The move from linear to connected TV is forcing a difficult conversation in advertising. Leaders tend to pour budgets into channels that capture existing demand, with 70% or more flowing to search and social over TV placements. But that strategy risks simply harvesting interest created elsewhere, relying on attribution models that fail to credit the real source of customer intent.

To build a more durable TV ad strategy, it helps to listen to those who were there at the beginning of CTV. Jon Schulz, the Chief Marketing Officer of Viant Technology recently joined the State of Streaming podcast to break it down. His experience as the former Head of Digital Marketing & CRM for Ford Motor Company helps him see a clear path forward: “The future of TV isn’t about more screens. It’s about smarter, measurable storytelling,” he says.

• Early to market: Long before cord-cutting was a mainstream term, Viant ran a secret project building what we now call a FAST channel, culminating in a successful exit to Comcast in 2020 just as major streaming services launched. That venture, Xumo, co-founded with Panasonic, entered a market nearly devoid of premium content. “I always joke that our sports channel was a fixed camera on the 16th fairway of the Nike Tour. It wasn’t Sunday afternoon at The Masters, so you can understand the difference in terms of customer impact and view.”

Now, the reality of smarter TV with premium content offerings is a reality, but advertisers need an unbiased partner. In an ecosystem where the largest players own both media and the tools to buy it, their platforms can become a gateway to their own supply. An independent, buy-side-only model is a practical advantage for navigating the market, Schulz advises.

• Right outcomes, period: “As an advertiser, you cannot have your strategy biased by a platform’s agenda. When I was on the client side in automotive, my goal was to find in-market buyers. I had to be sure I was buying the right inventory to drive the right outcomes, period.” This approach directly counters the “inherent conflict” of platforms that prioritize selling their own inventory, ensuring an advertiser’s budget is optimized solely for their specific campaign goals rather than a platform’s demand.

Viant recognized a pattern in the early mobile boom, realizing cookies were a temporary identifier that would be rendered obsolete by the app ecosystem. Acting on that foresight, Viant developed its cookieless household ID, creating a durable solution for advertisers trying to reach and measure audiences across the rapidly changing CTV environment.

• Un-owned by big tech: “We recognized that the physical address is not owned by big tech. Other identifiers like emails and IPs can be tied back to it, but the physical address is the permanent anchor. It is the core buying unit that drives commerce,” he explains. This independence from proprietary identifiers provides a stable, privacy-compliant foundation for identity resolution, offering marketers a reliable way to reach audiences without relying on volatile or privacy-sensitive individual data.

With that foundation in place, marketers can begin to address the core imbalance between creating demand and capturing it. Schulz’s point is that by over-investing in bottom-funnel demand capture, marketers fail to fuel the top of the funnel where real interest is generated.

• Credibility gap: A reliance on last-touch attribution creates a credibility gap for CMOs, whose impressive marketing metrics often fail to correlate with top-line business growth. These models miss the superior value of a CTV impression, especially within live sports, which commands high attention and reaches multiple people at once through co-viewing. “CMOs struggle to translate marketing metrics into top-line business growth for the CEO and the CFO. We’re not saying demand capture isn’t important, but if it’s 70% of your budget, you might not be balanced enough to be filling the top of the funnel.”
• On the scene: To achieve that balance, Viant is investing in the next wave of television advertising, where capabilities are becoming contextually aware and even interactive. Through its acquisition of Iris TV and partnerships with innovators like Wurl, Viant can now enable scene-level targeting, making ads a more seamless part of the viewing experience.

By practicing SPO and creating a direct and efficient path for an advertiser’s investment to reach the publisher, the entire process becomes more effective. It is the financial manifestation of the buy-side-only philosophy, building a future where creativity is backed by data and advertising spend is tied to business growth, realizing the potential of the biggest screen in the house. “CTV isn’t just TV on the internet. It’s the next great canvas for storytelling, accountability, and outcomes,” Schulz concludes.

Check out this State of Streaming podcast interview with Jon to hear more.