is built to reflect what viewers are actively looking for, whether that’s late-night comedy, exclusive live events, or weekend sports. That real-time responsiveness drives meaningful value for advertisers. With Samsung’s first-party data informing what content gets surfaced and when, brands benefit from contextually rich placements that align with viewer intent and passion points.
This curation unlocks new levels of relevance and efficiency. Advertisers can align their messaging to specific genres, moods, and dayparts that resonate with target audiences, all within a brand-safe, premium environment. Samsung Television Network transforms the traditional FAST model into a dynamic destination that blends reach with precision, helping brands meet consumers in the right moments with the right message.
Could you outline some details for the new Samsung Ads Content Studio? In what innovative ways will it help advertisers drive interactivity on Samsung TV Plus and craft engaging, branded, and dynamic content for amplification across the Samsung ecosystem?
The Samsung Ads Content Studio is a powerful evolution of what it means to tell brand stories on TV today. This isn’t just about creating ads; it’s about creating interactive, measurable brand moments that meet consumers where they are, in the moments that matter.
The Content Studio is one of the innovative ways we’re working with brands to develop everything from short-form branded content to shoppable segments that live across Samsung TV Plus, Smart Hub, and complement our interactive ad formats like Creative Canvas or ShoppingBreaks. It’s about helping them create content that feels native to the environment, but also drives real results.
What’s exciting is how we’re blending creativity with precision. Because the Content Studio is plugged into Samsung’s data and distribution platform, we’re not just creating beautiful content, but we’re also making sure it reaches the right audiences, at the right time, with the right message. And with interactive capabilities built in from the start, we can turn viewer interest into real engagement, whether that’s scanning a QR code, watching more content, or making a purchase.
Samsung is developing a highly interactive solution to drive advertising engagement: ShoppingBreaks, which will launch later this year. It will “serve creator-hosted, short-form content within Samsung TV Plus ad breaks with a clear call to action.” What are some specific ways that this short-form content will help shorten the path to purchase by directly appealing to viewers?
The format of ShoppingBreaks inserts creator-hosted, short-form videos into ad breaks by blending entertainment with product promotion and clear calls to action. By integrating clickable calls to action during high-engagement moments, ShoppingBreaks turns passive viewership into interactive shopping experiences—without ever pulling the viewer out of their content flow. It’s particularly powerful for performance-driven categories like retail, beauty, and tech, where seamless discovery-to-conversion pathways can drive measurable results right from the biggest screen in the home.
Samsung is also introducing two new offerings, which will push the boundaries of performance advertising: Data+ and Samsung Audience Collectives. These will make TV data available to clients in an aggregated and privacy-compliant manner via secure environments. What are some approaches being taken to ensure privacy compliance throughout these complex overlaps of data, and how will these offerings help advertisers accurately determine scale and enhance their ability to understand consumer behavior?
We’ve built Data+ and Audience Collectives with privacy as the foundation. We’re advancing performance advertising in a way that keeps privacy and consumer respect at the forefront. These solutions are rooted in aggregated, anonymized data shared through secure clean room environments, so advertisers can activate and measure with confidence, without compromising consumer identity.
For Data+, we’re partnering closely with leading data clean rooms such as Snowflake, Habu, and InfoSum to ensure compliance with evolving standards and regulations globally. We are raising the bar to ensure no raw data ever leaves the clean room, no individual is identifiable, and every campaign is executed with transparency and accountability built in.
What this enables is unprecedented clarity and control for brands. Data+ unlocks insights into real viewing behavior across millions of Samsung Smart TVs, while Samsung Audience Collectives allows advertisers to tap into custom audience segments built from enriched, privacy-safe datasets. This brings scale, precision, and outcome-based measurement to the biggest screen in consumers homes.
Ultimately, we’re giving advertisers a smarter, safer way to connect with their audiences and close the loop between exposure and actions in a CTV environment that’s built to perform.
Creative Canvas is a pioneering offering that will significantly increase interactivity in the ad experience. What are some of the primary elements of this offering that will help drive user discovery and boost ROI? How will interactive engagement be measured and used to help enhance engagement even more?
Creative Canvas is really about unlocking the full potential of the TV screen for advertisers—not just as a branding platform, but as a performance driver. We’ve made it incredibly easy for brands to take the kind of short-form or social video content they’re already creating and turn it into something interactive on Samsung Smart TVs with the same level of engagement, measurement, and click-to action received on smaller devices
What makes it powerful is how lightweight and scalable it is. With just a video, a brand logo, and a call to action, we can generate a custom-branded, interactive ad that includes QR codes or other engagement prompts. It doesn’t require a full production lift, but it delivers a high-impact experience that feels native to the living room screen.
In terms of measurement, we’re capturing real-time signals—how many people scan the QR code, how long they stay engaged, what actions they take afterward. That kind of insight allows us to continuously optimize campaigns and helps advertisers better understand what’s driving consumer interest and conversion. It’s a smart way to bridge the gap between attention and action—and ultimately boost ROI.
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