Between November 2025 and March 2026, virtually every major advertising platform launched an AI agent. The term dominated CES 2026, took over IAB ALM, and even prompted AdExchanger to launch a dedicated new conference called Programmatic AI in 2026, alongside its flagship Programmatic I/O. If you only read the press releases, you would think the entire advertising ecosystem has been reinvented overnight.

The reality is more nuanced and more interesting. A lot of what is being called “agentic” today is not. But something genuinely important is happening underneath the hype. And the companies that understand the difference between relabeling automation and building real intelligence will be the ones that define what comes next.

Key Takeaways

• Not all AI agents are truly agentic. Much of what is being called agentic today is not, and understanding the difference between relabeling automation and building real intelligence is critical.
• The industry is entering an “agentwashing” phase. Many vendors are rebranding existing capabilities as agentic, even though fewer than 130 companies today demonstrate real agentic capabilities. 
• A true agent goes beyond interface and automation. A genuine agent can take a campaign brief, reason about context and audience signals, build a strategy, identify what is missing, and prepare it for activation within a single workflow. 
• The real shift is happening at the intelligence layer. The programmatic ecosystem is being restructured around AI agents, but long-term value will come from understanding context, content, and what drives attention, not just infrastructure.

The biggest gap is understanding the moment, not automating tasks. Most AI systems can optimize and execute, but they struggle to explain why something works, especially how content and context shape human attention and response.

The Agentic Gold Rush

To understand the current moment, it helps to look back at the timeline.

In the span of five months, the industry saw a wave of product launches all claiming the agentic label. Major DSPs introduced AI-powered campaign creation tools. Verification companies added agent-based planning features. Commerce platforms launched recommendation services designed to power AI shopping assistants. Microsoft shut down its Xandr DSP, replacing it with a Copilot-powered buying interface, consolidated under the Microsoft Advertising Platform. This was an explicit bet that the traditional DSP model is becoming obsolete.

The pace is striking. But pace alone does not equal progress.

Gartner has already warned the industry about what it calls agentwashing, the rebranding of existing products without substantial agentic capabilities. Their prediction is sobering. Over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027 due to escalating costs, unclear value, or inadequate risk controls. Forrester calls 2026 a year of reckoning, noting that buyers are now seeking proof over promises.

This is the context in which any honest conversation about AI agents in digital advertising needs to take place.

What "agentic" actually means - and what it does not

The word agent is being used to describe at least three different things, and conflating them is making it hard to have an honest conversation about where the industry actually stands.

If you are asking, “What is Agentic AI”, the answer starts here.

The first is genuine agentic AI systems, which can receive an objective, break it into steps, make decisions, use tools, and adapt based on what they find, without a human directing each action. These systems don't just respond; they pursue a goal across a workflow.

The second is LLM-enhanced tooling. These are interfaces powered by large language models that make existing platforms more accessible and easier to use. You describe what you want, and the system translates it into actions. Faster than manual setup, genuinely useful, but the intelligence is mostly in the interface, not in any autonomous reasoning.

The third is rebranded machine learning. Bid optimization, predictive targeting, and budget pacing have existed for years. Today, many of these AI systems are simply being relabeled as agentic because the market rewards them.

A genuine agent can take a campaign brief, reason about context and audience signals, build a strategy, identify what’s missing, and prepare it for activation, all within a single workflow, with minimal human intervention at each step. An LLM wrapper helps you navigate a platform faster. 

Both have value. Treating them as equivalent is how “agentwashing” happens, and why Gartner estimates that of the thousands of vendors claiming agentic capabilities today, fewer than 130 are the real thing.

The Infrastructure Fight that Matters More Than the Product Launches

While the industry debates product features, a quieter but more consequential battle is playing out at the protocol layer.

Two camps are working to define how AI agents should communicate in advertising. On one side, the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP), backed by Yahoo, PubMatic, Scope3, Magnite, and roughly twenty other companies, builds new, purpose-built schemas on top of emerging agent-to-agent standards, with interoperability designed from the start. On the other hand, IAB Tech Lab's Agentic RTB Framework (ARTF) extends existing programmatic standards like OpenRTB and OpenDirect, arguing that a decade of infrastructure should not be discarded. ARTF's containerized architecture is designed to reduce bid latency by up to 80%, not by replacing the stack, but by making it dramatically faster and more agent-friendly.

Both approaches have merit, and they are not mutually exclusive. What they share is a common bet: that the programmatic ecosystem will not be replaced by agentic AI, but restructured around it. The pipes will get smarter. The question is what flows through them.

This is where the economic tension becomes real. Infrastructure that simply routes transactions is under pressure. Intelligence that makes those transactions better, by understanding context, content, and what actually drives attention, becomes more valuable. An agent still needs to know where to buy. The hard problem is knowing why a placement is right and how to solve problems in real time.

At Seedtag, we are building Liz Agent to be protocol-agnostic, because the transport layer will converge regardless of which standard wins. What will not converge is a proprietary understanding of how content environments shape human attention and response. That is the layer that compounds over time. And it is the layer that makes an agent's recommendations worth acting on.

Why Context is Becoming the Foundation, Not the Alternative

Alongside the agentic wave, a deeper structural shift is reshaping what advertising intelligence actually means.

The global contextual advertising market has surged past $225 billion and is projected to reach between $380 and $468 billion by 2030, according to industry estimates from sources such as Statista and Fortune Business Insights. This is not a niche category. It is becoming the foundation of how advertising works. We have seen this firsthand. Seedtag was built without cookies from day one, so the shift everyone else is preparing for is one we have been operating in for over a decade.

The infrastructure that identity-based advertising relies on is disappearing from multiple directions simultaneously. Google killed Privacy Sandbox in October 2025 after the industry invested an estimated $2.3 billion preparing for cookie alternatives that never materialized, according to industry reports. 

Oracle abruptly shut down its entire advertising division, including Grapeshot, one of the largest contextual targeting platforms, redistributing hundreds of millions in annual spending. Third-party cookies survived in Chrome, but roughly 47% of the open internet is already unaddressable by traditional trackers, and Apple continues escalating with iOS 26, stripping platform-specific click identifiers from all browsing sessions.

But the bigger story is that technology has fundamentally changed. Contextual advertising is no longer keyword matching. Modern contextual systems use transformer-based models, computer vision, sentiment analysis, and deep learning to understand content at a semantic, emotional, and intent level. Many of these advancements are powered by generative AI and advanced artificial intelligence systems. The best systems classify content across thousands of categories, identify hundreds of objects and situational contexts in visual content, and process tens of millions of articles daily in real time.

The performance data increasingly support this shift. Research shows contextual targeting delivers significantly lower cost-per-click and cost-per-impression than behavioral approaches, with meaningfully better ad recall and engagement. Nearly 80% of consumers report being more comfortable with contextual ads than behavioral ones, according to multiple industry studies.

CTV is accelerating this further, with the industry moving from genre-level to program-level and even scene-level contextual analysis, a domain where identity-based approaches cover only a fraction of available inventory. It is why we have expanded our capabilities in CTV and partnered with platforms like IRIS.TV for content-level signals, building contextual intelligence natively into streaming, not bolting it on after the fact.

The Gap That Most AI Agents Still Cannot Close

Here is the honest assessment of where the industry stands.

Most AI systems in advertising, even the good ones, are optimized for efficiency. They process data faster, automate setup, and streamline execution. These systems perform tasks efficiently and can automate complex workflows. These are real gains. But they tend to operate on the surface of what makes advertising effective.

Relevance in modern advertising is not just about reaching the right person or placing an ad next to the right keyword. It depends on understanding the conditions of the moment, the cognitive and emotional context in which a message appears. How does the content around an ad shape the way that ad is perceived? What is the reader's mindset? Are they in a mode of exploration, comparison, or decision-making?

These are questions that standard optimization models, even sophisticated ones, are not designed to answer. 

They can tell you what is happening. They struggle with why it matters.

A concrete example: An optimization engine can tell you that a running shoe ad performed 40% better on a wellness article. It cannot tell you that the article was about training for a first marathon at 45, and readers were in a mindset of personal reinvention, which is why the message resonated.

This is where the combination of AI and contextual intelligence becomes genuinely differentiated. 

Not AI applied to the same data everyone else has, but AI applied to a proprietary understanding of how content environments shape human attention and response.

What We are Building with Liz Agent

So, where does Seedtag fit in all of this?

Seedtag was built from inception without cookies or personal identifiers. For over a decade, our engineering team has been developing Liz, a proprietary AI engine that processes over 60 million articles daily across 30,000+ publishers. 

Liz combines NLP, deep learning, computer vision, and sentiment analysis to understand content at a level that goes far beyond keyword matching or standard IAB taxonomy, thousands of contextual categories, hundreds of visual objects and situational contexts, across 10+ languages in real time.

Our Neuro-Contextual methodology takes this further. Working with Professor Moran Cerf at Columbia University, we used EEG measurements to study how context shapes cognitive processing. The results were concrete: 3.5x higher neural engagement versus non-contextual ads. A 30% lift versus standard contextual. A 26% increase in positive, approach-oriented emotional response.

Liz Agent, which we launched in February 2026, is our entry into the agentic AI system space. 

It is built on a multi-agent orchestration engine that combines LLMs with a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework grounded in Seedtag's proprietary data. This allows the system to operate with strong human oversight while still enabling automation where it matters.

Let me explain why the RAG architecture matters. A lot of AI agents in advertising are built on generic LLMs. They are smart, but they do not know anything specific about contextual intelligence, content environments, or how audiences respond to different contexts. They can hallucinate. They generalize. They produce outputs that sound right but are not grounded in real data.

Liz Agent's RAG framework means every response, every insight, every recommendation, every strategic direction is grounded in our proprietary Neuro-Contextual data, not generic knowledge. When Liz Agent analyzes a campaign brief, it draws on a decade of contextual intelligence infrastructure and neuroscience research, not a pretrained model's best guess.

Through a conversational interface, we can move from insights to campaign activation within a single workflow. Liz Agent integrates directly with our proprietary data for real-time contextual and audience intelligence, leverages our models to turn content from our publisher network into real-time embeddings, extracting audience signals and competitive insights that are native to our ecosystem, not scraped from generic sources, and connects strategy directly to activation across our global inventory.

Our intelligence, our proprietary contextual data, our Neuro-Contextual methodology, and our decade of models are what make Liz Agent's outputs actually useful, not just fluent.

The Real Question for 2026

The industry is asking whether AI agents will transform advertising. I think that is the wrong question.

AI agents will compress workflows, make platforms more accessible, and automate tasks that currently consume disproportionate time. That much is certain. 

The better question is: what intelligence are these agents built on?

An agent built on generic data will produce generic outputs. An agent built on a deep, proprietary understanding of how content environments shape human attention and response will produce something qualitatively different. Not just faster answers, but better ones.

Forrester now includes agentic AI as a formal scoring criterion for advertising platforms. Gartner predicts 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI by 2028, up from less than 1% today. Meanwhile, the IAB's 2026 State of Data report found AI-improved measurement alone could unlock $26.3B in media investment.

The opportunity is real. But in a market flooded with agentwashing, the differentiation will not come from who has the best chatbot interface. It will come from those who have the deepest understanding of what actually drives relevance, and the AI architecture to act on it.

In a fragmented, privacy-first digital environment where nearly half of all inventory is already cookieless, relevance is no longer built on identity data. It is built on understanding the moment, the content, the context, and the cognitive and emotional conditions in which a message appears.

The question I would ask any vendor pitching you an AI agent: Show me the data it is grounded in.  If they cannot answer that, you are probably looking at a chatbot with a marketing budget.

In an industry defined by constant change, recognition doesn’t come from keeping up. It comes from redefining the way things are done.

I’m proud to share that Seedtag has been named a winner in the 2026 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards. Hosted by the Business Intelligence Group, this global program has spent more than a decade recognizing the companies and AI solutions that are redefining what responsible, results-driven artificial intelligence looks like in practice. This year’s awards brought together winners across 36 industries and more than 15 countries.

For me, Seedtag being named among this year’s AI awards winners is more than a milestone. It reflects a broader shift happening across advertising. Artificial intelligence is no longer just about automation or efficiency. It’s about understanding people more deeply, more responsibly, and in a more human way.

But the real story isn’t the award itself. It’s what it represents.

Key Takeaways

• AI awards are evolving to recognize AI solutions that prioritize human understanding, not just scale
• The most impactful AI solutions interpret context, emotion, and intent, not just data signals
• Artificial intelligence is shifting from automation to meaning, enabling more relevant and respectful advertising
• Neuro-Contextual AI reflects this new standard, aligning technology with how people think, feel, and decide
• The future of advertising is built on understanding the moment, moving from relevance to resonance

A New Standard for AI in Advertising

For years, AI in advertising has been associated with scale. More data. More signals. More optimization. But scale alone doesn’t create relevance.

What I’m seeing now, and what these AI awards are beginning to recognize, is a shift toward a different kind of AI solution. One that doesn’t just process information faster, but understands context with greater depth and nuance. One that moves beyond identifying patterns to interpreting meaning.

This is where artificial intelligence starts to feel less like a machine and more like a system designed around how people actually think, feel, and decide.‍

From Data Processing to Human Understanding

Traditional approaches to AI in advertising have relied heavily on categorization. Keywords, segments, and predefined audience groups.

But people don’t experience content in categories. They experience it in moments. That idea has shaped how we’ve built our technology from the very beginning.

Our Neuro-Contextual AI, Liz, was designed to move beyond static signals and into dynamic human understanding. It interprets interest, emotion, and intent across content environments to identify when someone is most receptive to a message.

Because relevance isn’t about reaching more people. It’s about reaching people in the right moment.

Intelligence Grounded in How People Think

I’ve always believed that technology reaches its full potential when it aligns with human behavior, not when it tries to override it.

That belief is what led us to develop our Neuro-Contextual approach. By combining neuroscience with advanced AI, we set out to create a more human-like understanding of content and context.

Instead of relying on who someone is, we focus on what matters in the moment:

• What captures attention
• What shapes emotional response
• What signals intent

From a technical perspective, this shift changes everything. When AI is built around human cognition, advertising stops feeling like an interruption and starts becoming part of the experience.

Innovation That Delivers Real Impact

Being recognized in these AI awards also reflects something I care deeply about. The need for measurable, meaningful impact.

Innovation alone isn’t enough. It has to perform.

That’s why our Neuro-Contextual approach has always been grounded in both science and results. Research shows that aligning advertising with human signals like interest, emotion, and intent drives stronger engagement and more positive responses.

At the same time, building an AI solution at a global scale comes with responsibility. Processing millions of signals across the open web and CTV while remaining privacy-first isn’t a feature. It’s a requirement.

That balance between intelligence, performance, and responsibility is what defines the next generation of AI solutions.

What This Means for the Future of Advertising

The future of advertising won’t be defined by how much data we can collect. It will be defined by how well we understand the moment.

For brands and agencies, this creates a real opportunity:

• To move from targeting audiences to understanding people
• To move from impressions to a real, human connection
• To move from relevance to resonance

And for the industry as a whole, it signals something bigger. A future where artificial intelligence doesn’t just optimize advertising. It elevates it.

Recognition is meaningful, but transformation is what truly matters. Being named among this year’s AI awards winners is a moment I’m proud of. More importantly, it reinforces the direction I believe the industry must take.

Toward AI solutions that are not only smarter, but also more human. Toward advertising that doesn’t just reach people, but understands them.

Because in the end, the most powerful technology isn’t the one that processes the most data. 

It’s the one that best understands people.

Publisher monetization has always been a balancing act. You want to protect the reader experience, protect advertiser trust, and still hit revenue goals in a market where demand signals shift fast. Now add falling search traffic, new AI discovery patterns, and brand safety rules that still default to blunt blocking. The margin for error gets thin.

In this episode of The PubWay Podcast, Mike and I sat down with Amanda Gomez, SVP of Revenue Operations and Ad Technology at the New York Post, to unpack how a modern news publisher is navigating that reality. We talked about how they’re thinking about the business beyond pageviews, why “more banner ads” is no longer a strategy, and what it takes to build a monetization engine that can hold up in an AI-shaped advertising ecosystem.

Below are the key takeaways, plus practical implications for publishers who are trying to protect revenue potential while keeping users and advertisers onside.

What publishers are optimizing for right now

A theme kept coming up in our conversation with Amanda. Publishers are not just future-proofing content. They are future-proofing the business model.

That means expanding beyond the written word into audio, video, podcasts, events, and product experiences that can withstand volatility in search and social distribution. It also means treating user experiences as a revenue input, not a nice-to-have. If your pages load slowly or feel overloaded, you lose user engagement. And with fewer pageviews to work with, every lost session costs more.

Amanda put it plainly: the days of “just add more 300x250s” are long gone. The goal now is to create an ad experience that earns attention without punishing the user.

What this looks like in practice

• Testing ad-light experiences on new launches to protect speed and session depth
  
• Measuring the trade-off between fewer ad units and stronger time on site
  
• Investing in owned channels like apps, newsletters, and direct return visits
  
• Building franchises in categories that drive consistent demand, like sports and entertainment

These aren’t just product decisions. They’re publisher monetization decisions.

What is a publisher monetization strategy?

A publisher monetization strategy is the plan a publisher uses to turn audience attention into sustainable revenue while protecting long-term user trust. In digital advertising, that typically includes how you price and package ad inventory, how you balance direct and programmatic demand, and how you design user experiences that support both engagement and advertising revenue.

In 2026, a strong monetization strategy usually includes:

• Inventory strategy: ad formats, ad density, and placement rules that protect speed and usability.
  
• Demand strategy: a mix of direct sold, programmatic, and curated deals to reduce volatility.
  
• Data driven decision-making: performance monitoring in real time across yield, latency, and engagement.
  
• Audience strategy: building loyalty through apps, newsletters, and repeat visitation.
  
• Revenue diversification: options like affiliate marketing, subscriptions, events, and sponsorships.

The big shift Amanda emphasized is that publishers can’t solve only for the page. They have to solve for the brand. If you’re building a media brand, you create more revenue opportunity across formats, not just within one URL.

Brand safety is still a revenue problem for news

When the conversation turned to brand safety in advertising, Amanda didn’t sugarcoat it. News publishers still face a constant uphill battle. Many buyers still rely on legacy keyword blocklists because they’re easy. They feel “safe.” But they are also blunt. They can misread context, ignore sentiment, and block coverage that is responsible, balanced, and high quality.

Amanda gave a strong example. Coverage around a death can include a lot of positive sentiment. Think tributes, community response, and gratitude. Yet many systems see the word “died” and flag the page. That creates a direct brand safety in advertising impact on publisher monetization because premium impressions get excluded from bids, even when the content is clearly suitable.

The important nuance is this: brand safety is not just an advertiser setting. It shapes how the open web gets funded.

What buyers respond to now: suitability, sentiment, and proof

Amanda also shared something encouraging. Some advertisers are more open to testing than they used to be. Instead of shutting the door on “news,” buyers will engage when publishers can show side-by-side examples and prove that a page is suitable.

That proof often comes from three places:

• Sentiment and context signals that go beyond keywords.
  
• Performance data showing lift when content is correctly classified.
  
• Clear packaging that makes it easy for buyers to buy with confidence.
  

We also discussed how certain “negative” contexts can be highly relevant depending on the category. Insurance brands, home improvement retailers, and generator companies may want to appear near natural disaster content because it’s timely and useful. That is suitability in action. It’s not about avoiding reality. It’s about aligning message, moment, and audience need.

How do PMPs improve publisher monetization strategy while supporting brand safety in advertising?

Private Marketplace deals, or PMPs, help publishers and advertisers meet in the middle. They create a controlled path to premium demand while improving transparency and suitability.

Here’s why PMPs can strengthen a publisher monetization strategy:

1) They create cleaner buying paths

PMPs reduce the chaos of open exchange buying by defining who can buy, under what rules, and with what expectations. That stability improves revenue potential.

2) They support brand safety through structure, not fear

Instead of broad blocking, PMPs can be built around curated segments, contextual rules, and suitability standards. Advertisers get more control without punishing quality journalism.

3) They reward high quality environments

When buyers can see what they’re buying and why it works, CPMs tend to reflect that quality. PMPs can unlock advertising revenue that gets lost when inventory is treated as generic.

4) They protect user experiences

Because PMPs often favor premium placements and predictable demand, publishers can reduce the pressure to overload pages with units. That improves speed, reduces latency, and supports higher user engagement.

In short, PMPs can connect publishers and advertisers in a way that improves outcomes for both, while keeping the advertising ecosystem healthier overall.

Practical publisher monetization ideas from this episode

If you’re looking for publisher monetization ideas you can act on, Amanda’s playbook points to a few clear priorities:

• Start with user experience. Measure load, latency, and engagement like revenue drivers.
  
• Build strong “safe” content franchises (sports, entertainment) that are easy for buyers to fund.
  
• Use the app as a loyalty engine and a first-party channel for product experimentation.
  
• Treat AI as part of distribution and product, not just an editorial tool.
  
• Push suitability conversations with proof, not opinions. Examples and performance data change minds.
  

Looking ahead

Publishers are operating in a world where attention is scarce, discovery is changing, and monetization platforms must work harder to translate signal into value. What I took from this conversation is that the publishers who win will be the ones who stay flexible. They’ll protect user experiences, insist on smarter brand safety in advertising, and build demand paths that reward quality rather than penalize it.

Listen to the full episode of The PubWay Podcast to hear Amanda’s full perspective on balancing brand safety, user experience, and publisher monetization in a rapidly shifting market.

Every spring, March Madness becomes one of the most intense cultural moments in sports. The NCAA tournament delivers dramatic upsets, emotional fan reactions, and nonstop conversation across media platforms. But for marketers, the event represents more than a series of basketball games. It reveals how audiences gather around shared moments of excitement, competition, and entertainment.

The biggest March Madness trends in 2026 show that the tournament audience is far more complex than a single sports fan profile. Some viewers follow every bracket prediction and game analysis. Others tune in for the social experience of watching with friends. Many engage with the tournament through sports storytelling, entertainment content, and broader cultural conversations surrounding the games.

Our analysis shows that March Madness engagement spans 77 connected content genres, extending well beyond basketball coverage. Fans move between sports commentary, documentaries, entertainment programming, and lifestyle content as the tournament unfolds. This connected ecosystem reflects how the modern March Madness tournament audience experiences the event today.

For brands exploring March Madness marketing, understanding these behaviors is essential. Advertising success during the tournament does not come from simply appearing during games. It comes from aligning campaigns with the moments, emotions, and content environments that shape how fans engage with March Madness.

Below, we explore the biggest March Madness trends in 2026, how fan behavior is evolving, and what these changes mean for marketers planning March Madness advertising.

Key Takeaways

• The biggest March Madness trends in 2026 are driven by three core audience groups: Bracket Devotees, Watch Party Goers, and Cultural Lifestyle viewers.
• March Madness attention spans 77 different content genres, showing how the tournament extends far beyond basketball coverage.
• Key content clusters include sports documentaries, weekend sports discussion shows, entertainment programming, and college basketball analysis.
• Bracket Devotees represent nearly half of the March Madness ecosystem and respond strongly to bracket predictions and tournament analysis.
• Watch Party Goers engage with the tournament as a social viewing experience driven by group reactions and entertainment content.
• Cultural Lifestyle audiences follow March Madness through sports culture, storytelling, and broader media narratives.

What Are the Biggest March Madness Trends in 2026?

These insights highlight a major shift in March Madness audience trends. The tournament is no longer just about watching games. It has become a broader cultural moment shaped by emotion, context, and shared experiences.

One of the most important March Madness trends is the expansion of the tournament beyond basketball coverage.

Fans still follow the games closely. But the surrounding media ecosystem has grown significantly. Engagement now flows across sports documentaries, entertainment shows, sports commentary programs, and lifestyle content.

Four key content clusters dominate the conversation during the 2026 March Madness:

• Documentary sports storytelling
• Weekend sports discussions
• Entertainment and lifestyle programming
• College basketball analysis

These clusters reveal how fans engage with the tournament through multiple entry points.

Some viewers focus on bracket predictions and game matchups. Others watch sports documentaries or entertainment shows tied to the tournament atmosphere. Many participate in the broader cultural buzz surrounding the games.

This shift reflects evolving March Madness historical trends. In earlier years, fan engagement centered primarily on live games and sports news coverage. Today, March Madness exists within a much broader media ecosystem.

For marketers, this evolution creates new opportunities for March Madness advertising ideas. Brands can reach audiences across many contextual environments rather than relying only on live-game placements.

Why Does March Madness Attract Advertisers?

Few sporting events generate the same level of sustained attention as March Madness. The tournament runs for several weeks, creating multiple waves of engagement and conversation across media platforms.

This extended timeline is one reason March Madness sports marketing remains so valuable. The tournament produces several distinct engagement phases:

1. Early bracket speculation and predictions
2. Game-by-game tournament drama
3. Unexpected upsets and viral highlights
4. Final Four anticipation and championship momentum

Each phase generates fresh audience attention and new opportunities for brands.

Another reason March Madness attracts advertisers is the emotional intensity of the tournament. Every game carries the possibility of a surprise outcome. Fans experience a mix of excitement, tension, joy, and curiosity as the bracket unfolds.

These emotions drive attention. When audiences feel emotionally invested, they become more engaged with the surrounding content environment.

For marketers, this creates ideal conditions for March Madness advertising. Campaigns placed within emotionally aligned contexts feel more relevant and less disruptive to the viewing experience.

How Do Fan Behaviors Change During March Madness?

Understanding March Madness fan engagement requires recognizing that different audiences interact with the tournament in different ways.

Our analysis highlights three key audience segments shaping the March Madness ecosystem.

Each group approaches the tournament with a distinct motivation.

1. Bracket Devotees

Bracket Devotees represent the largest segment of the March Madness ecosystem.

These fans follow the tournament closely. They analyze matchups, track predictions, debate potential upsets, and monitor bracket outcomes throughout the competition.

This audience thrives on uncertainty. Every upset reshapes the bracket and fuels new discussions.

Because of this behavior, March Madness bracket trends remain one of the most important signals for marketers. Content focused on predictions, expert analysis, and tournament strategy attracts close attention from these viewers.

Advertising that aligns with competitive excitement and real-time tournament dynamics often resonates strongly with this group.

2. Watch Party Goers

Another important audience segment experiences March Madness primarily as a social event.

Watch Party Goers engage with the tournament through group viewing experiences. They gather with friends, react to big plays together, and follow live commentary across multiple screens.

Their viewing habits often include entertainment content and social discussions alongside the games themselves.

This behavior reflects a broader shift in March Madness audience trends. The tournament has become a shared cultural moment where sports, entertainment, and social interaction intersect.

For advertisers, this audience responds well to creative that reflects the energy and excitement of communal viewing.

3. Cultural Lifestyle Audiences

The third audience segment connects with March Madness through culture and storytelling.

These viewers are drawn to narratives surrounding players, sports documentaries, and broader conversations about athletes and competition.

They may not watch every game. But they remain engaged with the personalities and stories shaping the tournament.

This segment shows how March Madness 2026 extends beyond the bracket itself. The tournament generates cultural conversations that blend sports, entertainment, and storytelling.

For brands, this audience represents an opportunity to appear within narrative-driven environments rather than strictly sports-focused placements.

What Advertising Strategies Work During March Madness?

The most effective March Madness advertising strategies recognize that audiences respond to different types of content environments.

Rather than approaching the tournament as a single advertising moment, marketers should align campaigns with the motivations driving each audience group.

Align with competition-driven environments

Bracket Devotees respond strongly to programming that emphasizes tournament dynamics, predictions, and game analysis. Advertising placed within these contexts benefits from the excitement surrounding bracket outcomes.

Support the social viewing experience

Watch Party Goers engage with entertainment-driven programming and real-time commentary. Advertising within these environments can feel like a natural extension of the shared viewing experience.

Connect with sports storytelling

Cultural Lifestyle audiences respond to sports documentaries and narrative-driven content. These environments allow brands to align with curiosity and a deeper sports culture.

Across all audiences, the strongest March Madness advertising ideas share one important trait: they match the emotional tone of the surrounding content.

When advertising aligns with the context fans are already engaged in, it becomes more relevant and more memorable.

How Do Brands Use March Madness for Marketing?

Brands use the tournament to connect with audiences during one of the most emotionally engaging moments in sports.

Successful March Madness marketing strategies typically follow three key principles.

Contextual alignment

Campaigns perform best when they appear alongside content audiences are already consuming. During March Madness, this includes sports commentary, entertainment programming, and documentary storytelling related to the tournament.

Emotional relevance

March Madness engagement is driven by excitement, joy, and curiosity. Advertising that reflects these emotions resonates more strongly with fans.

Multi-environment presence

Because the tournament ecosystem spans dozens of connected content genres, brands can reach audiences across many contextual placements.

This broader approach allows marketers to move beyond traditional sports advertising and engage fans throughout the wider March Madness media environment.

The Biggest Lesson for Marketers

March Madness reveals an important insight about how modern audiences engage with sports events. The tournament does not revolve around a single type of fan. Instead, the ecosystem is shaped by multiple motivations:

• competition and bracket predictions
  
  
• social viewing experiences
  
  
• sports storytelling and cultural curiosity
  
  

Each of these motivations drives attention in different ways.

For marketers, the opportunity lies in understanding those differences. Campaigns that recognize the emotional and contextual diversity of the March Madness tournament audience can connect with fans more effectively.

March Madness will always be about basketball. But the tournament’s real power comes from the shared experiences it creates around the game.

Brands that understand those experiences are the ones most likely to win the moment.

To explore the full analysis behind these insights, including audience segments, contextual environments, and the signals shaping March Madness fan engagement, download the full March Madness report and discover how Seedtag helps brands turn cultural moments into more human and relevant advertising.

Seedtag, the global Neuro-Contextual advertising company, today announced 46% year-over-year growth in North America in 2025. The region’s strong acceleration was driven by deepening partnerships with major brands and agencies that continue to see measurable value in Seedtag’s custom contextual audiences, premium inventory access, and actionable cross-channel insights.

In the United States, Seedtag reported 35% year-over-year revenue growth in January 2026. In Canada, where operations launched in 2024, the business achieved profitability last year and remains Seedtag’s fastest-growing market, posting 325% year-over-year growth in January.

Expanding Brand Portfolio Across Key Verticals

Recent client additions span multiple industries:

• Financial Services: Discover Card, Charles Schwab, HSBC
  
  
• Travel: British Airways, Qantas, United Airlines
  
  
• Automotive: Infiniti, Toyota, Volkswagen, Acura
  
  
• FMCG: Keurig Dr Pepper, Colgate, Conagra, Henkel
  
  
• Healthcare: Merz, AbbVie, GSK, Galderma
  
  
• Retail & QSR: Red Lobster, Target, L.L.Bean, Amazon XCM/Retail
  
  

“The diversity of our brand roster brings stability to our business and underscores how critical contextual targeting has become in modern media planning,” Brian Danzis, Chief Revenue Officer at Seedtag. 

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Neuro-Contextual TV Momentum Accelerates

Seedtag’s Neuro-Contextual TV solution continues to gain traction following the full integration of CTV sell-side platform Beachfront into its offering. With a presence that is both growing and recognized as a Top 15 CTV SSP by Jounce Media, Seedtag offers advertisers direct pathways to key inventory from Paramount, Samsung, Charter, LG, Scripps, among others.

Valerie Andari, Investment lead at Good Apple on Amneal Pharmaceuticals shares: "Seedtag brings a truly consultative approach to every campaign. Their ability to leverage AI-powered contextual insights helps us navigate complex healthcare audiences and uncover new opportunities to drive meaningful engagement."

Demand continues to surge, with 2025 CTV revenue growing 157% year over year. In January 2026 — traditionally one of the slowest months for streaming video — Seedtag continued to see triple-digit CTV growth.

Leah Askew, SVP, Head of Precision Media | Digitas NA, added: "Our partnership with Seedtag moves us beyond outdated demographics like '18–54' or 'moms' and into the world of deep audience intelligence. Their team digs beneath the surface of the RFP to uncover the nuanced motivations that actually drive consumer behavior. They function as an extension of our own team, serving as strategic partners who engage in the high-level industry dialogue necessary to keep our clients ahead of the curve."

Team Growth and Workforce Highlights

Seedtag’s North American team grew to well over 100+ employees in 2025, continuing the company’s rapid growth in the region. The workforce is increasingly diverse, with women representing 53% of employees and 63% of people managers. Employee engagement remains strong, with an NPS of 69, reflecting a motivated and committed team driving the company forward.

 “Seedtag’s strength lies in our connected ecosystem,” said Amanda Pui, VP Canada at Seedtag. “We’ve spent the last year intentionally scaling the successes of our colleagues in the US, LATAM and EMEA to benefit our Canadian partners. This cross-regional strategy allows us to provide global clients with a level of scale and sophisticated Neuro-Contextual data that is unmatched in the market.”

Looking Ahead

As demographic-based targeting declines in favor of interest-driven strategies, Seedtag is positioned to lead this transformation. The company empowers publishers seeking smarter monetization and brands looking to build more authentic, high-performance audience connections.

“We’ve truly only just begun,” Lora Feinman, SVP North America, said. “As marketers move away from legacy targeting methods, we’re building the infrastructure for the future of modern media planning. Along with identity and commerce data signals, Neuro-Contextual intelligence is a core component of the modern targeting trifecta. It’s privacy-compliant, grounded in interest, intent, and emotion — and built to scale.”

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The Oscars 2026 will be remembered for performances, speeches, and defining cultural moments. But beneath the spectacle of the 98th Academy Awards lies something more valuable for brands: a measurable pattern of concentrated attention.

Awards season does not generate broad, evenly distributed traffic. It creates sharp clusters of demand around specific films, names, and editorial environments. For marketers planning Oscars 2026 campaigns, understanding that architecture is the difference between seasonal presence and strategic impact.

The data behind this year’s Oscars insights, powered by Liz, our Neuro-Contextual AI and analyzed across our worldwide publisher network, makes that concentration unmistakable. It reveals where attention gathers, how it accelerates, and which cultural signals drive the strongest engagement.

Below, we break down the mechanics behind that concentration, the moments that matter most for marketers, and how brands can maximize reach during Academy Awards 2026.

Key Takeaways

• Attention during Oscars 2026 concentrates on a small number of high-performing films and articles.
• The nominations announcement triggers the first measurable spike in demand.
• A handful of films are driving disproportionate traffic across coverage.
• Star-level demand clusters around names like Timothée Chalamet, generating 36,601 visits during the analyzed period.
• The strongest strategy to maximize reach during Academy Awards 2026 is phase-based and context-aware.
• Winning campaigns move from share of voice to share of moment.

Attention Does Not Spread. It Concentrates.

One of the clearest patterns in our Oscars insights data is that traffic clusters tightly around a small number of titles.

During the analyzed period, from November 2025 through January 2026, the films stealing the spotlight were One Battle After Another with 53,013 total article visits, followed by Marty Supreme with 45,599 visits, Sinners with 40,838 visits, Frankenstein with 34,604 visits, and Hamnet, closing the top cluster with 32,544 visits.

These figures reflect measurable demand during the early phase of the 2026 awards season. They demonstrate that attention is not evenly distributed across all Oscars coverage. It narrows around specific titles that generate sustained editorial momentum.

Importantly, this surge does not happen in isolation. The broader awards season, spanning from November 2025 through March 15, 2026, includes multiple recognition milestones before culminating in the 98th Academy Awards. Each ceremony reinforces visibility around the same films, directors, and actors. As recognition builds, search behavior intensifies. Coverage compounds. Editorial momentum carries forward from one event to the next.

The live Oscars ceremony adds another layer to this concentration dynamic. Unscripted moments, surprise wins, acceptance speeches, and viral reactions can generate immediate traffic surges. A widely shared clip can redirect attention toward a specific film, category page, or performer profile within minutes. These microspikes do not replace the broader concentration pattern. They amplify it.

Taken together, this reveals the true structure of awards-season demand. Attention funnels toward specific titles and moments that generate both sustained and sudden editorial acceleration.

For marketers, this makes broad “Oscars” targeting inefficient. Cultural demand flows toward high-density hubs shaped by both scheduled milestones and live accelerators. Campaigns that align with those hubs inherit existing attention. 

The opportunity in Oscars 2026 ad ideas lies in identifying where that concentration is forming and activating within those environments.

The Nominations Moment Shapes Early Demand

The first measurable surge happens during the Oscar nominations announcement.

At this stage, audiences are comparing performances and revisiting films. Category coverage, including Actor in a Leading Role and Actress in a Supporting Role, becomes a central driver of traffic.

Within those clusters, individual names act as accelerators.

Timothée Chalamet generated 36,601 total visits during the analyzed period. Emma Stone followed with 27,162 visits, while Michael B. Jordan reached 25,927 and Jessie Buckley 24,308.

These numbers reinforce a critical insight. Oscar season demand is not generic. It is entity-driven. When specific actors trend within nomination coverage, traffic consolidates around related editorial environments.

For brands, the nominations phase represents an interest-driven window. Audiences are engaged in evaluation and discovery. Contextual alignment during this stage allows marketers to capture attention before the live ceremony compresses it further.

The Ceremony Compresses Attention

If nominations ignite curiosity, the ceremony compresses everything.

During the 98th Oscars, traffic moves rapidly between winner announcements, acceptance speeches, and real-time commentary. Coverage around high-performing films such as One Battle After Another or Marty Supreme intensifies as outcomes unfold.

The defining characteristic of this phase is velocity.

Live coverage surges quickly. Pages update in real time, and attention concentrates around those updates.

For brands aiming to maximize reach during Academy Awards 2026, this creates both opportunity and risk. The opportunity comes from attention density at its highest point. The risk comes from static planning that cannot adapt to reactive movement.

The most effective Academy Awards 2026 campaigns anticipate volatility. They align with high-traffic hubs rather than isolated placements.‍

Cultural Signals as Traffic Accelerators

The data confirms that individuals amplify attention density.

Timothée Chalamet’s 36,601 visits reflect more than celebrity appeal. His presence extends across performance coverage and broader entertainment media. Emma Stone’s 27,162 visits signal recurring awards-season relevance.

At the film level, Sinners and Frankenstein generated more than 40,000 and 34,000 visits, respectively. These figures reinforce the same pattern: a small number of entities capture a concentrated share of attention.

For marketers, these cultural signals function as contextual anchors.

You are not targeting individuals. You are aligning with environments where attention is already accelerating.

This distinction is crucial when developing Oscars 2026 campaigns. The strategic advantage lies in identifying high-density clusters and positioning creative within them.

What Is the Best Advertising Strategy for the Oscars 2026?

The best advertising strategy for the Oscars 2026 is phase-based and context-aware.

It recognizes that attention builds during the nominations announcement, accelerates across the awards season calendar, and peaks during the live ceremony on March 15, 2026.

Rather than increasing spend indiscriminately, brands should:

• Align with high-performing film clusters.
• Monitor entity-level demand signals.
• Activate during high-velocity editorial moments.
• Maintain contextual suitability across tonal variations.

Success depends less on total spend and more on strategy and precision.

This is where Seedtag’s Neuro-Contextual approach becomes essential. Instead of targeting audiences based on who they are, Neuro-Contextual Advertising interprets what people are engaging with in the moment. It analyzes signals of interest, emotion, and intent expressed through content, enabling brands to align with how audiences are thinking and feeling during awards season.

During the Oscars 2026, that means understanding not just which film is trending, but why it resonates. Is the surge driven by anticipation, celebration, surprise, or debate? When campaigns align at that emotional level, they move from simple relevance to genuine resonance.

For brands and agencies, this shift transforms advertising from exposure into connection. By aligning creative with the cultural tone of high-density moments, campaigns become more human, more meaningful, and more effective. In a season defined by concentrated attention, making advertising human again is not a tagline. It is a strategic advantage.

How Can Brands Run Academy Awards 2026 Campaigns?

Running effective Academy Awards 2026 campaigns requires planning across the full attention cycle.

Early activation captures research-driven demand during Oscar nominations coverage. Live-event alignment leverages peak traffic concentration. Post-ceremony analysis extends cultural relevance beyond the broadcast moment.

Across each phase, the objective remains consistent: align with environments where attention and emotion reinforce brand intent.

Neuro-Contextual approach supports this by continuously analyzing content signals at scale. By interpreting interest, emotion, and intent in real time, brands can position creative within high-density moments without relying on personal data. The result is campaigns that adapt to cultural momentum rather than react to it.

You can explore deeper seasonal intelligence and cultural trend analysis in Seedtag Insights.

From Share of Voice to Share of Moment

Seasonal campaigns often focus on share of voice. The Oscars illustrate why that metric does not capture the full context of how people think, feel, and decide.

Share of voice measures visibility. It tells you how often your brand appears. But it does not explain where attention concentrates, how emotion shifts, or why certain moments accelerate engagement.

During awards season, attention does not distribute evenly. When One Battle After Another drives 53,013 visits and Timothée Chalamet generates 36,601, traffic clearly funnels toward specific titles and personalities. Cultural demand forms around peaks.

That changes the question marketers should be asking.

Success during the Oscars 2026 depends on whether a brand is present during those peaks, not simply during the broader season.

Was your campaign aligned with the highest-performing film clusters?
Did it activate during nomination-driven surges?
Was it positioned within live ceremony updates when attention intensified?

This is the shift from share of voice to share of moment.

The 98th Academy Awards are more than a celebration of film. They are a blueprint for how digital attention behaves during high-intensity cultural events. Brands that understand this concentration effect, and align with interest, emotion, and intent rather than audience labels, can turn cultural relevance into measurable performance.

That is what marketers need to know about the Oscars 2026.

Video marketing solutions are changing as Connected TV reshapes how video advertising is planned, activated, and measured. With televisions now operating as connected, addressable environments, brands have access to digital-style capabilities within an ecosystem historically defined by reach and frequency.

In Episode 29 of The Pub Way Podcast, Tina and I sat down with Mike Brooks, Global Head of Business Development and Partnerships at LG Ad Solutions, to unpack what is really happening inside the CTV advertising ecosystem. We focused on three areas in particular: ecosystem structure, measurement integration, and the emergence of new formats within OEM operating systems.

One theme became clear as we talked. CTV is not behaving like traditional linear television, and it is not simply an extension of digital video. It is becoming a foundational video marketing solution, one that starts with environment and scale, then layers in measurement through a growing network of integrations rather than relying on a single tracking model.

Below are the core insights from the episode that help explain why CTV is playing a larger role in modern video marketing strategies.

Key Takeaways

• CTV advertising operates in a fundamentally different ecosystem than digital video, favoring concentration and scale over fragmentation.
  
• OEM platforms approach video advertising from the screen outward, starting with environment and reach rather than content libraries.
  
• Measurement in CTV is built through multiple one-to-one integrations, not a shared tracking language.
  
• Native advertising on TV home screens is a newer format that has only recently become accessible to the broader advertising market, expanding and maturing what video advertising can look like inside the TV experience.
  
• CTV is increasingly capable of supporting both reach and performance as measurement and attribution continue to mature.

How Does CTV Advertising Enhance Video Marketing Solutions Strategy?

One of the biggest differences between open-web video advertising and CTV advertising is how the ecosystem is structured. Digital video lives across thousands of websites and apps. CTV, by contrast, is concentrated across a much smaller number of platforms that each operate at a massive scale.

That concentration changes how video marketing solutions are deployed. Instead of managing campaigns across fragmented inventory, brands can activate video advertising within a limited set of environments that reach millions of screens. The result is greater focus, consistency, and access to high-quality video placements designed to capture attention.

What also stood out to me is how CTV has begun to adopt a more performance-aware mindset. Linear TV historically offered limited flexibility when it came to targeting and measurement. Connected TV now supports attribution and clearer insight into video performance that simply did not exist before. This shift is still unfolding, but it is already influencing how TV inventory is bought, evaluated, and optimized.

Why Choose CTV Advertising for Video Marketing Solutions?

For years, video marketing strategies forced a clear tradeoff. Linear TV delivered reach. Digital video delivered measurable performance. CTV is narrowing that divide.

Much of today’s CTV demand still originates from linear budgets built around reach and frequency. What has changed is what can now be layered on top. Measurement partners, attribution frameworks, and intelligent video solutions are expanding what CTV can deliver beyond awareness alone.

Scale remains central to this story. OEM platforms control the operating systems of connected televisions, which gives them direct access to hundreds of millions of screens globally. That scale allows brands to launch campaigns efficiently across regions.

For advertisers looking to Advertise on CTV, the combination of scale, environment control, and integrated measurement makes CTV difficult to replicate with other video marketing tools.

Learn More about CTV Advertising

1. How to Measure Connected TV Ad Performance 
2. How Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) Are Reshaping CTV And What Publishers Need To Know
3. Closing the CTV Measurement Gap: Data Quality & Performance Talks

How to Improve Video Marketing Solutions Using CTV

Improving video marketing solutions using CTV starts with how measurement is structured. In the episode, one of the defining characteristics of the CTV ecosystem is that it does not operate on a single, shared tracking system. Unlike mobile and web environments that rely on unified identifiers, CTV measurement is built through a network of one-to-one integrations.

OEM platforms work with multiple attribution and reporting partners, allowing campaigns to be evaluated using familiar performance frameworks. This integration model makes it possible to connect CTV advertising with broader media measurement strategies rather than isolating it as a separate channel.

What stood out to me is that this approach improves video marketing solutions by aligning television with existing reporting structures. Measurement is layered onto the TV environment in a way that reflects how it actually functions. For brands, that creates clearer performance visibility while preserving the scale and environment advantages that make CTV distinct.

Intelligent Video Solutions and Native CTV Formats

One of the most distinctive parts of the CTV ecosystem is native advertising on TV home screens. These placements live inside the operating system itself and appear the moment a viewer turns on their TV.

What makes these formats different is timing. Native placements show up before content selection, which sets them apart from traditional pre-roll video ads. They create a new entry point for brand visibility, product discovery, and navigation to landing pages or video hosting environments.

As discussed in the episode, this inventory has only recently become available to the broader advertising market and is now reaching wider programmatic access. That shift marks an important moment in how video advertising can show up within the TV experience.

Why Connected TV Advertising Is Better Than Other Video Marketing Solutions

So, What is CTV Advertising delivering that other video channels do not? To answer that, it helps to compare structural models.

Linear television delivers massive scale but historically operates with limited integration into digital attribution systems. Social video platforms and environments like YouTube offer targeting flexibility and performance signals, but function within closed ecosystems where optimization occurs at the platform level. Open-web video operates across fragmented placements.

CTV sits between these models.

It preserves the scale and shared viewing environment of television while introducing integration-based measurement through OEM platforms. Instead of relying on a single tracking system, CTV connects to multiple attribution and reporting partners. That allows campaigns to align more directly with broader media evaluation frameworks.

OEM environments also operate across fewer, larger platforms compared to the open web. That concentration reduces fragmentation while maintaining reach and placement control.

For brands evaluating video marketing solutions, this structural balance is what makes CTV better. It allows marketers to combine scale, environment integrity, and measurable performance within a single channel. While measurement continues to mature, CTV is no longer limited to awareness alone.

Looking Ahead: The Role of CTV in Video Marketing Solutions

Video marketing is no longer defined by a strict choice between linear TV and digital video. As Connected TV continues to mature, it is becoming a central part of how brands plan, execute, and evaluate video advertising.

CTV advertising allows marketers to start with environment and scale, then layer in measurement through partnerships and integrations. For brands evaluating the next generation of video marketing tools, CTV is not simply an extension of television. It is a distinct and increasingly essential part of the video marketing landscape.

For deeper insights into CTV advertising, OEM platforms, and the evolution of video measurement, listen to Episode 29 of The Pub Way Podcast.

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The future of digital marketing is no longer defined by who consumers are, where they have been, or what they clicked yesterday. It is defined by something far more immediate and human: the moment they are in right now.

For more than a decade, the marketing industry relied on identity-based signals and increasingly fragile behavioral signals to drive personalization and performance. That approach shaped an entire era of digital marketing, adtech, and marketing technologies.

Today, however, the industry faces a deeper structural challenge: signal loss and declining addressability. As privacy expectations rise and media consumption fragments across platforms and screens, brands are losing reliable ways to understand people and deliver relevance at scale.

What is emerging in their place is not a return to the past, but an evolution. One that reflects how people actually experience content in real time. This shift is redefining the future of advertising, and it is why Neuro-Contextual advertising is becoming central to the future of digital marketing.

Key Takeaways

• The future of digital marketing is shifting away from identity-based targeting toward understanding the moment or mood people are in.
  
• Relevance alone is no longer enough. Real impact comes from resonance, when advertising aligns with interest, emotion, and intent.
  
• Adtech innovation is redefining digital marketing strategies by using AI to interpret content rather than track people.
  
• Neuro-Contextual advertising enables privacy-first relevance by decoding how a moment feels, not who the user is.
  
• Brands, agencies, and publishers gain a competitive advantage when advertising feels welcome, natural, and emotionally aligned.
  
• As signal loss accelerates and addressability declines, understanding the moment is becoming the foundation of modern marketing.
  
  

Why relevance alone is no longer enough

Traditional contextual advertising focused on relevance. Match an ad to a topic. Place a message next to related content. Avoid unsafe environments. It worked, especially at scale, and it provided a privacy-safe alternative to behavioral targeting.

But relevance has a ceiling. An ad can be contextually relevant and still feel out of place. It can appear next to the right topic and still fail to connect.

The reason is simple. People do not consume content in a neutral state. Every article, video, or stream activates a mindset shaped by interest, emotion, and intent.

The future of digital marketing depends on understanding that difference.

Relevance answers where an ad appears. Resonance determines how it is experienced. That distinction is becoming one of the most important marketing trends shaping the industry.

Adtech innovation is shifting the foundation of digital marketing

How will the future of digital marketing change with adtech innovation?

Adtech innovation is moving away from surveillance and toward understanding. Instead of tracking individuals across the open web or social media, new AI-powered systems are learning to interpret the meaning of content itself.

This is where technological advancements in artificial intelligence are reshaping the marketing industry.

Modern AI-driven platforms can analyze content at scale across formats such as articles, video, CTV, and immersive experiences. They understand not just what content is about, but how it feels. Tone, emotion, and environment all matter.

This evolution allows digital marketing strategies to shift from prediction to presence. From guessing what consumers might want next to understanding what they are experiencing now.

In the future of digital marketing trends 2026 and beyond, this real-time understanding will be more valuable than any historical customer profile.

From targeting people to understanding moments

For years, marketing strategies centered on the “who.”

• Who is this person?
• What demographic box can they be placed in?
• What past behavior can predict their next move?

But the future of advertising is moving toward the “what” and the “how.”

• What is this person engaging with?
• How does this moment feel?
• What mindset does this content create?

This is where Neuro-Contextual thinking changes everything

Neuro-Contextual advertising starts with the premise that interest, emotion, and intent are expressed through content itself. These signals reflect how open someone is to receiving information, forming memory, and taking action in real time.

Instead of building campaigns around identity, Neuro-Contextual advertising aligns ads with moments that naturally invite connection. This approach bridges the gap between digital marketing performance and genuine customer engagement.

Why Neuro-Contextual advertising is central to the future of digital marketing

Can Neuro-Contextual improve relevance and performance in the future of digital marketing? Yes. And more importantly, it improves meaning

Neuro-Contextual advertising builds on contextual foundations but goes deeper. It uses AI-powered analysis to interpret content through a human lens, identifying emotional and cognitive signals in real time.

When ads align with these signals, the brain processes them more easily. Attention increases. Emotional response strengthens. Memory formation improves.

These are the core Neuro-Contextual advertising benefits. They move advertising beyond surface-level relevance and into resonance.

In a privacy-first world, this approach allows brands to gain deeper insights without relying on personal customer data. It respects user expectations while delivering actionable insights that improve performance across the funnel.

Learn more about Neuro-Contextual Advertising

• Neuro-Contextual Advertising: Winning Audiences Through Interests, Emotions and Intentions
• How Neuromarketing Is Redefining Ad Relevance Today
• How is Neuroscience Transforming the Digital Advertising Landscape
  
  

The neuroscience behind resonance

Understanding why resonance works requires looking at how the brain processes information.

Insights from neuroscience help explain why emotionally aligned advertising is processed more fluently, remembered more clearly, and trusted more instinctively by the brain. When content and advertising share the same emotional tone and intent, cognitive effort decreases, and the experience feels natural rather than disruptive.

This is exactly what our neuroscience research revealed. By measuring real-time brain responses, the study found that Neuro-Contextual advertising generates significantly stronger neural and emotional engagement when ads align with the interest, emotion, and intent expressed in the surrounding content. Compared with non-contextual advertising, Neuro-Contextual placements delivered up to 3.5x higher neural engagement, alongside a 26% stronger emotional response than standard contextual approaches.

Instead of interrupting attention, Neuro-Contextual advertising fits into the flow of the experience. It works with the brain’s natural processing patterns rather than against them. This distinction is critical for the future of digital marketing, especially as attention becomes harder to earn and competition for relevance intensifies.

A new role for AI in digital marketing

Artificial intelligence has played a role in digital marketing for years, from product recommendations to campaign optimization. Much of that use focused on automation rather than understanding.

The next phase of AI in digital marketing is different.

AI-powered, Neuro-Contextual systems are designed to interpret meaning. They analyze text, imagery, and video to understand the emotional environment surrounding content in real time.

This allows marketers to align creative with mindset, adapt messaging to emotional tone, and deliver immersive experiences without relying on identity-based tracking.

In the future of digital marketing, AI-driven understanding becomes a durable competitive advantage. Not because it knows more about the person behind the screen, but because it understands moments better.

What this shift means for brands, agencies, and publishers

For brands, Neuro-Contextual advertising enables emotional connection at scale without sacrificing reach or privacy. Campaigns align with moments of curiosity, inspiration, or intent across digital channels and CTV.

For agencies, Neuro-Contextual signals provide a smarter planning foundation. Instead of relying solely on historical behavior, planners can use human-like understanding of context to inform creative, placement, and optimization decisions.

For publishers, Neuro-Contextual advertising rewards quality content rather than clickbait. Performance reflects emotional resonance, not just clicks, helping publishers build sustainable value.

Why the future of digital marketing starts with understanding the moment

As privacy expectations evolve and addressability continues to decline, the marketing industry must find new ways to connect without relying on personal identifiers. Neuro-Contextual advertising answers that challenge by focusing on the most impactful variable in advertising: the moment someone is in.

Reaching people at the right moment drives stronger attention, deeper emotional connection, and greater recall because it aligns with how they are already thinking and feeling. By understanding interest, emotion, and intent as they emerge through content, brands can create advertising that feels relevant, respectful, and real.

The future of digital marketing will belong to those who stop chasing people around the internet and start showing up in the moments that spark their passions.

Relevance will always matter. But resonance is what drives connection, memory, and action. Neuro-Contextual advertising defines a more human, privacy-first future for the marketing industry.

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Valentine’s Day is no longer just about flowers, chocolates, and last-minute gifts. In recent years, the holiday has evolved into a broader cultural moment shaped by emotion, self-expression, and shared experiences. For brands, this shift changes how Valentine’s Day ads should be planned, delivered, and measured.

Rather than focusing only on romantic clichés, today’s most effective Valentine’s Day marketing reflects how people actually feel, plan, and engage with content around the celebration. Understanding those behaviours is the foundation of a stronger valentine campaign.

Below, we explore what ads work best, the best Valentine’s day ads ideas to consider, and what’s trending this year in seasonal advertising.

Key takeaways

• The most effective Valentine’s Day ads align with emotional context, not just gifting moments.
• Successful Valentine campaign strategies reflect a wider range of relationships and celebrations.
• Relevance driven by context now matters more than interruption.
• Seasonal Valentine’s Day marketing is becoming more experience-led and less product-focused.
• Longer activation windows are shaping how day ads perform around St Valentine’s.

What Valentine’s Day ads work best for a campaign?

Ready to dive into what was buzzing in Las Vegas?

The Valentine’s Day ads that perform best align with emotional context rather than interrupt it. In the lead-up to the holiday, people are already immersed in emotionally charged content. They browse gift inspiration, plan shared experiences, read lifestyle stories, and engage with culture that reflects connection and anticipation.

What truly drives connection during this period is not who people are on paper, such as their age, gender, or past online behaviour, but what captures their interest, emotion, and intent in the moment. Valentine’s Day advertisement placements that appear alongside relevant content tend to feel more welcome because they align with how people are already thinking and feeling.

Instead of pushing promotional messages into unrelated environments, effective ads match the tone and emotional state of the moment. This alignment helps brands earn attention and a positive association without relying on pressure or urgency. As a result, the strongest Valentine's campaign strategies are defined by relevance, not volume.

When campaigns are built around a neuro-contextual approach, brands gain a deeper understanding of what truly matters to audiences in each moment. By aligning media placement with real-time signals of interest, emotion, and intent, advertising becomes more precise and more human. The result is smarter placement, creative that resonates emotionally, and messaging that feels natural rather than intrusive, driving stronger engagement, more meaningful connections, and measurable impact.

The best Valentine’s Day ads ideas for modern campaigns

The best Valentine’s Day ads ideas today reflect how diverse the holiday has become. While romance remains important, audiences increasingly respond to content that includes friendship, self-care, humour, and shared rituals. This broader emotional lens allows Valentine’s Day marketing to resonate with more people in more authentic ways.

Many effective Valentine’s Day advertisement strategies focus on experiences rather than transactions. Messaging that highlights moments, ideas, or inspiration tends to feel more supportive and relevant than purely product-led communication. When ads help people decide how to celebrate rather than what to buy, they add value to the experience.

Timing also plays a central role. Early in the season, audiences are in a discovery moment, seeking inspiration and planning ideas. As the day approaches, convenience and clarity become more important. A flexible Valentine’s Day marketing plan that adapts to these shifting needs performs far better than a single, static message.

What’s trending this year for Valentine’s Day ads?

This year, Valentine’s Day ads are trending towards a softer and more emotionally intelligent approach. Brands are moving away from exaggerated romantic tropes and embracing authenticity. Content that reflects real relationships, personal choice, and emotional nuance is seeing stronger engagement.

In online advertising, Neuro-Contextual placement is becoming increasingly important. Valentine’s Day ads are now appearing alongside food-related content, wellbeing stories, entertainment coverage, and lifestyle features. These environments reflect how people experience Valentine’s Day as part of daily life, rather than solely as a retail occasion.

Another key trend is timing. Valentine’s Day marketing is starting earlier and extending beyond 14 February. Longer activation windows allow brands to support planning, anticipation, and last-minute decisions in a way that feels natural rather than forced.

Building a Valentine’s Day marketing plan that connects

A successful Valentine’s Day marketing plan begins with empathy. Brands that understand emotional context and how people engage with content are better positioned to create Valentine’s Day ads that feel relevant and timely. For many teams, having a clear checklist for a valentine campaign helps ensure messaging, timing, and placements remain aligned with how people actually experience St Valentine’s.

This shift reflects a broader change in advertising, moving away from targeting individuals in isolation and towards understanding the environments and emotional states that shape real decisions. When context, emotion, and intent are considered together, media placement becomes smarter, and campaigns resonate more deeply.

Rather than asking how to stand out during the season, the more effective question is how to show up at the right moment. When Valentine’s Day advertising aligns with what people are already exploring, it becomes part of the experience rather than an interruption.

As the holiday continues to evolve, the brands that succeed will be those that focus less on formulas and more on connection. The future of Valentine’s Day ads is not about saying more. It is about understanding more and letting relevance do the work.

Super Bowl ads have always been a cultural event in their own right. Every year, brands compete for attention during the biggest game on the calendar, investing heavily in a single 30-second spot designed to entertain, surprise, or spark conversation. But the Super Bowl is no longer just a one-night advertising showdown. It has become a powerful window into how audiences engage with sports, culture, entertainment, and media throughout the year.

As Super Bowl LX approaches, the behaviors surrounding the big game reveal far more than which commercials people remember. They show how fans consume content across platforms, what drives emotional engagement, and how Super Bowl advertising influences broader marketing strategies well beyond game day. For marketers, these patterns provide essential insights into NFL sports that can help shape smarter Super Bowl advertising in 2026 and beyond.

Below, we break down what Super Bowl ads reveal about evolving NFL trends, how brands should plan beyond the 30-second spot, and why these signals are shaping Super Bowl advertising strategies throughout 2026.

Blog Post Highlights

• Super Bowl ads reflect broader audience behaviors, not just game-day viewing.
• NFL sports insights show that attention spans food, betting, entertainment, teams, and culture.
• The traditional 30-second spot is only one part of a much larger Super Bowl advertising ecosystem.
• NFL trends observed during the Super Bowl influence creative and media strategies year-round.
  
  
  

What NFL sports insights do Super Bowl ads reveal each year?

Each Super Bowl captures a snapshot of how audiences behave at a specific cultural moment. While the game itself remains central, the interests surrounding it reveal what truly holds attention. Seedtag’s Super Bowl LX Neuro-Contextual analysis shows that fan engagement consistently extends beyond football alone.

Five interest areas dominate Super Bowl engagement:

• Fantasy football and sports betting
• Football food and game-day recipes
• The halftime show and music culture
• Teams and players
• Watch parties and tailgating

These patterns reveal an important truth. Super Bowl ads are not competing only with other commercials. They are competing with bets being placed, recipes being searched, fantasy lineups being debated, and halftime performers being discussed. Each year, the Super Bowl highlights how fans experience the event as a cultural and social ritual, not just a sports broadcast.

For advertisers, this is a clear insight. Super Bowl advertising works best when it aligns with why people are watching, not just what they are watching. Ads that connect to these surrounding behaviors feel more relevant, while those that ignore them risk fading into the background.

Beyond the 30-second spot: planning Super Bowl ads across the NFL ecosystem

The iconic bowl ad still plays an important role, but its function has evolved. The Super Bowl is no longer a single-screen experience, and strategies built only around broadcast TV miss how audiences actually engage with the event.

Super Bowl fans now move fluidly across streaming platforms, sports networks, mobile devices, and second screens. At the same time, live behaviors such as sports betting, social commentary, and real-time analysis amplify engagement throughout the game. As a result, Super Bowl advertising must be designed for an ecosystem, not a single placement.

In this environment, the 30-second spot becomes a launch point rather than a conclusion. Effective Super Bowl ads extend into:

• Pre-game moments, as fans research teams, players, and matchups
• In-game moments, when attention spikes around key plays, betting updates, and halftime
• Post-game conversations, where commercials are replayed, shared, and discussed

Brands that plan for these moments can stay present without relying on interruption alone. The goal shifts from simply being seen to being contextually relevant across the fan journey.

How food, betting, and entertainment shape Super Bowl advertising

One of the clearest NFL sports insights from Super Bowl LX is the role non-sports content plays in driving engagement. Football food is a prime example. Searches and content around dips, soups, snacks, and drinks surge ahead of the big game, reinforcing the Super Bowl’s role as a shared social experience.

Fantasy football and sports betting also command sustained attention. Fans actively seek predictions, odds, and strategy content before and during the game, creating high-intent moments where focus is already strong. These behaviors indicate opportunities for brands to connect when audiences are especially receptive.

Entertainment adds a further layer. The halftime show consistently attracts audiences beyond traditional football fans, turning the Super Bowl into a crossover event that blends sports, music, and pop culture. This expansion reshapes Super Bowl advertising, increasing its reach while raising expectations for cultural relevance.

Together, these dynamics show that the most effective Super Bowl ads are grounded in alignment. When advertising reflects the rituals and interests surrounding the game, it feels natural rather than intrusive.

Teams, players, and narratives that extend beyond game day

Teams and players also play a central role in shaping engagement. Certain franchises dominate conversation due to performance, history, and cultural relevance, while star players generate attention that stretches well beyond the field.

Player-driven narratives often spill into entertainment and celebrity culture, connecting the NFL to broader media conversations. These storylines transform football coverage into lifestyle content, influencing what fans read, watch, and share throughout the season.

This is where NFL trends become especially valuable for marketers. The Super Bowl doesn’t just reflect current interest; it signals which narratives, personalities, and themes are likely to shape attention throughout the year. Brands that recognize these patterns can plan Super Bowl ads that remain relevant long after the final play.

How Super Bowl ads shape broader Super Bowl advertising trends

Super Bowl advertising has a lasting influence on the industry. The creative styles, tones, and messages that resonate during the big game often set expectations for advertising across the months that follow.

Each Super Bowl becomes a testing ground for what audiences respond to, whether that’s humor, nostalgia, cultural commentary, or emotional storytelling. These signals inform how brands approach campaigns throughout the year, not just during marquee moments.

Seedtag’s Neuro-contextual approach plays a defining role in this shift. Ads that appear alongside content aligned with fan interests, intents, and emotional states feel more welcome and less disruptive. Over time, this raises the standard for Super Bowl advertising and for sports marketing more broadly.

From visibility to relevance: why the Neuro-contextual approach matters more than ever

As the Super Bowl grows more complex, visibility alone is no longer enough. Fans are surrounded by content, commentary, and distractions. What cuts through is relevance, showing up in the right environment, at the right moment, with the right message.

Neuro-Contextual advertising supports this shift by aligning ads with content people are already engaging with. During the Super Bowl, that may include food content, betting analysis, team coverage, or halftime discussions. These placements complement the experience rather than interrupt it.

This approach allows Super Bowl advertising to extend beyond the broadcast and into the broader content ecosystem. It keeps messaging connected to how fans think, feel, and decide throughout the season.

What Super Bowl ads tell us about what comes next

Super Bowl ads are no longer just about winning the night. They are about understanding the audience. The NFL sports insights revealed each year offer a roadmap for smarter, more effective advertising strategies.

As Super Bowl LX approaches, the takeaway is clear. Brands that succeed in 2026 will be those that move beyond the standalone 30-second spot and treat Super Bowl advertising as an ongoing conversation. By aligning with the interests, narratives, and contexts that matter to fans, marketers can turn the big game into a year-long opportunity.

The future of Super Bowl advertising isn’t louder. It’s more connected and more attuned to how audiences actually experience the game.

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In a digital advertising world that never stands still, success belongs to those who adapt, innovate, and rise to new challenges.

Seedtag has evolved tremendously since our inception more than a decade ago. Through continuous innovation and an unwavering belief in the power of context, we’ve built a company that leads brands, agencies, and publishers into a more intelligent, privacy-first future. And as we continue to grow, it’s only natural that our brand identity evolves too — to reflect who we’ve become and where we’re headed.

1. The Next Chapter of Contextual: Neuro-Contextual
2. A new look, the same soul
3. Seeing the World Through a Human Lens
4. Strengthening our commitments
5. What this means for our partners

The Next Chapter of Contextual: Neuro-Contextual

In 2025, we launched Neuro-Contextual, the next evolution of contextual advertising. Powered by our AI, Liz, this technology goes beyond content — combining advanced embeddings with neuroscience principles to understand audiences with unprecedented precision. Liz defines the interests, emotions, and intents that drive engagement across the open web and CTV, creating connections that are both effective and deeply human.

A new look, the same soul

Our new brand identity is a reflection of this journey. For me, a brand has always been more than a logo or color palette; it’s the heartbeat of who we are. The best brands feel authentic — they mirror the people and purpose behind them.

This refreshed look embodies what Seedtag stands for today: sleek, intelligent, and modern, yet grounded in humanity and authenticity. Our logo remains untouched, honoring the legacy that brought us here and the innovative ideas still taking root and growing every day.

While our visual identity evolves, our essence remains unchanged. We’re still as passionate as ever about privacy, innovation, and making the digital world better for everyone.

Seeing the World Through a Human Lens

At the heart of our new design are the lenses — a powerful symbol of how we view the world. They represent our belief that what drives engagement isn’t found in demographics, but in how people feel in the moment.

This is the foundation of Neuro-Contextual advertising: understanding the context and environment that shape people’s experiences rather than targeting individuals in isolation. Your age, gender, or what you clicked on yesterday says little about who you are today. What truly matters is what captures your interest, emotion, and intent right now — that’s what drives meaningful connection.

Strengthening our commitments

Our mission is clear: to bring Liz to the world — helping brands and publishers create advertising rooted in human understanding, not surveillance.

A key step toward this is the upcoming Liz Agent, an intelligent interface designed to deliver deeper insights into audiences, competitors, and optimization opportunities for our clients.

Our vision is a future where advertising feels relevant, respectful, and real — engaging people in ways that inspire, not interrupt. Seedtag aims to be more than a partner that drives results; we want to help shape a digital universe where advertising truly adds value.

What this means for our partners

For our partners — brands, agencies, and publishers — this evolution strengthens what we’ve always stood for. Our focus remains the same: privacy, performance, and human connection.

By harnessing the power of Neuro-Contextual intelligence, our partners gain:

• Deeper audience understanding
• Smarter media placement
• Campaigns that resonate emotionally

The result is advertising that feels natural, not intrusive — delivering better engagement, stronger connections, and measurable impact.

We’re deeply grateful for your trust and partnership as we take this next step forward. Together, we’re building a future where advertising doesn’t just reach people — it connects with them.

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The junk food advert ban, restrictions for less healthy food or drink on television (TV) and online, represent one of the most consequential changes to UK advertising regulation in recent years. Introduced to address rising levels of childhood obesity and better protect children from exposure to unhealthy foods, the legislation places strict limits on how HFSS products, defined as those high in fat, salt, or sugar, can be promoted across television and online environments.

For brands operating across food and drinks, fast food, and soft drinks, the impact of the junk food advertising ban goes far beyond compliance. The challenge is no longer whether these rules apply, but how to plan media effectively, remain visible, and stay compliant within a far more restricted advertising landscape. Traditional, product-led food adverts are being replaced by brand-led storytelling, contextual relevance, and a stronger focus on responsibility.

Crucially, this shift does not mean abandoning digital channels or the audiences brands have spent years building. Instead, it marks a transition in how those audiences are reached and what they are shown. The same people are still there, but the stories brands tell, and the environments they appear in, must evolve.

Understanding the junk food advert ban UK and its implications is now a strategic priority for marketers.

Below, we break down how the HFSS advertising rules work, what they mean for media planning in the UK, and the practical steps brands can take to stay compliant while continuing to build relevance and trust.

Key takeaways

• The junk food advert ban UK restricts HFSS food adverts on television before 9 pm and bans them online entirely.
• The regulation is designed to reduce childhood obesity and limit exposure to unhealthy foods from a young age.
• Compliance requires a shift away from product-led advertising towards brand, lifestyle, and contextual storytelling.
• Contextual media planning is essential for maintaining reach while respecting HFSS rules.
• Brands that align with public health goals are better positioned for long-term trust and growth.
  

What is the junk food advert ban?

The junk food ad ban forms part of the UK’s broader HFSS advertising rules, which came fully into force in January 2026. These regulations apply to paid advertising for food and drinks products classified as high in fat, salt, or sugar, based on government nutrient profiling models.

Under the rules:

• HFSS food advertising is banned on television before 9 pm.
• Paid-for online advertising of HFSS products is prohibited across social, display, video, search, and influencer channels.
• The restrictions apply regardless of audience demographics, including campaigns aimed primarily at adults.

Evidence shows that repeated exposure to junk food advertising influences eating habits from a young age, contributing to higher rates of children becoming overweight or obese. The policy is therefore designed to protect children and support wider public health objectives, rather than restrict the food industry outright.

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Junk food advert ban implications for brands

One of the most immediate implications of the junk food advertising ban is a fundamental change in how brands communicate. Product imagery, pack shots, and direct promotional messaging are no longer viable across many television and online placements.

However, this does not signal the end of brand presence or performance-driven outcomes. Brands are adapting by shifting towards:

• Masterbrand storytelling rather than individual product promotion;
• Lifestyle and usage-led content that avoids direct product advertising;
• Highlighting healthier options within broader portfolios;
• Creative formats that focus on values, culture, and shared moments.

These constraints are not limiting creativity. They are accelerating it. Similar shifts have already taken place in other highly regulated categories, where success depends on finding the right balance between compliance, brand identity, and audience relevance.

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How to plan media in the UK under HFSS restrictions

Planning media under HFSS rules requires moving away from audience-based targeting and towards a more Neuro-Contextual approach.

Instead of asking who the audience is, brands must consider:

• Where their ads appear
• The surrounding content and emotional tone
• Whether the message feels appropriate, supportive, and responsible.

Neuro-Contextual advertising allows brands to appear in relevant environments without promoting restricted products directly. Food advertising can focus on cooking inspiration, everyday rituals, or brand purpose, rather than fast food or junk food items themselves.

As Marko Johns, UK Managing Director at Seedtag, explains:

“In a more regulated advertising environment, success will belong to brands that stop chasing only visibility and start optimising for receptivity, grounded in emotional relevance.”

This approach ensures that food adverts feel welcome rather than disruptive, even as regulations tighten.

Creativity, brand identity, and adaptive optimisation

As creative strategies evolve under HFSS regulation, brand identity takes on greater importance. When products cannot take centre stage, distinctive brand assets, tone, and emotional cues carry more weight in driving recognition and recall.

By analysing how audiences respond to different creative elements across environments, Seedtag’s creative intelligence can identify which visual signals, narratives, and emotional cues perform best in each context. This enables creatives to be adapted dynamically, not replaced, helping even simple brand stories evolve into high-impact executions that drive attention, memory, and action.

This approach supports creativity rather than constraining it, allowing brands to refine how they show up while remaining aligned with both regulation and audience expectations.

How to stay compliant with HFSS advertising UK

Staying compliant with HFSS advertising UK rules requires close coordination between creative, media, and legal teams.

Best practice includes:

• Removing direct references to HFSS products from creative.
• Avoiding imagery or language associated with unhealthy foods.
• Ensuring online placements do not promote restricted items indirectly.
• Keeping clear documentation to demonstrate regulatory responsibility.

Compliance is not only about avoiding fines. It increasingly shapes brand trust. Consumers expect food brands to act responsibly, particularly when it comes to protecting children and supporting healthier choices.

Turning restriction into opportunity

While the junk food advert ban introduces clear limitations, it also creates space for brands to evolve how they show up in the market. As product-led promotion becomes less viable, creativity, Neuro-Contextual intelligence, and emotional understanding increasingly determine effectiveness, often more than reach alone.

Brands that focus on purpose, promote healthier options, and invest in meaningful storytelling can continue to build salience without relying on traditional junk food advertising. This shift encourages a move away from interruption and towards relevance, where messages feel appropriate to the moment and the environment in which they appear.

For brands looking to navigate this transition in practice, understanding how FMCG brands can win in a restricted ad landscape means rethinking media planning, creative strategy, and the role of context in building trust at scale.

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Brand safety has always been one of the most persistent challenges for publishers. The issue has never been the concept itself. The real problem is that many tools shaping brand safety in advertising were not created with the publisher perspective in mind. When outdated blocklists, blunt keyword filters and legacy workflows decide what is safe, publishers lose access to revenue they should have earned. These systems cannot interpret nuance which is why so much valuable inventory is mislabeled and excluded from campaigns.

In this episode of The Pub Way Podcast Mike and I sat down with Heather Carver, Chief Customer Officer at tvScientific, formerly Chief Revenue Officer at Freestar, to talk about how AI and modern curation are transforming the way publishers protect and monetize their content. I speak with publishers every day and hear the same pattern. High quality content is being misread by tools that were never designed to understand context. Our conversation with Heather helped clarify why this happens and where real progress is finally taking place.

1. Reframing Brand Safety for a New Era
2. Why This Shift Matters for Publishers
3. Curation With Intention
4. Preparing for the Shifts in Search and AI Discovery
5. How Freestar Uses AI to Support Publisher Growth
6. What Publishers Should Expect From Curation Partners
7. Looking Ahead
8. Listen to the Full Episode

Reframing Brand Safety for a New Era

Heather has worked across multiple sides of the industry for more than fifteen years. She began on the publisher side, moved into the SSP world and later joined a major tech platform. That range gives her a rare understanding of how brand safety in advertising has evolved and where the blind spots remain.

One of the biggest issues she raised is how deeply legacy tools are embedded within agency workflows. Keyword blocklists once felt like the safest and simplest option, but today they often create more harm than protection. A single word can trigger a block even when the surrounding context is positive or neutral. Articles about sports get flagged because the word shoot appears. Entire news sections are treated as unsafe even when they are accurate and balanced.

This is particularly damaging for publishers because quality journalism still drives audience trust. It also supports the wider digital ecosystem. AI models, search engines and recommendation systems all rely on credible content. When brand safety tools over block the open web, they reduce the quality of the very signals powering modern information systems.

This is where AI creates opportunity. Modern suitability models can interpret tone, sentiment and meaning rather than relying on isolated terms. AI allows brand safety in advertising for publishers to be far more precise. Nuanced content is recognized for what it actually communicates. High quality reporting is not penalized simply for covering real events. Publishers gain access to demand that should have always been available to them.

Why This Shift Matters for Publishers

The shift from blocking to suitability is not only a technological improvement. It is a reset in how we understand publisher value. When legacy tools miscategorize content they erase context that is essential for advertisers. They also create a distorted picture of what publishers actually produce.

Heather emphasized that publishers should be part of the conversation. They have a unique understanding of their editorial standards, their audience and the true nature of their content. When these nuances are lost, publishers are pushed into a defensive posture even when their environments are completely suitable.

Suitability frameworks give publishers a way to demonstrate that their content is relevant, trustworthy and aligned with advertiser goals. They also create pathways to recover monetization that legacy systems have blocked.

Curation With Intention

Curation has existed in ssp advertising for years, but Heather explained that the latest evolution of curation is far more valuable for publishers. Older curation models grouped thousands of sites into broad categories and rarely adapted. They did not showcase what made each publisher unique and they did not help buyers understand the context behind impressions.

Modern curation is dynamic and intelligent. AI evaluates context, tone and performance signals in real time. Packages reflect quality rather than volume. Buyers can see how curated segments are built and which publishers contribute to them. This transparency makes it easier for advertisers to invest with confidence.

For publishers this matters because intentional curation helps correct misclassification. It brings premium inventory back into circulation and connects it with campaigns where it naturally performs well. It also gives publishers without large direct sales teams a meaningful way to reach premium budgets.

This shift in curation also highlights how much innovation is happening on the sell side. SSPs are no longer simply pipes for demand, they are becoming intelligence layers that help publishers surface the true value of their inventory. If you want to understand how this evolution is shaping monetization and ad quality, we covered it in more detail in an earlier episode about how supply side platforms are driving smarter ad experiences.

These changes in suitability and curation run parallel to shifts on the buy side. DSPs continue to refine how they evaluate context, quality signals and performance across formats like CTV, which ultimately shapes how publisher inventory is valued. For publishers who want a deeper look at what this means in practice, we explored it in a recent episode focused on how demand side platforms are reshaping CTV strategies.

Learn more about Brand Safety in Advertising

1. How Publishers Can Future-Proof Brand Safety and Revenue with the Right Advertising Supply Side Platform
2. How Publishers Can Use AI to Monetize Content and Audience Attention - AI for Publishers
3. Digital Marketing Musts for Publishers: Locking in Monetization with Brand Safety

Preparing for the Shifts in Search and AI Discovery

Our conversation then moved to search traffic and the rise of AI generated results. Publishers are already seeing changes as users engage with zero click answers and LLM summaries. Heather’s view is that publishers cannot rely on a single traffic source. Instead they need to build editorial brands that readers return to directly.

That means investing in quality content, improving user experience and strengthening newsletters and owned channels. While these strategies take longer, they create dependable traffic patterns and reduce exposure to algorithmic shifts.

We also discussed upcoming models around AI scraping. Large publishers have begun negotiating deals with AI companies, but the mid and long tail need collective solutions. Ideas like pay per crawl or pay per query may emerge as sustainable models. What remains clear is that AI systems depend on publisher content. Publishers deserve to be compensated for the value they provide.

How Freestar Uses AI to Support Publisher Growth

Heather shared how Freestar uses AI inside their own stack. Their dynamic ad system processes billions of impressions and adjusts floors, timeouts and wrapper behavior automatically. The goal is to maximize monetization while protecting user experience.

Freestar also relies on AI agents across their teams to automate research, data ingestion and internal workflows. This allows teams to focus on strategic guidance rather than manual operations. For publishers without large technical resources these efficiencies create a real competitive advantage.

What Publishers Should Expect From Curation Partners

Before closing the episode I asked Heather what publishers should look for when evaluating partners. She highlighted transparency, performance and flexibility. Partners should explain how segments are curated, who is buying them and what results they drive. They should reflect the strengths of the publisher rather than grouping sites into generic categories. They should use real technology that enhances outcomes rather than relabeling existing inventory.

Looking Ahead: Brand safety in advertising

If there is one message to take from this conversation it is that publishers finally have a pathway forward. With better suitability models, more advanced curation and meaningful AI applications, the industry can move away from outdated systems and toward a model that truly recognizes and rewards quality content. Brand safety in advertising can become a tool that supports publishers, not a barrier that undermines them.

Listen to the Full Episode

For a deeper look at suitability models, curation frameworks, AI adoption and the future of monetization for publishers listen to the full conversation with Heather Carver on The Pub Way Podcast.

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As the digital marketing industry moves beyond the volatility of recent years, one thing is clear: the marketing trends of 2025 set the stage for a much deeper transformation ahead. By 2026, brands and marketers will no longer be optimizing around isolated signals, legacy identifiers, or fragmented channels. Instead, the next era of advertising will be defined by intelligence, adaptability, and a more human understanding of audiences.

Economic pressure, regulatory change, and rapid advances in AI are forcing marketers to rethink how they plan, execute, and measure campaigns. These shifts are not incremental. They signal a fundamental change in how value is created across digital marketing, content marketing, and media activation.

Below, we explore the most important marketing trends shaping 2026 and what they mean for brands planning long-term growth.

Key Takeaways: Marketing Trends

1. Marketing in 2026 moves beyond identity, as declining addressable signals push brands toward privacy-first, contextual, and emotion-driven approaches.
2. Contextual advertising evolves into emotional understanding, enabling marketers to align messages with interest, emotion, and intent rather than demographics.
3. CTV precision comes from content, not households, making contextual targeting essential for reducing waste and improving performance in streaming environments.
4. Agentic AI reshapes how marketing decisions are made, shifting AI from execution support to strategic collaboration across creative, media, and measurement.
5. Regulation accelerates better advertising, rewarding explainable, transparent, and privacy-first models rather than limiting innovation.
6. The future of marketing is more human, combining AI-powered intelligence with a neuro-contextual approach to deliver relevance, efficiency, and long-term growth.
   

From the Marketing Trends of 2025 to a New Advertising Reality

The biggest marketing trends of 2025 were driven by constraints. Marketers faced tightening budgets, growing regulatory complexity, and the accelerating decline of third-party cookies and traditional identity signals. These pressures reshaped priorities across the industry.

Efficiency, automation, and measurable ROI became non-negotiable. At the same time, privacy regulations across Europe and beyond increased the cost and complexity of compliance for adtech platforms, agencies, and brands alike. Consolidation accelerated, as larger players acquired data and technology companies to gain scale, simplify operations, and control more of the marketing stack.

These trends in marketing exposed a deeper issue. Many of the systems advertisers relied on were no longer fit for purpose. Reach and impressions alone could not justify investment. What mattered was outcome, relevance, and the ability to adapt quickly in an increasingly complex ecosystem.

By 2026, those pressures will converge into a clear demand for smarter, more resilient marketing strategies.

The Biggest Marketing Trend: The Collapse of Traditional Addressability

One of the most significant advertising trends heading into 2026 is the erosion of addressable signals. Third-party cookies, household IDs, and IP-based targeting are no longer able to deliver reliable scale or accuracy, especially across premium environments like streaming and connected TV.

This shift is not just regulatory. It is structural. Signals designed to approximate people through devices or households were always inaccurate. As restrictions increase and signal quality declines, marketers are being forced to confront a new reality. Identity-based targeting cannot sustain the next phase of digital marketing.

As a result, brands are moving toward privacy-first alternatives that do not rely on personal data. First-party data, contextual signals, and consent-driven systems are becoming central to modern marketing strategy. Ownership and control of data infrastructure are now strategic advantages, not technical considerations.

For marketers planning for 2026, the question is no longer how to preserve legacy identifiers, but how to replace them with approaches that are durable, compliant, and effective in the long term.

Contextual Advertising Evolves Into Emotional Understanding

Among current marketing trends, contextual advertising is undergoing one of the most important transformations. Once viewed as a category-based or keyword-driven tactic, contextual targeting is evolving into a far more sophisticated approach, one that understands interest, emotion, and intent. It’s what we call here at Seedtag as the neuro-contextual approach.

Advances in AI now allow platforms to analyze content holistically, across text, visuals, video, and audio. By 2026, this capability will expand further, enabling marketers to decode how people feel as they engage with content, not just what they consume.

This emotional layer changes how audiences are understood. Instead of relying on demographic or behavioral proxies, brands can align their messaging with moments of curiosity, excitement, aspiration, or readiness to act. In this model, relevance is driven by context and emotion, not identity.

This evolution positions contextual advertising as both a privacy-first solution and a performance driver. Matching creative to the mood, genre, and narrative of content has been shown to lift attention, recall, and brand favorability. This makes it one of the most powerful digital marketing trends heading into 2026.

Learn More

1. How Neuromarketing Is Redefining Ad Relevance Today
2. What’s Powering Travel Marketing in 2026
3. AI Agent Platforms and the Future of Agentic Commerce: Insights for Marketers
   
   

CTV and Video Content: From Household Targeting to True Precision

Video content remains central to top marketing strategies, but one of the most misunderstood advertising trends is the role of connected TV. Despite growing investment, CTV is still often treated as a person-level medium, when in reality most signals are aggregated at the household level.

This creates inefficiency. In a single home, viewers may have entirely different preferences, viewing habits, and interests. Targeting the household alone risks delivering impressions to the wrong viewer at the right time.

Contextual intelligence changes that equation. By targeting the content itself, rather than the household, marketers can reach viewers based on what they are watching in the moment. Sports fans, reality TV viewers, news audiences, and children’s programming viewers can each be addressed with relevance and precision.

As ad-supported streaming tiers expand, more households become accessible to advertisers. At the same time, years of investment in programmatic infrastructure are making CTV more transparent, more addressable, and more comparable to other digital channels.

In this environment, contextual CTV emerges as one of the most effective ways to extend reach, reduce waste, and improve performance across video advertising.

How Agentic AI Will Influence Marketing Trends in 2026

Perhaps the most transformative adtech trend for 2026 is the rise of agentic AI. While AI-powered tools have already improved optimization and efficiency, the next phase goes much further. AI agents will move from assisting marketers to actively executing and orchestrating strategy.

Instead of manually managing workflows, marketers will collaborate with intelligent agents capable of analyzing massive data sets, building audience frameworks, optimizing media in real time, and recommending next steps proactively. These agents will operate across creative generation, campaign execution, and measurement, reducing complexity while increasing speed and precision.

This shift fundamentally changes how marketing teams work. Strategy becomes conversational. Optimization becomes predictive. Decision-making moves from reactive to anticipatory.

In this new model, human creativity and machine intelligence work together. Marketers focus on vision, storytelling, and brand direction, while AI agents handle scale, adaptation, and execution. By 2026, this collaboration will define how high-quality digital marketing operates across channels.

Regulation as a Catalyst for Better Marketing

Regulation continues to shape digital marketing industry trends, but its role is evolving. Policies such as the EU AI Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the Digital Services Act are raising standards around transparency, explainability, and accountability, particularly for generative AI and automated systems.

While some adtech models struggle under these requirements, platforms built on explainable AI and privacy-first principles are better positioned to adapt. Mandatory labeling of AI-generated content, documentation of models, and clearer data practices will push the industry toward higher quality and greater trust.

For brands, this shift reinforces the importance of choosing partners that can operate responsibly at scale. In 2026, regulatory resilience becomes a competitive advantage, not just a compliance exercise.

Major Moments and Smarter Media Planning in 2026

Global events such as the FIFA World Cup, major elections, and large-scale sporting competitions will continue to drive spikes in attention. However, one of the emerging marketing trends is how brands activate around these moments.

Rather than competing solely for expensive sponsorships, marketers can use AI-powered neuro-contextual insights to identify adjacent content that attracts similarly engaged audiences. This approach allows brands to capture attention in relevant environments at a fraction of the cost, extending impact beyond the event itself.

For 2026 brands planning long-term strategies, this represents a smarter way to balance scale, efficiency, and relevance across media investments.

Looking Ahead: The Most Human Era of Marketing

The defining marketing trends of 2026 point toward a more intelligent, more adaptive, and more human advertising ecosystem. As traditional identifiers fade and complexity increases, success will depend on understanding people through context, interest, emotion, and intent, rather than outdated demographics.

Agentic AI, privacy-first design, and neuro-contextual intelligence are not separate trends. Together, they form the foundation of a new marketing strategy built for resilience and growth. Brands that embrace these shifts will be better equipped to create meaningful connections, deliver measurable outcomes, and navigate the digital marketing landscape for years to come.

2026 marks the beginning of advertising’s most transformative era: one where understanding feelings becomes the key to understanding audiences.

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Digital advertising is entering a period of transformation. After years of optimizing for automation, reach, and performance metrics, the industry faces a challenging limitation. Efficient delivery does not guarantee meaningful engagement, and the signals that once guided traditional marketing and targeting are fading because of changes in consumer behavior and privacy regulations.

Our new neuroscience research, conducted with Prof. Moran Cerf of Columbia University, shows that the way people respond to advertising is shaped by the emotional and cognitive state activated by the content they consume in the moment. The results demonstrate that when an ad appears in an environment that aligns with a person’s interest, emotional tone, and intent, the brain produces stronger attention, emotional response, and neural activity.

Neuromarketing, also known as consumer neuroscience, offers a deeper understanding of these reactions. As a discipline, it uses neuromarketing techniques such as eye tracking, heart rate monitoring, pupil dilation, facial coding, brain scans, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure brain activity to observe emotional reaction and attention. These methods reveal signals that traditional market research or focus groups cannot capture because they measure reactions that occur before conscious awareness.

Even with this strength, traditional neuromarketing usually examines the ad in isolation. It asks how a person responds to a specific creative asset. What it does not fully examine is the environment that shapes the emotional and cognitive state a person brings into the moment. People switch between devices, topics, and formats throughout the day. Their intentions, motivations, and emotions shift as they engage with different types of content. The moment before the ad appears plays a major role in determining how the brain receives it.

Using EEG brainwave technology, our neuroscience study measured how people responded to ads placed within different types of content environments. Participants viewed non-contextual ads, standard IAB contextual ads, and Neuro-Contextual ads while neural responses were recorded.

Our research found that Neuro-Contextual Advertising generates significantly stronger neural responses when it aligns with the interest, emotion, and intent expressed in the surrounding content. This insight reflects a core principle of neuromarketing and supports the neuromarketing definition that emphasizes how emotional engagement and attention shape consumer decisions.

Neuro-Contextual Advertising builds on this foundation. Neuromarketing explains how the brain reacts, while Neuro-Contextual Advertising identifies where those reactions can be amplified. It connects neuroscience with the role of AI to interpret the meaning of the content people choose to engage with. This includes the emotional tone, cognitive load, and motivational state reflected in that content. These insights support media planning decisions that reveal how people naturally think and feel.

1. A New Perspective on Neuromarketing
2. How Neuro-Contextual Advertising Works
3. Deep dive into the Research
4. What Brands Can Learn From the Study
   
   

Neuromarketing Highlights

• Advertising becomes more effective when it aligns with the interest, emotional tone, and intent expressed in the surrounding content.
• Neuro-Contextual Ads produce significantly stronger neural engagement, reaching up to 3.5x higher than non-contextual ads.
• Neuro-contextual ads offer 26% stronger emotional response than standard contextual ads.
• Mobile environments intensify attention and emotional resonance, which makes neuro-contextual alignment even more impactful on mobile devices.
• The strongest predictors of relevance come from Neuro-Contextual signals rather than identity-based data, supporting a more human and privacy-safe approach to advertising.

A New Perspective on Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing helps advertisers understand how people react to ads by measuring emotional response, attention, and cognitive load. The emotional state and motivation of the user are shaped by the content they choose to watch or read. These factors influence how open the brain is to the advertising that follows.

When an ad appears in an environment that matches their mindset, the brain responds more positively, processing becomes easier, emotional response increases, attention increases, and the ad feels more natural and less disruptive. This broadens the role of neuromarketing. Instead of evaluating only the creative, it now includes the context that surrounds it.

This shift also reflects the rise of AI in media planning. To capture real consumer behavior, neuromarketing must consider both the ad and the environment framing it. Neuro-Contextual Advertising brings these two elements together and creates a more human understanding of relevance.

How Neuro-Contextual Advertising Works

Neuro-Contextual Advertising aligns ads with the interest, emotion, and intent expressed by the surrounding content of an article or video. It reflects how the brain processes content in real time. This approach goes beyond traditional contextual advertising, which matches ads to topics or keywords. Instead, Neuro-Contextual Advertising takes into account emotional tone and intentions, which influence how open the brain is to receiving information.

People bring an emotional and motivational state into every moment of digital consumption. Some content evokes curiosity. Some build trust. Some sparks excitement. Some demand deeper cognitive effort. These states influence how receptive the brain is to new messages.

Our research shows that when ads align with these cues, the brain processes the message with less effort. Relevance becomes a function of the moment itself. AI supports this alignment by interpreting signals found directly in the content instead of relying on identity-based data. This protects privacy while supporting a more human understanding of attention and emotion. This is where the broader AI revolution is reshaping the planning phase for advertising.

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Learn more about Neuro-Contextual

1. How is Neuroscience Transforming the Digital Advertising Landscape
2. Neuro-Contextual Advertising: Winning Audiences Through Interests, Emotions and Intentions
   
3. Neuro-Contextual Advertising: From Industry Innovation to eMarketer’s Number One Trend
   
   

Deep dive into the Research

Three core signals were measured by using EEG brainwave technology: attention, emotional resonance, and neural engagement. Together, these indicators reveal how receptive and emotionally open people become when viewing different types of advertising.

Participants viewed non-contextual ads, standard IAB contextual ads, and neuro-contextual ads while their neural responses were analyzed. The results were clear:

Neuro-Contextual placements generated up to 3.5x higher neural engagement compared with non-contextual ads. This is meaningful because Cross-Brain Correlation is closely associated with memory formation and collective emotional processing.

The study also found a 26% stronger emotional response than standard contextual ads. This was shown through brain left side frontal activity linked to approach motivation. Signals related to trust, excitement, and approval appeared more strongly when the ad aligned with the emotional tone of the content.

Mobile environments amplified these effects. The research revealed that mobile consumption intensified both attention and emotional resonance, likely because mobile is a more personal and immersive setting. Across all indicators, the brain favored the moment that felt most coherent.

What Brands Can Learn From the Study

To build relevance, brands should consider how emotional tone, intention, and cognitive processing influence the moment in which an ad appears. When planning reflects these human signals, advertising becomes more intuitive and easier for the brain to receive.

AI systems that interpret interest, emotion, and intent without using personal data become valuable tools in this process. They help brands align with the mindset of the moment instead of the identity of the user. This reflects the brain’s natural processing style and supports a more privacy-safe understanding of relevance.

Liz, our proprietary neuro-contextual AI, interprets deeper signals of interest, emotion, and intent within content. This supports a more intuitive, privacy-first, and human-centered approach and reflects the promise of Artificial Intelligence Advertising for more human understanding.

If you want to explore the complete findings, including the full methodology and EEG framework, download the full research report here:

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