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Most brands still treat a cultural moment like a single event. A topic trends, a campaign gets built around the headline, and by the time it launches, the conversation has already moved on.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding is a perfect example, not because of the ceremony itself, but because of everything that happened around it. Long before any official details were confirmed, the internet had already transformed it into dozens of interconnected conversations spanning fashion, sports, celebrity media, luxury, and fandom.
That gap between how brands plan and how culture actually moves is one of the most overlooked trends in advertising today.
To better understand it, Seedtag’s LAB Insights team mapped the online conversation using Liz, our proprietary Neuro-Contextual AI. What emerged went far beyond one couple or one weekend. It revealed how cultural moments evolve across connected interests, emotions, and intent, and why real-time marketing built around a single keyword rarely captures the full opportunity.
The timing couldn't be more relevant. As brands continue to invest in video ads, generative AI, and short-form content, the race to respond to cultural moments is only accelerating. But speed alone doesn't solve the core challenge. Most campaigns built around viral moments still capture only a fraction of the conversation because they're not designed to follow where attention actually goes.
Key Takeaways
- Cultural moments rarely unfold as a single story. They spread across interconnected clusters of interest, emotion, and intent.
- Speculation often generates more sustained engagement than the confirmed event itself, making anticipation a marketing opportunity in its own right.
- Audiences move fluidly between fashion, sports, entertainment, and lifestyle, while many marketing strategies still treat these as separate categories.
- Brand mentions and fashion signals emerge early, creating valuable windows for brand recognition long before mainstream coverage catches up.
- Understanding conversations at the cluster level, rather than the headline level, turns viral moments into smarter, data-driven marketing strategies.
What Hidden Advertising Trends Do Brands Miss When a Cultural Moment Goes Viral?
Most marketing teams still approach cultural moments as a single spike in attention. A story breaks, interest rises, then fades, and campaigns are built to capture that one wave.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding shows why that model leaves value on the table.
Using Liz, we identified more than 2,160 topic nodes grouped into seven distinct contextual clusters. This wasn't one conversation. It was seven overlapping narratives, each with its own audience, emotional tone, and commercial relevance.
Two of those clusters, Swiftie Speculations and Entertainment Press, each represented roughly 30% of the entire graph. Long before the ceremony took place, conversations around celebrity NDAs, venue rumors, family connections, and media speculation were already driving enormous engagement.
The biggest marketing opportunity isn't the cultural moment itself. It's everything happening before, around, and beyond it.
The build-up consistently attracts more sustained attention than the event itself, and it expands across categories that have little to do with the obvious topic. A wedding quickly becomes a conversation about fashion, sports, music, luxury, celebrity media, and fandom, each creating its own emotional context and commercial opportunity.
Why Do Traditional Marketers Fail to Catch Emerging Advertising Trends Related to Internet Subcultures?
One of today's fastest-moving advertising trends is the growing influence of internet subcultures on mainstream conversations. Yet traditional marketing strategy still plans around categories like sports, entertainment, and fashion as if audiences move between them in predictable ways.
They don't. Internet communities connect topics organically, creating conversations that cross industries, audiences, and platforms.
Swifties are a perfect example.
Throughout the weeks leading up to the wedding, fans treated every rumor, clue, and unconfirmed detail as meaningful. Liz's contextual graph surfaced clusters filled with themes like superfans, theories, itineraries, and speculation, sitting alongside entertainment journalism and celebrity news coverage.
The conversation wasn't driven by confirmed information. It was driven by curiosity.
Brands focused exclusively on official news coverage would have missed where engagement was actually happening.
A second cluster told a parallel story.
Taylor Swift's music career and Travis Kelce's NFL season evolved side by side, connecting music, sports, celebrity culture, and personal relationships into a single narrative. Rather than one audience absorbing the other, two powerful communities expanded the conversation together.
For marketers, that's the real lesson. Consumer behavior doesn't follow category boundaries. It follows relevance.
Understanding those connections requires data-driven marketing strategies capable of following conversations as they evolve, rather than waiting for headlines to define them.
One Moment, Many Conversations
This is where many marketing strategies fall short.
Marketers often build campaigns around the trending keyword, assuming audiences experience culture through a single topic.
They don't.
People move naturally between interests, emotions, and intent, following whichever thread feels most relevant in the moment.
Fashion became one of the earliest signals in this example.
Before most official details emerged, guest photos, designer speculation, and luxury brand mentions had already formed one of the densest contextual clusters within Liz's graph.
Dior quickly became associated with the wedding dress, while Artifex attracted attention for the engagement ring. Rather than supporting the main story, these brands became part of it, generating their own conversations driven by admiration, aspiration, and curiosity.
This is real-time marketing at its best.
Fashion isn't simply an extension of a cultural moment. It's often one of the first places where brand recognition accelerates because audiences are already emotionally invested.
Secrecy became another conversation entirely.
Once speculation focused on Madison Square Garden, discussions around guest lists, venue security, the 34th Street shutdown, and celebrity NDAs exploded across media and social platforms.
Much of the engagement wasn't fueled by confirmed information. It was fueled by anticipation.
That anticipation spread especially well through short-form video, where audiences actively searched for updates, theories, and behind-the-scenes clues rather than polished explanations.
More importantly, it demonstrates a broader advertising trend.
People don't wait for the headline. They engage with everything leading up to it.
Why Marketers Miss These Connected Conversations
Traditional media planning still tends to organize campaigns by category. Sports content is bought as sports. Entertainment is bought as entertainment. Fashion is treated as its own world.
But audiences don't experience culture that way.
They move seamlessly between conversations, following the stories, emotions, and communities that matter most to them.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding showed exactly that.
Swifties didn't simply overlap with NFL fans. Together, they created an entirely new conversation that neither audience could have generated alone. Music, sports, celebrity culture, and lifestyle became part of the same cultural moment, creating fresh opportunities for brands that understood how those interests connected.
The emotional signals driving that conversation were equally revealing.
Admiration, anticipation, excitement, and joy weren't attached to one topic. They flowed naturally across multiple contextual clusters as audiences followed every new development.
That's why campaigns built around a single category often miss the moment when engagement is at its highest.
Audience intent doesn't follow media plans. It follows connected conversations.
And understanding those conversations is becoming one of the defining advertising trends shaping modern marketing strategy.
The Marketing Lesson: Understanding Before Reacting
Reacting quickly to a cultural moment is no longer enough.
The real advantage comes from understanding how that moment evolves before, during, and after it captures mainstream attention.
This is where Neuro-Contextual Intelligence changes the equation.
Rather than relying on personal data or assumptions about who audiences are, our Neuro-Contextual AI, Liz, interprets signals of interest, emotion, and intent directly from the content people are engaging with across the open web.
Applied to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding, Liz identified more than 2,160 topic nodes connected across seven contextual clusters, revealing not just where attention existed, but how it moved between fashion, sports, entertainment, luxury, fandom, and celebrity media.
Instead of reducing the event to a single headline or keyword, the graph exposed an ecosystem of interconnected conversations.
That's the principle behind Neuro-Contextual Advertising.
Rather than treating a cultural moment as a single media opportunity, it enables brands to understand the wider context surrounding it, helping them align with the emotions, interests, and intent driving engagement in real time.
Because understanding audiences means understanding how conversations evolve, not simply what they're talking about at any given moment.
What This Means for Marketing Strategy
The pace of digital culture continues to accelerate.
Marketers are investing more in generative AI, content creation, short-form video, and social media campaigns to respond faster to emerging trends. Those investments matter.
But speed alone isn't enough.
The brands that create meaningful connections won't necessarily be the ones publishing first.
They'll be the ones who understand where attention is moving before everyone else does.
That requires looking beyond headlines and trending keywords to see the broader patterns shaping consumer behavior.
Cultural moments don't belong to a single audience, a single platform, or a single category.
They're built from dozens of interconnected conversations unfolding simultaneously across the open web.
Understanding those connections is quickly becoming one of the most important competitive advantages in modern marketing.
The Advertising Trend That Actually Matters
The next defining cultural moment won't belong to the brands that react the fastest. It'll belong to the brands that understand how conversations spread.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding is simply one example.
Tomorrow's defining moment could be the Super Bowl, the Oscars, a World Cup final, or an unexpected viral trend. The event will change, but the pattern won't.
Cultural moments don't unfold through a single conversation. They spread across interconnected interests, emotions, and behaviors.
For marketers, that's the advertising trend that matters most. The brands that learn to understand those connections won't just keep up with culture. They'll be ready to move with it.
The FIFA World Cup 2026 will generate an unprecedented volume of attention across digital media. For automotive brands, that scale creates enormous opportunity but also a significant challenge: standing out in an environment where every advertiser competes for the same audience.
The difference between visibility and impact comes down to understanding intent. Not every football fan is equally receptive to a brand message, and not every page view signals genuine engagement.
During major sporting events, audiences move between match coverage, transfer rumors, national team narratives, player stories, entertainment content, and countless adjacent interests. Within those moments lie valuable signals that can help brands identify when consumers are most open to engagement.
The question is no longer how to reach World Cup audiences. It is about identifying the moments when attention becomes meaningful engagement.
Below, we explore the audience insights shaping fan behavior during the tournament and how automotive brands can use Neuro-Contextual advertising to transform World Cup attention into meaningful consideration.
Key Takeaways
- The difference between a browser and an engaged consumer often lies in intent signals, not audience segments.
- World Cup audiences engage with far more than football, creating valuable opportunities across adjacent interests and passion points.
- Emotions such as excitement, curiosity, admiration, and optimism play a key role in how fans engage with content throughout the tournament.
- Neuro-Contextual advertising goes beyond keywords and categories to align messaging with interests, emotions, and intent.
- Dynamic creative optimization allows automotive campaigns to adapt in real time around tournament moments, audience context, and sentiment.
The Gap Between Looking and Engaging
Scale is not the challenge. During a World Cup, automotive brands can reach millions of consumers across the open web, connected TV, and streaming environments.
The challenge is identifying the difference between someone casually consuming content and someone demonstrating signals of genuine engagement.
Traditional targeting approaches often rely on keywords, categories, or broad audience segments. A page mentions "SUVs" or "electric vehicles," and an ad is served. While these signals can provide relevance, they do not always reveal what matters most: what the consumer is thinking, feeling, or looking for in that moment.
A reader exploring vehicle reviews out of curiosity may require a very different message from someone actively comparing models ahead of a purchase. Understanding that distinction helps brands move beyond simple reach and toward meaningful engagement.
Where Fan Attention Really Goes
One of the biggest misconceptions about the World Cup is that fans spend the tournament focused exclusively on football.
In reality, audience attention extends across a much broader ecosystem of content.
Audience interest also evolves throughout the tournament. Our insights show that engagement increases significantly during key moments such as the group stage, quarter-finals, and high-tension knockout rounds. Importantly, some of the largest spikes are driven not only by match results but also by player narratives, rivalries, and stories surrounding the competition.
Football-related interests such as domestic leagues, transfer rumors, national team stories, and club rivalries remain major drivers of engagement. But fans also spend time consuming content connected to celebrity culture, motorsports, entertainment, lifestyle topics, and national identity narratives.
These adjacent interests are not distractions from football fandom. They are part of how fans experience the tournament.
For automotive marketers, this creates additional opportunities to connect with audiences in contexts that may be less crowded than traditional sports environments while still maintaining strong relevance to fan interests.
Understanding these passion points allows brands to expand beyond match-day targeting and build a more comprehensive view of where their audiences spend time and attention.
The Emotional Signals Behind Engagement
The World Cup is not only a media event. It is an emotional one.
Across markets, football content generates a range of emotional responses, including excitement, curiosity, admiration, optimism, and even sadness. These emotions shift throughout the tournament as audiences react to victories, defeats, player performances, speculation, and national narratives.
While excitement consistently emerges as one of the strongest drivers of engagement, emotional responses vary across markets. Some audiences gravitate toward stories of national pride and sporting heroes, while others engage more deeply with tournament speculation, player narratives, or broader cultural conversations surrounding the event. Understanding these nuances can help brands deliver more relevant messaging throughout the competition.
For automotive brands, these signals offer valuable context. The emotions that shape engagement during the tournament can also influence how consumers respond to brand messaging, particularly in categories where consideration and aspiration play an important role.
Many vehicle purchase journeys are influenced by emotional factors alongside practical considerations. Curiosity about new technology, optimism about future ownership, excitement around a new model, and aspiration tied to lifestyle choices all play a role in consideration.
When brands understand the emotional context surrounding content consumption, they can align messaging more effectively with the consumer's interests, emotions, and intent in that moment.
How the Neuro-Contextual Approach Changes Automotive Marketing
Industry-standard targeting often relies on predefined content taxonomies and broad category classifications. Neuro-contextual approaches take a different path by analyzing content more deeply to understand interests, emotions, and intent signals in real time.
The difference between targeting a broad automotive category and identifying audiences such as Family Upgraders, First-Time Car Buyers, Urban Drivers, or Off-Road Adventure Enthusiasts is significant.
Rather than focusing solely on what content someone is consuming, Neuro-Contextual intelligence helps brands understand why that content matters to them.
For automotive marketers, this means identifying environments where signals of curiosity, optimism, excitement, and consideration are already present and aligning messaging accordingly.
The goal is not simply to be present. It is to be relevant.
Dynamic Creative That Moves With the Tournament
The World Cup unfolds in phases, and audience behavior evolves with it.
Interest levels rise during key matches, emotional intensity increases during knockout rounds, and fan conversations shift as new narratives emerge.
The content driving engagement during the group stage may be very different from the stories capturing attention during the quarter-finals or final, making flexibility a critical advantage for advertisers.
Creative should evolve alongside those changes.
Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) allows campaigns to adapt messaging based on factors such as tournament stage, location, time of day, weather conditions, and emotional sentiment.
A message delivered during a high-tension quarter-final may require a different creative approach than one served during the group stage. Likewise, audiences engaging with family-focused content may respond differently than audiences consuming performance or technology-related content.
By aligning creative with context, brands can create more relevant experiences throughout the tournament.
Measuring What Actually Matters
Clicks and viewability remain useful metrics, but they do not tell the full story.
For automotive brands operating within long and consideration-heavy purchase journeys, understanding campaign impact requires a broader measurement framework.
Attention metrics help reveal whether advertising was genuinely processed by consumers. Brand lift studies can demonstrate shifts in awareness, perception, and consideration. Incremental reach helps determine whether campaigns are connecting with new audiences rather than repeatedly reaching the same users.
Together, these measurements provide a clearer view of how campaigns influence consumer behavior throughout the World Cup journey.
From Research to the Road
The FIFA World Cup 2026 presents a unique convergence of attention, emotion, and engagement.
Success will not belong solely to the brands with the largest budgets or the widest reach. It will belong to those who understand where fan attention is going, what emotions are driving engagement, and how to identify moments of genuine intent.
Traditional research helps identify the audience. Neuro-contextual intelligence helps identify the moment.
And during the world's biggest sporting event, that difference can determine whether a campaign is simply seen or truly remembered.
To learn more about the audience insights, emotional signals, and activation opportunities shaping FIFA World Cup 2026 campaigns, download the full Automotive Insights report.
Every year, the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity offers a glimpse into where advertising is heading next. But in 2025, the conversations across the Croisette felt especially revealing.
At the heart of Cannes Lions 2025 was a growing realization that the future of advertising will depend less on identifying audiences and more on understanding people. Across beachfront stages, private dinners, podcast studios, and conversations inside the Palais des Festivals, the industry repeatedly returned to the same challenge: how can brands create more relevant experiences in an increasingly fragmented, AI-driven media landscape?
For Seedtag, Cannes 2025 became an important moment to help shape that conversation.
Throughout the week, Seedtag explored how Neuro-Contextual Advertising is redefining the relationship between media, creativity, and human understanding. From discussions around AI and emotional relevance to debates about journalism, contextual intelligence, and audience mindset, the company’s presence reflected a broader industry shift already reshaping modern advertising.
And now, as the industry prepares for another year in Cannes, France, those conversations are evolving even further.
Key Takeaways
- The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity highlighted the industry’s move from audience profiling toward deeper human understanding.
- Cannes Lions 2025 conversations focused heavily on AI, contextual relevance, emotional engagement, and privacy-first advertising.
- Seedtag’s Neuro-Contextual approach emerged as part of a broader industry shift toward understanding interest, emotion, and intent.
- Creativity, media, and data became increasingly interconnected across the Cannes Lions International Festival.
- New discussions heading into Cannes 2026 are expanding beyond targeting and toward adaptive, human-aware advertising experiences.
What Cannes Lions 2025 Revealed About Advertising
The International Festival of Creativity has always reflected the priorities of the advertising industry. In 2025, those priorities shifted noticeably.
Artificial intelligence dominated discussions across nearly every stage and meeting space. But while AI remained central, the industry conversation matured significantly compared to previous years. The focus was no longer simply on automation or content generation. Instead, marketers increasingly questioned how technology can help advertising become more meaningful, more adaptive, and more emotionally aligned with people.
That tension defined much of Cannes Lions 2025.
Consumers today move fluidly between streaming platforms, creator ecosystems, social content, sports, commerce, and live cultural moments. Attention is fragmented, audience behavior changes constantly, and traditional identity-based targeting models are becoming less effective in a privacy-first world.
As a result, the industry is beginning to rethink what relevance actually means.
For us at Seedtag, that conversation connected directly to Neuro-Contextual Advertising. Rather than relying on static audience profiles or demographic assumptions, our approach focuses on understanding real-time signals of interest, emotion, and intent across the open web and premium media environments.
The idea is simple: people are more than profiles.
And increasingly, the advertising industry is starting to agree.
From Profiles to Passions
One of the defining conversations during Cannes 2025 centered on the limitations of traditional targeting.
For years, digital advertising has relied heavily on demographic segmentation and behavioral assumptions. But across the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, industry leaders repeatedly discussed the need to move beyond identity alone and focus more deeply on audience mindset, context, and motivation.
We explored this shift directly during the live crossover episode of AdTech Heroes x The Pub Way, hosted at The Drum’s podcast studio.
The conversation brought together leaders from across media, creative, and advertising to discuss how brands can better engage audiences through real-time understanding rather than static assumptions.
A recurring theme emerged quickly: marketers have spent years trying to understand who consumers are, while paying far less attention to why they engage in the first place.
That distinction matters.
People are shaped by passions, interests, emotions, and cultural moments that evolve continuously. Someone watching sports content during a major tournament may not respond to messaging the same way they would while reading financial news or consuming entertainment content later in the day.
Context changes mindset.
This idea became central to many discussions throughout the Cannes Lions International Festival. Relevance is no longer about reaching the right demographic. It is about understanding the emotional and cognitive environment surrounding attention itself.
AI Became About Understanding, Not Just Automation
AI remained one of the dominant themes across Cannes, France, but the industry conversation evolved significantly compared to previous years.
Earlier conversations around AI often focused on speed, scale, and automation. At Cannes Lions 2025, the emphasis shifted toward intelligence, adaptability, and human understanding.
Marketers are now asking more complex questions. How can AI help interpret the audience mindset? How can it improve contextual relevance? How can it support creativity without reducing advertising to generic automation?
These discussions appeared repeatedly across panels, roundtables, and private conversations.
Our perspective centered on the idea that AI should not simply optimize delivery. It should help brands better understand the moments in which people engage with content.
This is where Neuro-Contextual Advertising becomes increasingly relevant.
By combining neuroscience principles with AI-powered contextual understanding, Liz, our Neuo-Contextual AI, is designed to interpret signals of interest, emotion, and intent in real time. The goal is not to identify individuals, but to understand the meaning surrounding the moment itself.
That approach reflects a larger shift happening across the industry.
Advertising is moving away from static targeting systems and toward adaptive environments capable of responding dynamically to changing emotional and contextual signals.
Creativity and Context Are Becoming Reconnected
Another major theme across the Palais des Festivals was the growing relationship between creativity and contextual relevance.
For years, programmatic advertising has often separated creative storytelling from media strategy. But at Cannes Lions 2025, many industry leaders argued that creativity can no longer function independently from context and audience understanding.
As media environments become increasingly fragmented, brands face growing pressure to create campaigns that feel synchronized with the emotional tone surrounding the content experience.
This is especially important across premium video, streaming, and creator-driven ecosystems where audiences expect advertising to feel more integrated and less disruptive.
Throughout the week, conversations increasingly focused on how creative effectiveness improves when messaging aligns with the real-time audience mindset.
That shift is transforming how marketers think about personalization itself.
Rather than personalizing around identity, advertisers are beginning to personalize around context, emotion, and intent.
This idea also appeared in conversations surrounding contextual TV, curated supply, and premium media environments. Brands are looking for advertising experiences that feel more thoughtful, more emotionally aware, and more aligned with the content moments consumers actively choose to engage with.
Journalism, Trust, and Smarter Contextual Understanding
Beyond AI and creativity, Cannes Lions 2025 also highlighted growing industry concerns around journalism, trust, and responsible monetization.
We participated in discussions exploring how rigid keyword blocklists and simplistic brand safety systems can unintentionally harm quality journalism.
This became an important conversation across the International Festival of Creativity because advertisers increasingly recognize that brand safety cannot rely exclusively on broad exclusions or outdated contextual assumptions.
High-quality journalism covering politics, climate, economics, or global conflict often becomes demonetized despite offering trusted, premium environments for advertisers.
That creates a difficult contradiction for the media ecosystem.
The solution discussed throughout Cannes 2025 was not abandoning brand safety altogether, but evolving toward more intelligent contextual systems capable of understanding nuance, tone, and meaning more effectively.
This conversation reinforced one of the industry’s broader shifts: context is becoming more sophisticated.
Modern contextual understanding is no longer limited to keywords alone. It increasingly depends on a deeper interpretation of emotional tone, audience mindset, and environmental relevance.
Looking Ahead to Cannes Lions 2026
As the industry prepares for the next Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, many of the conversations that defined 2025 are continuing to evolve.
This year, we will expand those discussions further at La Perle, our Cannes space designed for meetings, collaborative sessions, workshops, and thought leadership conversations.
The upcoming agenda reflects many of the themes that emerged throughout Cannes Lions 2025.
Sessions such as “The End of Guesswork: How to Reach Consumers Who Are Actually Ready to Listen” will explore how advertisers can move beyond stale targeting proxies and align campaigns with real-time emotion, interest, and intent.
Other conversations will focus on curated supply, contextual TV, AI and creativity, neuroscience, media responsibility, and human-centered advertising experiences.
We will also introduce experiential activations such as the “Scent of Context” lab, an immersive workshop designed to explore how emotion, memory, and sensory environments shape contextual understanding.
Together, these experiences reflect a broader evolution happening across advertising itself.
The industry is no longer asking only how to target people more efficiently. It is asking how to better understand the emotional and cognitive moments that shape attention.
From Profiles to Human Understanding
Looking back, Cannes Lions 2025 represented more than another industry gathering. It reflected a meaningful turning point in how advertising thinks about relevance.
AI became more mature. Context became more intelligent. Creativity became more connected to audience's mindset. And marketers increasingly recognized that understanding people requires more than data points alone.
For us at Seedtag, those conversations continue shaping the future of Neuro-Contextual Advertising.
Because the future of advertising will not belong to the brands that know the most about consumers. It will belong to the brands that understand the moment best.
And increasingly, that future is becoming more human-aware.
Every four years, the FIFA World Cup becomes more than a sporting event. It becomes a global cultural ecosystem where passion, identity, emotion, and attention collide in real time.
For sports brands, that creates an enormous opportunity, but also a challenge.
Because in 2026, the best sports marketing strategies will not be defined by visibility alone. They will be defined by the ability to understand how sports fans think, feel, and engage throughout the tournament.
During the World Cup, sports fans do not engage with football in isolation. They move between transfer rumors, national team pride, multisport interests, player storylines, jersey culture, and live match moments that evolve by the hour.
In the UK alone, more than 90% of World Cup-related engagement connects directly to football content, while adjacent passions, including celebrity culture, Formula 1, boxing, and cricket, continue shaping how fans experience the tournament.
That shift is transforming how sports marketing campaigns are planned.
To better understand these evolving fan behaviors, Liz, our Neuro-Contextual AI, analyzed World Cup and football-related media consumption across key markets, uncovering the emotional signals, passion points, and engagement patterns shaping fan engagement during the tournament.
The findings reveal something important: World Cup advertising is no longer about chasing audiences. It is about understanding the moments that move them.
Key Takeaways
- The best sports marketing strategies during the World Cup are built around emotion, timing, and contextual relevance
- Football-related content drives 90.6% of World Cup topic engagement in the UK, while adjacent cultural interests create additional engagement opportunities
- Peak fan attention occurs during knockout rounds and emotionally intense moments, not only during the final
- Excitement is the strongest emotional driver of World Cup engagement, especially in the UK and France
- Sports marketing trends increasingly rely on understanding interest, emotion, and intent rather than static demographic targeting
- Real-time creative optimization and contextual alignment help sports brands create engaging campaigns during live sporting moments
Why the World Cup Is Reshaping Sports Marketing Strategies
The FIFA World Cup has always delivered massive scale. Few sports events rival its global reach, emotional intensity, or cultural relevance.
But scale alone no longer guarantees impact.
Today’s sports fans consume the tournament across a much broader ecosystem of content and conversation. They follow player narratives long before kickoff and continue engaging long after the final whistle. Transfer rumors, team selection debates, jersey launches, multisport interests, and celebrity storylines all become part of how fans experience the tournament.
This creates a far more dynamic attention landscape for brands.
Instead of relying on broad reach or static audience profiles, sports marketing strategies now require a deeper understanding of how attention evolves throughout the tournament.
The World Cup has become an environment driven by moments. Moments of anticipation. Moments of pride. Moments of tension. Moments of celebration. Moments of curiosity.
The brands that succeed are the ones capable of aligning with those moments while they are happening.
That shift is also changing how the broader sports media ecosystem approaches advertising innovation.
In episode 33 of The PubWay podcast, Scott Young, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Transmit, explained that sports streaming platforms are under growing pressure to rethink how advertising experiences work during live sports. As subscription growth slows and media rights become increasingly fragmented, ad-supported streaming models are becoming central to the future of sports monetization.
But according to Young, sustaining viewer attention is now the real challenge.
Media companies are no longer focused only on inserting more ads. They are looking for ways to create more dynamic, personalized, and conversational advertising experiences that feel integrated into the viewing moment rather than disruptive to it.
That idea sits at the center of modern World Cup advertising.
What Sports Fans Actually Care About During the World Cup
One of the most important findings from our World Cup Sports Goods insights is that fan attention extends far beyond football itself.
In the UK, 90.6% of visits related to World Cup topics directly connect to football content. But even within football, engagement is layered across multiple passion points.
The largest driver of engagement comes from domestic leagues and football giants, representing 68.1% of football-related interest. Fans actively follow club performance, tactical discussions, and league narratives throughout the year.
Transfer market conversations account for another 15.4% of engagement, proving that speculation and player movement remain central to fan behavior even outside active transfer windows.
National pride and legacy discussions generate an additional 7.1% of engagement, especially around qualification journeys and national team performance heading into the tournament.
But the opportunity expands even further when brands look beyond football-only environments.
Connected interests also play a major role in fan engagement. Royal and celebrity connections linked to football personalities generate 4.4% of engagement. Multisport interests, including boxing, Formula 1, and cricket, contribute another 2.6%. WAGs and celebrity culture account for an additional 2.4% of engagement.
This is where some of the best sports marketing strategies emerge.
Rather than limiting campaigns to match-day inventory alone, brands can connect with sports fans across adjacent moments where attention and emotional engagement are already active.
Because during the World Cup, fan identity stretches far beyond the pitch.
How Fan Behavior Changes Across Markets
Another major insight from the report is that sports fans are not homogeneous.
Every market engages with the World Cup differently, with unique passion points shaping how audiences consume content.
In the UK, fans heavily follow domestic leagues, club giants, and transfer rumors, while celebrity culture and multisport interests strongly influence engagement.
In Spain, national team patriotism drives 34% of engagement, alongside growing interest in women’s football and practical viewing solutions.
French audiences gravitate toward domestic football rivalries and multisport content, including rugby, tennis, and golf.
German audiences, meanwhile, remain highly engaged with club routines, qualification updates, and broader football debates.
These differences matter because successful sports marketing campaigns cannot rely on a one-size-fits-all approach.
The World Cup may be global, but passion remains deeply local.
That is why the best sports marketing strategies adapt creative, messaging and contextual alignment to the cultural DNA of each audience.
The Emotional Side of World Cup Advertising
If interest explains what captures attention, emotion explains what drives engagement.
According to our analysis, excitement is the single strongest emotional driver during the World Cup, especially among UK and French audiences.
But emotion during the tournament is far more layered than celebration alone.
Fans also engage through curiosity, admiration, optimism, and even sadness.
Spanish and German audiences show particularly high levels of admiration toward global football stars and club legends. Italian audiences display stronger optimism while also consuming emotionally heavier football stories that drive social conversation.
This emotional diversity changes how sports brands should think about fan engagement.
Brands can no longer depend exclusively on broad contextual categories or keyword targeting. They need to understand how audiences feel within each moment.
That emotional alignment becomes especially powerful during knockout rounds, national team milestones, emotional victories, player comeback stories, jersey launches, and moments of national pride.
When creative reflects emotional context, campaigns feel more natural, more timely, and more relevant.
Scott Young described this shift during The PubWay episode by explaining that the strongest advertising experiences in live sports are the ones that speak to viewers based on what they are actively watching and feeling in that exact moment.
In practice, that could mean dynamically adapting creative around a major winning moment, a dramatic comeback, or a crucial goal.
It is no longer just about serving an ad during a live game. It is about aligning with the emotional energy surrounding it.
When Sports Fans Pay the Most Attention
One of the clearest patterns is how attention intensifies around key tournament stages.
Our analysis of previous football competitions reveals that traffic increased 4.3x during men’s quarterfinals compared to normal days, while women’s tournament traffic increased 3x during quarterfinals.
Live events themselves generate major audience activation spikes. But interestingly, the biggest engagement surges are not always driven by goals or tactics.
Many viral moments center around emotional narratives, celebrity culture, player personal lives, confrontation stories, and behind-the-scenes content.
This changes how sports brands should think about timing.
The best sports marketing strategies are not limited to the final or the biggest live sports moments. They are built around the emotional rhythm of the tournament itself.
That includes pre-match anticipation, qualification tension, transfer speculation, jersey release conversations, national pride, and post-match reactions.
Attention during the World Cup behaves like a wave, not a straight line. And increasingly, advertising innovation is being built around that reality.
Young also explained during the podcast that advertisers are seeing stronger results when contextual timing, emotional relevance, and messaging work together inside live sports environments.
According to the study mentioned in the episode, viewers exposed to integrated in-content ad experiences demonstrated 10x greater message recall compared to traditional ad pod experiences.
When timing and contextual alignment improved, viewers were also 20% more likely to scan and purchase.
That reinforces a growing reality within sports marketing trends: Attention alone is not enough. Relevance is what drives action.
How Sports Brands Should Plan World Cup Advertising Campaigns
So how should sports brands approach World Cup advertising in 2026?
The report points toward a major strategic shift away from static targeting and toward contextual understanding.
Fans no longer engage as broad demographic groups. They engage through interests, emotional identities, and passion ecosystems.
Some audiences follow jersey culture and kit releases. Others engage through multisport interests, football gaming, sports fashion, player admiration, or national identity.
That means sports marketing campaigns need to become more fluid and responsive.
Creative also needs to evolve alongside fan behavior.
That is why creative is becoming more dynamic during live sports moments, adapting in real time based on factors like competition stage, emotion, weather, location, and fan mindset.
The goal is not simply to increase visibility during sports events. It is to create engaging experiences that feel synchronized with the emotions surrounding the moment.
That is especially important in streaming and CTV environments, where sports fans increasingly consume content across connected viewing experiences.
Our report also highlights how contextual TV targeting can combine Open Web intelligence with enriched CTV signals to better align messaging with audience interests and viewing behaviors in real time.
For sports brands, this creates an opportunity to move beyond generic sponsorship visibility and toward more emotionally aware advertising experiences.
Turning Attention Into Advantage With Neuro-Contextual Advertising
At the center of this approach is Liz, our Neuro-Contextual AI.
Rather than relying exclusively on keywords or static contextual categories, Liz analyzes interest, emotion, and intent signals in real time to understand why audiences engage with specific content moments.
For sports brands, this creates a more responsive approach to fan engagement.
Our Sports Goods analysis highlights how brands can identify positive emotional responses, purchase intent signals, national team excitement, jersey demand moments, and emotionally engaged fan segments.
For example, fans actively searching for upcoming national jersey releases represent high-intent engagement moments tied directly to excitement, optimism, and desire.
This allows sports brands to move beyond static targeting and connect with audiences while interest is actively building.
Because in the end, the future of sports marketing strategies is not about reaching the largest possible audience. It is about understanding the moments that matter most.
Where Sports Marketing Goes Next
The FIFA World Cup continues to evolve from a sports tournament into a global attention ecosystem.
That shift is redefining World Cup advertising.
The brands that win during the tournament will not simply be the loudest. They will be the most relevant. The most emotionally aligned. The most contextually aware.
Because modern sports fans do not experience the tournament through a single behavior or a single passion point. They move fluidly between live match moments, transfer speculation, emotional storylines, sports culture, and real-time conversations that shape how the World Cup is experienced across the open web and streaming environments.
Get your Sports Goods Insigts
Align product demand with national team engagement and tournament milestones
Understanding those moments is what transforms visibility into engagement
And increasingly, that is what separates presence from performance in modern sports marketing campaigns.
To explore the full FIFA World Cup 2026 Sports Goods insights deck and uncover deeper fan engagement trends, emotional signals, and activation opportunities across markets, download the Sports Goods insight report from Seedtag.
You can also check out Episode 33 of The PubWay Podcast, “Ad Innovation in Live Sports Streaming,” to explore how live sports, streaming innovation, and contextual advertising are reshaping fan engagement during major global sporting events.
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The Pub Way is back! In the season two premiere of Seedtag's podcast for publishers, hosts Mike Villalobos and Tina Iannachino welcome Miles Fisher, Senior Director of Strategic Advertising Partnerships at Roku, to explore the dynamic and rapidly evolving landscape of Connected TV (CTV) on “Episode 15: Roku: The Power of Data and Transparency in CTV”.
With years of expertise spanning roles at T-Mobile Advertising and Google Marketing Platform, Fisher brings invaluable insights into how advertisers and broadcasters can adapt and thrive in this fast-paced industry.
Roku: From Streaming Hardware to CTV Pioneer
A key highlight of the episode is Roku's evolution. Originally launched as a Netflix project nearly two decades ago, Roku has transformed from a hardware manufacturer into a software-driven platform that powers TVs with its operating system. This pivot not only expanded Roku’s reach but also unlocked new opportunities in the world of CTV advertising.
Fisher explains how this shift positions Roku as a leader in delivering seamless user experiences, enabling innovative solutions for advertisers, including shoppable media—a game-changer that allows viewers to purchase products directly through their TV screens.
The Rise of Shoppable Media
Imagine watching your favorite show and effortlessly purchasing a featured product with just your remote. Thanks to Roku’s unique position as a TV operating system, this isn’t science fiction; it’s the future of advertising.
By leveraging first-party data—such as names, emails, and payment details—Roku creates frictionless shopping experiences tailored to user preferences. While many consumers still prefer making purchases on mobile devices, the growing adoption of shoppable ads signals a shift in consumer behavior that advertisers can’t afford to ignore.
Opportunities in the Shift from Linear to CTV
As traditional broadcasters embrace CTV, Fisher shares practical advice for making the transition successful. Collaborating with platforms like Roku can help broadcasters seamlessly adapt their content for streaming audiences while standing out in a crowded marketplace.
For advertisers, the benefits of CTV are clear. By tapping into first-party data, brands can deliver highly targeted campaigns that rival the precision of social media advertising. From reduced customer acquisition costs (CAC) to improved Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), CTV offers unparalleled opportunities for growth.
What’s Next for CTV?
The episode concludes with a look at the future of CTV. Fisher predicts a continued rise in ad-supported models, particularly in the FAST segment, as consumers push back against subscription fatigue. He also highlights the importance of niche programming—like women’s sports—to capture underserved audiences.
At the heart of this evolution lies data-driven transparency. Fisher emphasizes that the success of CTV advertising depends on giving marketers the tools they need to effectively plan, measure, and optimize their campaigns.
Next stop at The Pub Way
Packed with actionable insights and expert predictions, The Pub Way podcast is a must-listen for publishers navigating the intersection of technology, creativity, and advertising. Tune in now.
The final quarter of the year is here, and with it comes an exciting opportunity for brands in the technology space. From cutting-edge audio experiences to smart home gadgets, consumers are engaging with tech content like never before. But how can your brand stay ahead in a competitive landscape?
Our latest Contextual Insights report dives deep into the trends driving consumer interest this quarter. With mentions of spatial audio up 35%, smart home devices seeing a 24% engagement increase, and console gaming commanding loyal attention, Q4 is the season to position your brand at the forefront of innovation. Here’s everything you need to know to power up your campaigns.
Spatial Audio: Turning Up the Volume on Immersive Sound+
Spatial audio is making waves this quarter, with a 35% surge in mentions and an average of 4,200 visits per article. From high-end headphones to advanced home theater systems, consumers are increasingly seeking audio experiences that put them at the center of the action.
- Top Drivers: Premium brands like Apple (AirPods Max) and Sonos (Beam) are leading the charge, sparking consumer interest in immersive audio that enhances music, gaming, and movie experiences.
- Why It Matters: Audio technology is no longer a luxury; it’s an expectation for tech-savvy audiences looking to upgrade their everyday experiences.
We recommend: Showcase how your audio products deliver a premium listening experience. Whether it’s through creative storytelling or experiential activations, emphasize the emotional connection that high-quality sound creates.
Smart Home Devices: Automating the Modern Lifestyle
The smart home revolution continues to gain traction, with engagement around smart locks, voice-activated assistants, and home automation systems up 24% this quarter. Articles in this category average 3,800 visits, reflecting strong consumer interest in convenience and connectivity.
- Top Trends: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and innovative smart locks are leading the conversation, as consumers look for seamless integration into their daily routines.
- Holiday Opportunity: Smart home devices are a perfect fit for holiday gifting, offering a balance of practicality and innovation that appeals to tech-savvy shoppers.
We recommend: Highlight the lifestyle benefits of your smart home products in campaigns. Show how they simplify routines, enhance security, or add a touch of luxury to everyday living.
Console Gaming: Winning Engagement
Gaming remains one of the most engaging tech categories this quarter, with articles on PlayStation, Xbox, and popular gaming titles averaging 5,200 visits. Console gaming is not just about hardware; it’s about creating immersive entertainment experiences that captivate loyal audiences.
- Key Titles & Drivers: Content covering cross-platform gaming, game streaming, and major releases like Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto drives high engagement.
- Why It Matters: The gaming community is highly engaged and loyal, making it a prime audience for brands looking to align with innovation and entertainment.
We recommend: Focus on the culture of gaming in your campaigns. Whether it’s accessories, exclusive game bundles, or immersive VR add-ons, position your products as a must-have for gamers this holiday season.
eCommerce and Holiday Tech Shopping: The Competitive Edge
Tech shoppers are flocking to eCommerce platforms like Amazon and Temu this quarter, with both platforms seeing significant engagement spikes. Articles focused on exclusive deals and discounts generate 6,100 visits per article on Amazon and 8,500 visits on Temu, showcasing the growing role of online shopping in the tech category.
- What’s Driving Traffic: Limited-time offers, early access deals, and curated gift guides are capturing consumer attention during Q4.
- Opportunity for Brands: Partnering with eCommerce platforms or creating online-exclusive promotions can help your brand stand out in a crowded digital marketplace.
We recommend: Leverage the power of urgency in your campaigns. Highlight limited-time offers or “shop early” messaging to capitalize on the eCommerce momentum driving holiday tech purchases.
This quarter, the tech space is buzzing with innovation, from immersive audio to smart home gadgets and gaming consoles. With consumer engagement surging in these categories, brands have a unique opportunity to connect with highly engaged audiences.
Download the full report and get the insights you need to power up your campaigns: Seedtag 2024 Tech & Q4 Insights.
Understanding the intricacies of a particular market is crucial to achieving advertising success. For advertisers looking to penetrate the unique and diverse Canadian market, leveraging advanced techniques like network-level analysis (NLA) and contextual advertising can be game-changing. These strategies not only enable brands to tap into the growing market of newcomers to Canada but also ensure that their messages resonate with the right audience in a meaningful way.
The Unique Canadian Market and Its Growing Newcomer Segment
Canada's multicultural fabric is woven from the diverse backgrounds of its population, with a significant proportion being newcomers—immigrants and refugees who bring with them a range of cultural perspectives and needs. For advertisers, this presents both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity lies in the growing market; the challenge is understanding and effectively reaching this audience.
Newcomers to Canada often face the daunting task of navigating a new environment, from understanding the local consumer product landscape to managing personal finances, healthcare, housing, and education. This complexity demands a tailored approach to advertising, where understanding the audience’s unique profile is essential. By recognizing the overlaps between content that addresses these challenges, advertisers can craft messages that resonate deeply with this audience.
Network-Level Analysis: The Key Differentiator
At the heart of this approach is network-level analysis, a powerful tool that enables advertisers to understand the interconnectedness between key trends and topics across various media outlets. In the Canadian context, this means analyzing content from major publications such as The Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star, among others. These outlets frequently cover topics crucial to newcomers, such as housing, personal finance, healthcare, and education.
Network-level analysis allows advertisers to identify content clusters and trends that are particularly relevant to newcomers. For instance, articles discussing how to find a realtor, understand the rental market, or navigate Canada's healthcare system are invaluable for this audience. By pinpointing these content clusters and their adjacent topics, advertisers can gain insights into what matters most to newcomers and tailor their messaging accordingly.
This approach also extends to understanding the nuances of Canadian culture and what it means to be a proud Canadian. For many newcomers, questions of identity and belonging are intertwined with practical concerns like citizenship, visas, and transit. By clustering around these specific keywords and understanding the sentiment and context in which they are discussed, advertisers can create campaigns that speak to the values and aspirations of this audience.
Contextual Advertising: Reaching Newcomers Where It Matters
While network-level analysis provides the insights, contextual advertising is the mechanism through which these insights are activated. Contextual advertising involves placing ads in environments where the content is relevant to the audience, thereby increasing the likelihood of engagement.
For example, an advertiser targeting newcomers might place ads related to personal finance—such as opening a bank account or building a credit score—on websites or articles that discuss financial planning for new immigrants. Similarly, ads for healthcare services or supplementary health insurance could be placed alongside content that explains the Canadian healthcare system to newcomers.
The power of contextual advertising lies in its ability to reach audiences at the moment when they are most receptive to the message. For newcomers to Canada, who are actively seeking information to help them settle in, this approach ensures that the advertising is not just seen but is also relevant and valuable.
Harnessing the Power of NLA and Contextual Advertising
Success in the Canadian market, particularly when targeting newcomers, requires more than just understanding the demographic profile of the audience. It demands a deep understanding of the content they consume, the challenges they face, and the aspirations they hold. This holds true for any demographic, including GenZ, parents with kids, homeowners, etc. Network-level analysis and contextual advertising provide advertisers with the tools to achieve this understanding and to deliver messages that resonate on a personal level.
By leveraging these techniques, advertisers can navigate the complex and interconnected media landscape, reaching newcomers to Canada in a meaningful way that not only addresses their immediate needs but also helps them integrate and thrive in their new home. In a market as diverse and dynamic as Canada, this approach is not just advantageous—it is essential for success.
After multiple delays, Google announced that third-party cookies will not be phased out. While cookies may not be eliminated from Chrome, data privacy laws and consumer demands are rising. Publishers must look beyond third-party cookies as users dislike being tracked across websites and the lack of explicit consent invites significant legal scrutiny.
In today’s privacy-conscious environment, first-party cookies have become more valuable than ever. Unlike third-party cookies that do not comply with data privacy regulations, first-party data is collected directly and responsibly, with user consent. Data collected from users’ interactions with a publisher’s site creates a privacy-friendly foundation for understanding audiences.
Benefits of first-party data for publishers
Moving away from third-party cookies and focusing on first-party data enables publishers to comply with evolving privacy standards and future-proof their revenue strategies.
- With first-party data, there’s no risk of non-compliance. The data is collected straight from the user with their explicit consent, thus reducing the risks of legal challenges and ensures a stable revenue.
- The transparent, consent-based approach to data collection strengthens user trust and loyalty and enables a better overall user experience. This further enhances loyalty and engagement, thus providing long-term benefits to publishers.
- Since the data is collected from the source, the insights are richer and more accurate, leading to better ad targeting and hyper-personalized experiences.
- Other major browsers like Safari and Firefox have already blocked third-party cookies. Switching to first-party data collection enables publishers to create more sustainable strategies and future-proof their business.
- Making the shift to privacy-safe technologies and first-party data enables publishers to cater to the needs of the audience and advertisers without relying on conventional practices that are intrusive and less secure.
- First-party data is transparent and more reliable, leading to higher ad relevance and ROI. It helps minimize the dependence on external data providers and gives publishers more control over audience insights to generate revenue.
- Beyond just supporting ad revenue, first-party data can boost engagement, drive subscriptions, and help make informed editorial choices.
Using first-party data, publishers can build deeper relationships with their audiences, deliver more personalized, relevant, and engaging content, and enhance trust and loyalty. Privacy-safe data practices improve user experience, support engagement, and create opportunities for sustainable revenue growth.
Upgrading to a combination of privacy-preserving approaches
Consumers are increasingly wary about invasive tracking practices and are expressing their concerns about data privacy. Since first-party data is ethically collected from users with their consent, publishers can gather insights from the information shared by users themselves to optimize user profiling. The aim is to make a switch to a balanced approach that creates a privacy-centric strategy that overcomes the limitations posed by traditional practices.
How it works:
- Publishers collect first-party data from user interactions on the website like site activity, engagement with content, surveys, social media, and email interactions.
- Data Management Platforms (DMPs) help gather and organize data from the various sources and analyze them to effectively segment audiences.
- Data Clean Rooms (DCRs) help publishers and advertisers collaborate seamlessly and securely.
- DCRs facilitate privacy-safe matching and analysis of publisher data with advertisers, without sharing any personally identifiable information (PII).
To further enhance strategies, publishers are using first-party data repositories along with contextual advertising to create more compelling content and impactful interest-based audience segments. When used in conjunction, it empowers publishers to overcome privacy concerns and deliver ads relevant to users’ current interests.
These campaigns enable publishers to look beyond users’ personal data and monetize more of their inventory using a content engagement-based targeting approach. This enables publishers to widen their target group and potentially boost ad revenue as they can target even the users who opt out of tracking.
Non-intrusive, interest-based ad campaigns have shown better results as relevance increases the likelihood of clicks and conversions, thus commanding higher ad rates and improving publisher revenue. Leveraging first-party data and an interest-based targeting approach can help publishers develop premium content that they can monetize and grow revenue by increasing purposeful engagement.
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Advertisers have a wide array of campaign options to capture the audience's attention. With shifting consumer demands, evolving privacy laws, and numerous ad creatives and channels, there’s much to navigate.
To optimize campaign performance and ROI, a comprehensive marketing plan is essential, covering key areas such as target audience, ad channels, creative elements, and messaging. An increasingly popular addition to marketers' toolkits is Connected TV (CTV) advertising.
Audiences have warmly embraced CTV, contributing to the rise of cord-cutters moving away from traditional cable. The rapid growth of CTV viewership has drawn advertisers’ interest, prompting budget shifts from linear TV to CTV. This shift allows marketers to future-proof their strategies and connect with a growing, engaged audience.
Marketing in the era of Connected TV and OTT
Unlike the limitations of traditional TV advertising, CTV allows brands to tailor messaging and display personalized ads to niche audiences.
Marketers can access key data points like viewer preferences and habits that provide deeper insights into their likings and preferences. Based on the understanding of viewers’ interests, the ads and the viewing experience are personalized to increase engagement. While traditional TV displays the same ad to all the viewers watching a particular show or channel, CTV ads can be tailored to align with a user’s interests.
The benefits
- Advertising to an engaged user base increases effectiveness as the viewers show a greater propensity to engage and interact with the ads.
- The ability to ensure precise targeting and serve personalized ads boosts engagement and conversion rates as the ads appeal to users’ interests.
- More detailed metrics to track and measure campaign performance, optimize on the go, and improve ROI.
The future of CTV ads
Connected TV (CTV) advertising is still a fresh, emerging channel that marketers and brands are exploring in depth. With continuous innovation on the horizon, there’s much potential left to unlock in this space.
CTV ads have already surpassed the limitations of traditional television, offering hyper-personalization, customization, and niche targeting. This unique medium allows brands to establish connections and build relationships with a growing audience. Advanced targeting capabilities enable marketers to engage audiences on a personal level, capture attention, and earn trust.
Seedtag Contextual TV provides a holistic approach by combining CTV signals and ad data with AI-driven contextual insights from the open web. This integration enables advertisers to understand user interests, target precisely, tailor creative content, and optimize performance. With CTV, brands can move beyond generic categories, access key attention metrics to measure campaign effectiveness, and create attention-grabbing ads.
As the future of advertising shifts to the OTT world, brands are increasingly targeting viewers based on the content they’re watching. Aligning ads with a viewer’s current interests fosters stronger connections and enhances the overall viewing experience.
Learn more about CTV advertising capabilities with Contextual TV by Seedtag.
Additionally, register for Seedtag Academy to become an expert in all things CTV!
As Connected TV (CTV) becomes a central channel in the advertising landscape, publishers are navigating new challenges and opportunities around audience engagement and revenue generation. At the Beachfront Publisher Summit, industry leaders came together for discussions on how contextual targeting and advanced adtech can help publishers meet these evolving needs, including practical approaches to CTV advertising that prioritize relevance and audience connection without relying on personal data.
Discover the key outcomes straight from Seedtag President North America Brian Danzis and Beachfront VP Business Development Marni Rommel as they share key insights on how contextual technology can empower publishers to enhance ad relevance, improve viewer experience, and unlock new revenue streams while aligning with privacy expectations.
- What is the role of video in the current advertising landscape?
Brian Danzis: Video continues to be one of the most impactful advertising formats because sight, sound and motion can evoke powerful sentiments which can help shape perception and drive people to action. The traditional thirty second spot once dominated the format, but over the last twenty years not only have new lengths emerged, but so has variety in screen orientation, customization and interactivity elements to make the format even more powerful.
- What are the keys to harnessing new technologies in CTV?
Marni Rommel: The role of contextual targeting and how Seedtag contextual AI and tech capabilities will enhance Beachfront’s proposition.
In today’s CTV landscape, having a deep understanding of your audience’s viewing preferences and habits is a critical starting point. This can be achieved through rich data analytics and insights, and then leveraged on campaign plans via advanced targeting methods like contextual.
Our belief is that contextual targeting will play a significant role in how CTV media is transacted going forward, as it allows media buyers and sellers to deliver ads based on what the consumer is currently watching – leading to improved ad relevance, engagement, and yield.
- How can publishers benefit from tech advancements in CTV?
Marni Rommel: The value Seedtag brings to Beachfront publishers
Through recent tech advancements in CTV, including those brought on by Seedtag, today's CTV publishers are well-positioned to enhance their monetization and drive new revenue streams, even amid changes to the broader privacy landscape.
With deeper audience insights and enhanced targeting capabilities, publishers can deliver a more seamless and engaging viewing experience for CTV audiences. Seedtag’s contextual CTV targeting offering specifically, as an example, has been proven to improve ad relevance and increase campaign scale – giving rise to new, contextually-driven demand opportunities for publisher
- How events like this CTV Publisher Summit add value to the CTV publishers industry?
Marni Rommel: The CTV ecosystem is evolving rapidly, so creating forums for collaboration, feedback, and knowledge sharing is absolutely essential to aligning on common challenges and goals. We’re all navigating the same industry dynamics after all.
We were delighted to host so many of our key partners and give them the opportunity to hear from Seedtag as well as some of their trusted media buyers. Seedtag’s strength in data, creative, and contextual makes them a critical partner for today’s CTV publishers, as we are collectively well-positioned to bring value to the buy-side in a way that drives engagement, revenue, and efficiencies for media sellers.
- What does the future hold for CTV in the United States?
Brian Danzis: CTV continues to be one of the fastest growing ad channels in the US, because of shifting user behaviors in how they consume video content. At Seedtag we expect more content to be made available through CTV channels and even more customization of ad formats including more advanced HH level targeting, customized creatives that are contextually relevant, engaging and fun!
- How can we strike the right balance between utilizing data for CTV without crossing the line into overly personal targeting?
Brian Danzis: Today’s consumer is much more aware of how companies track and target them online and are increasingly taking active measures to block these practices. While CTV is naturally “cookie free” as an industry we need to still be careful about how we use IP addresses and other HH level data to deliver ads. At Seedtag we believe wholeheartedly in delivering a privacy compliant approach that protects the end user from unnecessary data collection, stereotypical audience bucketing and other traditional targeting tactics that rely on third party sources.
- How can publishers achieve better ad personalization and relevance for both advertisers and audiences in the streaming ecosystem?
Marni Rommel: CTV publishers can achieve stronger ad personalization and relevance in streaming ecosystems using contextual monetization solutions, such as Seedtag’s, which utilizes Contextual AI to analyze and package content in real-time. It is through technology like this that publishers can deliver higher-yielding ads that align closely with the context of the programs the viewer is watching, ensuring that the ads are not only relevant to the in-the-moment content but also to the audience’s interests.
By focusing on contextual signals rather than relying solely on user data, publishers can create a more engaging and seamless ad experience that satisfies advertisers' goals for targeted messaging while enhancing viewer satisfaction and engagement. This approach fosters a win-win scenario where both advertisers and audiences benefit from more relevant and impactful advertising.
As digital advertising continues to evolve, actionable and privacy-compliant solutions for CTV enable publishers to maintain relevance with audiences while optimizing monetization models. By focusing on context over personal data, Seedtag’s approach offers a sustainable pathway forward for CTV publishers. Want to know more about achieving a balanced approach that meets both audience needs and industry standards? Let’s talk!
It's time to bring out those costumes, get your scare on, and let your imagination run wild! With the 31st of October nearing, costumes, masks, decor, candies, and parties are already on people’s minds. As people gear up for the festivities, understanding what’s on consumers' minds and what they are looking forward to is essential intel for brands.
Halloween offers an opportunity for brands to engage with consumers in a fun and memorable way. Consumers look for everything ranging from costumes and party supplies to home decor, events, and activities. Brands that can strike a chord with the audience by sharing relevant, quality content will garner interest, increase brand awareness, and drive sales.
Halloween 2024: Top categories of interest
To keep brands and advertisers abreast of the season’s trends and consumer interests, Liz Events powered by Seedtag Lab brings to you the exclusive 2024 Seedtag Halloween Insights report. Our research shows that the audience is interested in an array of categories that vary from events to pop culture, hobbies, and home decor.
Download the full report here.
Based on the number of articles in each category and the number of visits per article, here are the most notable categories:
- Family & Relationships: Articles on Halloween family activities like trick-or-treating with kids and parents.
- Events & Attractions: Special promotions at theme parks like Halloween discounts, haunted houses, and zombie survival experiences.
- Shopping: Guides on Halloween costumes, popular costume trends, home decorations, and accessories.
- Movies: A selection of horror movie recommendations, from classics to new releases in theaters and on streaming platforms.
Halloween 2024: Main content focus
With ~3+ million impressions, entertainment, decorations, costumes & accessories, and food & treats are the topics that capture maximum audience interest.
- Entertainment: 32% of articles revolve around entertainment as the audience loves binge-watching horror movies and TV shows or visiting amusement parks to experience themed attractions and haunted mansions. Movies & TV Shows garner 48% of total views, and the other clusters include theme parks, video games, and scary tales.
- Decorations: The decor is an important ingredient for homeowners and event planners eager to create spooky, festive environments to celebrate the holiday. This topic has an article share of 32%, and the main clusters are parties, decoration deals, and DIY projects.
- Costumes & Accessories: 26% of articles are for the majority that’s on the lookout for creative and themed attire. From playful outfits for children to themed party attires for adults, the clusters focus on influencers' costumes, quick & cheap costumes, costumes for women, and pet costumes.
- Food & Treats: An important element of any celebration, 15% of articles appeal to trick-or-treaters, home bakers, and party hosts exploring creative recipes and indulging in themed sweets. The main cluster trick-or-treating receives 43% of total views and other topics include Halloween candy and Halloween recipes.
This seasonal audience drives anywhere between 2.39 million to a whopping 3.69 million brand-safe impressions per month. The key to leveraging findings like these to a brand’s advantage lies in targeting niche or customized audience segments.
The 2024 Seedtag Halloween Insights report: Download now
Advertisers and publishers are increasingly capitalizing on the thriving Connected TV ecosystem as the channel continues to garner more viewers. CTV is the hottest new trend in digital marketing and the fastest-growing ad channel in the US due to the 2+ hours spent leaned in watching and 88% of GenZ and millennials owning an advanced TV. For publishers, CTV presents a significant opportunity to reach a targeted audience, monetize content on this channel, and provide interactive experiences that better engage users.
CTV provides publishers with a new and bustling platform to create and distribute content across video, display, and creative ad insertion that reaches new potential customers and generates revenue. While CTV advertising is an exciting channel to explore, it comes with its own set of complexities. The fragmented CTV landscape, lack of control and transparency, and absence of CTV-optimized solutions pose multiple challenges.
Digital advertising in the evolving media landscape
From monetizing content to choosing the right marketing strategy, managing operations, ensuring brand safety, optimizing ad revenues, and delivering exceptional user experiences, the right technology partner and marketing partner is pivotal in ensuring publisher success.
- Publishers must ensure the business partnership has a global reach to network with a larger pool of advertisers and agencies.
- The partnership marketing approach must be flexible, transparent, and tailored to cater to business-specific needs that yield better campaign results.
- Publishers should choose partners that leverage new-gen capabilities like AI and ML, ensure privacy-first practices, and leverage brand safety and suitability best practices to stay ahead and future-proof their business.
- Since CTV is a relatively new space, it is key to look for a marketing partner with a proven track record in the industry and carefully evaluate the platform’s capabilities and features.
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The Benefits of Choosing a Solid CTV Technology & Marketing Partner
With CTVs increasingly replacing traditional cable, it offers publishers access to a large and growing audience. It presents an opportunity to generate revenue through advertising, subscriptions, or premium products or services on CTV platforms.
- Real-time bidding (RTB): Enables publishers to efficiently allocate ad inventory to the highest bidder and maximize their revenue.
- Header bidding: Allows publishers to simultaneously offer ad inventory to multiple ad exchanges, thus increasing competition and improving pricing.
- Demand-side platform (DSP) integration: Facilitate connections with myriad ad networks and exchanges, enabling access to a wider pool of advertisers and agencies.
The right blend of context and affiliate marketing forges a very effective strategy. Contextual-led CTV advertising will help publishers deliver based on the specific page content being watched, ensuring a higher relevance and better engagement as they are more likely to resonate with viewers. Higher engagement and click-through rates can help publishers attract higher-quality advertisers who are willing to pay a premium.
By leveraging affiliate programs and content partnerships, businesses can further increase brand awareness and extend their reach. Forms of partner marketing such as joint ventures with content creators or CTV platforms enable brands to tap into established audiences, boosting brand recognition and engagement while ensuring a cost-effective strategy for reaching new markets.
Enhancing User Experience and Ad Performance
Contextual CTV advertising also enhances the overall user experience as the ads are non-intrusive and relevant to their watchlist and preferences. The ads are also placed in safe and appropriate content environments, preventing any negative associations. Brand safety and suitability measures are integral elements in the busy media landscape as they help avoid harmful content and ensure the ad placements align with the brand’s overall messaging and ethos.
- Precise targeting: First-party data and contextual advertising help identify and build specific audience segments. The ads delivered are contextually relevant to the content being consumed by viewers, increasing engagement and key attention parameters.
- Privacy-first: Contextual-led CTV does not invade user privacy by accessing third-party data, thus making it a preferred choice among advertisers as it helps build relationships and gain user trust.
- User experience: The campaigns are highly targeted and personalized ads are effective, but the placements are non-intrusive and do not disrupt the viewing experience.
What can we expect of Connected TV Advertising
As competition in CTV advertising grows, companies that invest in partnership marketing will gain an edge by collaborating with strategic partners to optimize marketing initiatives. This approach not only ensures cost efficiency but also drives lead generating campaigns that convert high-intent viewers into loyal customers.
The right marketing partner is crucial for navigating the complexities of CTV advertising, and Seedtag is here for you. By leveraging affiliate marketing, content partnerships, and joint ventures, brands can develop cost-effective strategies that drive brand recognition and enhance audience engagement. As CTV continues to evolve, businesses that prioritize strategic collaborations will maximize their reach and long-term success.
Discover how we bring our Open Web expertise to the CTV landscape with Seedtag Contextual TV.
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Connected TV is all the hype today as the rapid shift from traditional TV continues. People love having complete control over what they watch and when and enjoy having access to a vast library of content to choose from. The flexibility to connect to the internet, browse popular streaming services, and seamlessly switch between traditional TV and online content has garnered massive viewership for CTV over the years.
The ever-increasing number of “cord-cutters” has naturally persuaded advertisers to rethink ad budget allocation. The booming OTT platform subscriptions and CTV viewership have shifted investments toward CTV advertising. Like traditional TV commercials, CTV ads are placed within streaming content and operating system apps across internet-connected televisions.
The benefits of CTV advertising
CTV ads enable advertisers to reach the growing audience base that owns smart TVs by delivering the ads within streaming content such as movies and TV shows. CTV targeting is also more precise when compared to traditional television as the ads appeal to the real-time interests and viewing habits of users.
CTV advertising improves campaign performance as it reaches a larger audience base and helps advertisers engage with the audience that’s cutting the cord on traditional cable.
CTV also ensures improved audience targeting as the ads are displayed to specific segments where they are relevant and align with their area of interest, thus leading to higher engagement and better ROI. Overall, CTV ads reach a wider audience and increase brand awareness, making them a powerful tool in digital advertising.
Brand safety and alignment in CTV (Connected TV)
While advertisers opt for privacy-first alternatives and new advertising channels like CTV, it is imperative to ensure the brand image is upheld and always shown in good light. Brand safety measures help prevent a brand's ads from appearing alongside content that’s inappropriate or offensive. Brand alignment helps to create a consistent and positive brand experience by ensuring the ads align with the brand's overall messaging, values, and targeted audience.
Key considerations for brand safety and alignment
- Choosing content categories that align with the brand's values and overall positioning.
- Ad placement that aligns with the content of the streaming video.
- Preventing ads from appearing alongside topics that are harmful, offensive, or could damage the brand reputation.
Contextual CTV advertising brings the powers of AI-powered contextual advertising to Connected TV. Similar to ads matched to the content of web pages, contextual CTV matches ads to the content streamed by users. For example, users who watch more content about wildlife, nature, or documentaries about the environment are more likely to be interested in ads about eco-friendly, sustainable, and cruelty-free products or services.
Contextual CTV is emerging as a privacy-preserving ad strategy that enables brands to boost engagement, increase brand awareness, and improve brand reputation. With a better understanding of viewer interests, advertisers can serve ads that are contextually relevant to the current content browsed by the audience. Contextually targeted ads are non-intrusive and in line with a brand's ideas and values.
Additionally, contextual advertising-backed CTV targeting empowers brands to ensure brand safety and brand suitability with more precise and relevant ad placements. These measures prevent ads from appearing in environments that are inappropriate or harmful.
The Role of a Brand Safety Service in CTV Advertising
Given the complexities of programmatic advertising, a brand safety service is essential to ensure ads appear only in safe and brand-suitable environments. These services leverage AI-powered tools to analyze ad space and implement brand safety measures effectively.
Some of the key elements of a brand safety service include:
- Exclusion lists: Blocking certain categories of content that do not align with brand values.
- Real-time monitoring: Ensuring brand advertisements do not appear alongside fake news or offensive content.
- AI-driven contextual analysis: Identifying and classifying content to match ads with relevant content.
- Protection across social media and digital advertising: Applying brand safety strategies across multiple platforms.
Protecting Your Brand with the Right Tools
As brand safety issues continue to evolve in digital advertising, companies must invest in brand safety tools that provide real-time protection and ensure brand safety in every campaign. Implementing brand safety measures safeguards a brand’s ad placements from appearing in harmful or inappropriate content and helps protecting your brand from reputational damage.
Seedtag Contextual CTV brings our expertise from open web campaigns to the CTV landscape.
Our expertise brings granularity and helps advertisers to go beyond generic categories, garner valuable attention metrics, and build a more memorable brand experience. Reputable inventory sources coupled with brand safety and suitability measures help mitigate the risks of negative publicity or brand associations.
Brand safety service is crucial in the CTV landscape, ensuring that ads remain in brand-safe environments and align with a brand's messaging. Contextual CTV helps brands reach the intended target audience, ensures ads align with brand values, improves overall campaign effectiveness, and builds trust among consumers. Learn more.
Consumers have been voicing a growing number of concerns about how their data and personally identifiable information are collected and used by brands. Data collection practices have raised significant privacy concerns, leading to regulations that impact in the future of digital advertising.
Data privacy laws and Google’s Privacy Sandbox address these consumer concerns. They aim to give users more control over their data. This includes how brands access and use this data and contextual AI.
Privacy protection laws, like GDPR in the European Union and CCPA in the United States, set rules for businesses. These laws guide how companies can collect, use, and share personal information. . Google designs its Privacy Sandbox APIs and technologies to provide a more private and secure web experience. The main objective of these privacy initiatives is to give users more control over their online privacy and to limit the amount of party data collected and used.
Why the shift in focus toward privacy-first advertising?
Traditional audience targeting has been the norm for decades. Audiences are grouped and targeted based on their past interests and buying habits, this relies a lot on third-party cookies. Cookies are small snippets of code that are used to store data on a user's computer that enable websites to remember login details, preferences, etc.
The privacy issues arose because of third-party cookies that are set by domains other than the one visited by a user. These cookies allow businesses to monitor browsing patterns and customer data across multiple websites, and the data collected is used for programmatic advertising and tracking purposes.
Third-party cookies may be helping advertisers target users. However, they are intrusive, non-consensual, and manipulative, raising multiple privacy concerns. While Google decided to back out from its cookie deprecation plan after years of delays, the efforts toward improving online privacy continue.
The future of advertising is shifting toward privacy-first strategies, and marketing strategies need to adapt accordingly. Cookieless developments are a priority for Google as it aims to preserve the ad-supported internet by promoting the adoption of privacy-preserving digital advertising practices.
What are the privacy-preserving alternatives in advertising?
Whether it is privacy protection laws, browser controls like cookie blocking and tracking protection, or Privacy Sandbox APIs, the focus lies on consumer behavior and enabling users to make informed choices when they’re browsing. Consumers’ demand for data privacy has compromised reach and measurement for advertisers, impacting key areas like cross-site tracking, personalization capabilities, and audience categorization.
In the bid to create a privacy-focused ecosystem, contextual AI is swiftly emerging as a go-to solution among advertisers who are evaluating privacy-first alternatives to conventional advertising practices. Contextual AI offers an advanced solution that leverages the capabilities of artificial intelligence and its subsets like machine learning and Natural Language Processing algorithms to analyze millions of web pages.
A key advantage of contextual AI is its ability to provide hyper-personalized advertising without compromising user privacy. By analyzing content rather than user-specific customer data, brands can deliver highly relevant ads that align with the interests of their audiences in real-time. This shift allows digital marketers to implement AI-powered strategies that enhance engagement and improve the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Contextual ads are displayed based on the analysis of web pages to ensure they align with the content and context of every page. Contextual advertising is a complementary technology that caters to the needs of consumers and businesses. The advanced targeting capabilities move beyond the traditional audience categorization practices that are based on stereotypes, cliches, assumptions, and past browsing patterns.
Contextual AI and The Future of Digital Advertising
Contextual AI analyzes both the written and visual content of a page and places ads in the most optimal locations where the ad messaging aligns with the page. Contextual advertising relies on artificial intelligence to deliver ads on relevant websites that target the right audiences without using cookies. It allows brands to enhance their understanding of consumer behavior and makes ads more relevant and relatable.
Another significant trend shaping the future of digital advertising is the rise of short-form videos. These videos are a strong way to engage audiences.
Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have demonstrated the effectiveness of video-based content in capturing audience attention. Video content, along with AI targeting, helps brands show ads that are engaging and relevant. This leads to higher conversion rates.
As marketing strategies evolve, brands are increasingly relying on AI-driven analytics to optimize their campaigns. Programmatic advertising powered by machine learning enables businesses to make data-driven decisions and allocate resources more effectively. This shift towards automation and AI-powered insights is helping advertisers navigate the complexities of a privacy-first digital landscape.
In an era where data privacy and user control are paramount, contextual AI is emerging as a transformative force in the future of digital advertising. By leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, and real-time analytics, brands can deliver relevant, hyper-personalized experiences while respecting consumer privacy.
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Google’s renewed focus on the Privacy Sandbox aims to improve online privacy while preserving an ad-supported internet by promoting the adoption of a privacy-first approach. While Google may have dropped its plan to complete the deprecation of third-party cookies after multiple delays, the anchor continues to be data privacy and transparency.
Privacy Sandbox APIs have the potential to achieve this feat as they serve as an alternative to traditional tracking methods like third-party cookies. The APIs reduce tracking but ensure businesses continue to thrive using technology that can gather user data and deliver targeted ads without compromising personal information.
The key Sandbox APIs like Topics API, Attribution Reporting API, and Protected Audiences aim to protect user privacy and reduce reliance on third-party cookies. Whether it is enhancing audience targeting or improving ad effectiveness, these APIs allow businesses to continue thriving in the digital economy whilst being respectful of data protection regulation GDPR and other data privacy laws.
The shift toward a privacy-first digital landscape
From third-party cookie tracking to data breaches, changing regulatory landscape, and evolving user preferences, the transition to Privacy Sandbox APIs is driven by the need to protect personal data while allowing businesses to continue to flourish.
The aim is to create a more sustainable and trustworthy digital ecosystem by striking a balance between consumer data protection and business needs. Adopting a privacy-first marketing strategy ensures that businesses comply with GDPR and CCPA, giving users control over their data while still enabling effective advertising. Contextual advertising is a frontrunner in the privacy-focused ecosystem that these APIs aim to create.
Contextual advertising: A privacy-first approach alternative
Contextual advertising is moving away from conventional targeting practices that leverage keywords and phrases and rely on stereotypes and assumptions to reach audiences. With Custom AI, advertisers can shift from predefined audience targeting and build custom Contextual Audiences. Advertisers can create unique and dynamic audiences to suit business-specific needs and requirements for greater precision and impact.
With the right blend of data-driven audience targeting, creatives, and ad placement, contextual advertising empowers brands to engage with users at the most optimal time and place by delivering personalized and relevant experiences.
Building Trust Through Privacy-First Advertising
A privacy-first approach not only ensures compliance with regulations but also helps build trust and customer relationships. Consumers today are more conscious about the data you collect, and ensuring transparent and ethical handling of their information fosters trust and loyalty.
By prioritizing privacy-first advertising solutions, brands can create long-term strategies that respect consumer privacy while driving engagement and business growth. The shift towards privacy-conscious advertising is not just a trend—it is the future of digital marketing.
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In the era of short attention spans, constant multitasking, and myriad distractions, global brands are battling it out for the most desirable currency: attention. A contextual approach provides a strategic framework to capture this attention while prioritizing data privacy. Attention metrics are the KPIs advertisers closely monitor today to understand campaign performance and how the audience resonates with ads.
Attention is the most sought-after metric in the advertising world as a multitude of brands vie for the top spot and aim to capture a larger market share. The biggest challenge advertisers have faced is the inability to quantify campaign performance beyond mere views or clicks.
The shift from Viewability to Attention Metrics
Conventionally, media quality has been assessed based on viewability percentages, which only measure the potential of an ad to be viewed and not its ability to draw user attention.
While the focus has been to increase viewability, it is not a detailed measure of the effectiveness of ads or where to serve them. A contextual approach, by contrast, allows advertisers to leverage modern social learning theories, stemming from the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, to create more meaningful interactions. Attention metrics provide a more precise evaluation of how ads perform, directly correlating campaign performance with brand outcomes. This shift reflects a deeper understanding of ad effectiveness.
Understanding Attention Metrics
Attention measurement moves beyond superficial metrics, employing advanced technologies like eye-tracking and predictive modeling. This method relies on machines, eyes, and faces to provide legitimate signals. The predictive model is built on key metrics that include ad format, screen real estate, duration in view, scroll speed, page geometry, and domain.
Attention metrics enable advertisers to go beyond the basics and truly understand higher psychological processes involved in engagement. These metrics measure how engaged or focused a user is on an ad and their ability to absorb the ad’s message, which is more effective in measuring the impact of an ad when compared to views or clicks.
The eye-tracking technology focuses on what parts of the page users look at and how much time they spend. Eye-tracking surveys are conducted to understand how users scroll through a page to gauge ad recall and the probability of users purchasing after seeing the ad. The data gathered from the survey also helps understand what content and creatives resonate better with the audience.
Contextual approach: winning attention with contextual advertising
Advertisers are moving away from one single approach and are looking at leveraging a combination of approaches to win audience attention and improve ROI on advertising spends. One such strategy is contextual advertising—a data privacy-first alternative to traditional ad targeting practices, enabling advertisers to garner attention by producing ads that resonate, placing them in the most ideal locations, and displaying them to the desired audience.
- With various restrictions, ad and cookie blockers, compliances, and the broader shift towards privacy, advertisers have realized the need to shift toward a more inclusive, privacy-first approach.
- Traditional audience targeting practices rely on stereotypes and assumptions and fail to capture the right attention as the target audience is broad and not truly focused on the real addressable market share.
The Role of Context in Cognitive Development
Taking inspiration from cognitive development theories, John-Steiner & Mahn (1996) emphasized the timeframe which emphasizes contextual factors in cognitive development. This perspective aligns with advertising strategies that adapt dynamically to their environments. Just as American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) suggested that a child’s growth is influenced by the mesosystem, which includes larger organizational structures, advertisements function within a layered ecosystem that affects user engagement.
Contextual advertising is a complementary technology that integrates well with new privacy initiatives like universal IDs and Privacy Sandbox, providing a more effective strategy that adapts to user preferences.
- Contextual ads effectively amass attention by producing impactful ad creatives and ensuring ideal creative placement.
- Whether it is images or video, contextual creatives resonate with users and capture their attention.
Contextual Creatives and Their Impact
Contextual ads effectively amass attention by producing impactful ad creatives and ensuring ideal creative placement. Whether it is images or video, contextual creatives resonate with users and capture their attention. With the right approach, advertisers can create a climate where social interaction plays a critical role in children’s learning—a principle that can be applied to audience engagement, where contextual relevance fosters deeper connections.
By leveraging a contextual approach, advertisers can create meaningful interactions while respecting data privacy. In doing so, they align with society’s self-image, growth, sense of accomplishment, and schedule, thereby impacting the audience physically, cognitively, and emotionally. This shift not only ensures compliance with privacy regulations but also enhances the efficacy of ad campaigns, making them more resonant and impactful.
With a focus on all the right elements, our contextual advertising solution powered by AI is empowering brands to grow affinity, achieve higher accuracy, and drive more intentional attention.
The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by a relentless focus on consumer privacy. Regulations like GDPR and CCPA, coupled with browser restrictions, are rapidly eroding the traditional addressable advertising ecosystem. While the recent news about Google's decision on not deprecating third-party cookies has caused ripples, it's essential to recognize that the broader shift towards privacy is irreversible.
At Seedtag, we've been at the forefront of privacy-first advertising for a decade. We develop tools for advertisers to thrive beyond an evolving landscape, delivering campaigns that matter to users at the most relevant moment for them. Here is how we foresee going from an era of change to a change of an era:
Cookie limitations: Losing Signals and Reach
With Chrome market share ranging from 75% to 50% depending on the country, according to web-tracking firm StatCounter. Furthermore, if you factor in legislation, penetration of ad and cookie blocking apps and users choice (53% of users reject cookies on certain websites and 32% in all websites according to a study conducted in conjunction with YouGov), it’s clear marketers are now facing numerous restrictions.
Traditional audience categorization and targeting methods are becoming ineffective because they rely on stereotypes and assumptions and fail to comply with privacy regulations, but even more importantly, user preference. Conventional advertising methods aim for a broad audience, but they often miss the mark, leading to wasted ad spend as many viewers may not be interested in the product or service; and fails on delivering the message to the total addressable market. Modern targeting strategies move beyond conventional identity-based approaches and focus on users' current interests and the context of the content they consume. Interest-based targeting, which breaks away from stereotypes, is seen as a more effective, non-intrusive, and privacy-centric alternative.
Cookies have carried the industry far, but time has come to pass the torch - a significant challenge for many advertisers and a unique opportunity for those who can adapt.
Contextual: The key to Precision & Scale
Contextual advertising is the cornerstone of our approach. It focuses solely on the content of the page rather than the user, mitigating privacy concerns and complying with data protection regulations. Contextual advertising delivers both precision and scale by leveraging the context surrounding ads rather than tracking individual users. This method respects user privacy while providing highly relevant ad placements.
Contextual signals can be particularly effective on platforms like Connected TV (CTV), cookieless by nature, which accounts for one-third of combined US linear and CTV ad spend in 2024, according to eMarketer. With strong projected growth in 2025, these signals ensure that ads reach the right audience at the right time without compromising privacy. Our Contextual Graph, combined with advanced AI, allows us to target audiences with precision and scale, delivering exceptional results in a privacy-centric world.
Beyond Contextual: A Hybrid Approach
In the changing world of digital advertising, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The future is undeniably hybrid, combining traditional signals with emerging privacy-first methods. Integrations with new privacy-focused initiatives, such as universal IDs, Privacy Sandbox, are becoming increasingly important.
By using a mix of contextual advertising and available tools, advertisers can achieve a balanced and effective strategy that adapts to ongoing changes and user preferences. This approach allows advertisers to diversify their tactics, ensuring they do not rely on a single method and can reach their target audiences effectively.
Seedtag’s Commitment to Privacy-Preserving Advertising
Powered by Liz, our pioneering AI technology, we at Seedtag offer future-proof, thoroughly tested contextual targeting solutions that find and engage with nuanced audiences and capture their attention by aligning with their current line of interest.
We believe that by focusing on context, relevance, and user experience, we can build a more sustainable and effective advertising ecosystem.
Are you ready to embrace the future of advertising? Want to learn more on how Seedtag can help you navigate the complexities of a privacy-centric world?
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Can you hear the bells ring? School’s here.
The academic year kickoff is fast approaching, and the atmosphere is bubbling with energy as students and their families gear up for the new chapter. In the latest Seedtag Lab report - Back to School 2024, we uncover key details like the keywords and topics that are top of mind of the audience and align with the key values within the Back to School topic.
With a 30% article share, Student Finances is the key topic of interest as the audience focuses on the financial aspects of university life like student loans, budget management, scholarships, accommodation costs, and banking options tailored for students.
Next in line is School Material with a 28% article share. This includes notebooks, art and science kits, educational software, and stylish classroom materials that help students prepare and stay motivated to learn.
Next up we have Parenting with 23% of articles covering concepts like childcare, financial planning, educational support, school safety, and parenting strategies to ensure the academic and personal development of students.
Education & Learning is the final topic with a 19% share of articles. From classroom learning and curriculum enhancement to the integration of technology and extracurricular activities, the topics focus on the diverse aspects of education.
What are the main clusters garnering interest within the Back to School theme?
1. Student Finances
This topic garners 2.4M impressions during the back to school season.
- Cost of Living: Total views 43% and ~18 Avg. views
- Financial Solutions: Total views 19% and ~8.5 Avg. views
- Studying Abroad: Total views 15% and ~8.5 Avg. views
2. School Material
This category amasses 2.1M impressions.
- Integration of Technology: Total views 18% and ~7.6 Avg. views
- School & Sports Attire: Total views 15% and ~9.9 Avg. views
- School Supplies Bundles: Total views 13% and ~4 Avg. views
3. Parenting
With 3.8M impressions, parents are the main area of audience interest during the season.
- Back to School FAQ: Total views 25% and ~12 Avg. views
- Financial Assistance for Parents: Total views 23% and ~11 Avg. views
- Educational Standards: Total views 19% and ~8 Avg. views
4. Education & Learning
Learning is the second-most trending area of interest with 3.1M impressions.
- School Initiatives: Total views 37% and ~11 Avg. views
- Ofsted Ratings: Total views 25% and ~6 Avg. views
- Learning Approaches: Total views 15% and ~4.9 Avg. views
- Special Educational Needs: Total views 9% and ~4 Avg. views
For more on Contextual Audiences tailored for the season, reach out.
Seedtag continues to pursue strategic expansion, making a bold move with the acquisition of JustEggs, a powerhouse in creative intelligence solutions for brands and advertisers. This play marks Seedtag’s grand entrance into the Australian market, further solidifying our footprint in the APAC region.
Founded in 2013, JustEggs is renowned for its innovative digital solutions that craft truly engaging campaigns with measurable results. The exciting news? JustEggs will be integrating Seedtag’s industry-leading contextual AI technology Liz, into their offerings starting this month. This means even more targeted and effective campaigns for JustEggs’ clients, powered by the potential of contextual AI.
A seamless transition is on the horizon, with Seedtag and JustEggs working closely to ensure smooth integration of their technologies. JustEggs’ founder, Nik Kontoulas, will continue steering the ship as Managing Director of the Australia & New Zealand region.
This strategic move follows Seedtag’s successful market entries into India, Peru, and most recently Canada. With the acquisition of JustEggs, Seedtag’s presence expands to a total of 17 markets globally.
Australia’s digital landscape is booming, with Statista predicting the number of internet users to surpass a staggering 23.3 million by 2025, translating to an internet penetration rate of over 89%. Seedtag’s entry into this thriving market is a natural step in its mission to become the go-to contextual partner for brands, agencies, and publishers alike. Users in Australia can now benefit from all the advantages of privacy-first advertising that reaches consumers based on their real-time interests at massive scale, with truly unbiased targeting.
How will we redefine contextual advertising in Australia?
- Contextual Targeting meets Creative Intelligence: Seedtag’s industry-leading contextual targeting paired with JustEggs' innovative digital solutions enables advertisers to reach highly relevant audiences with pinpoint accuracy
- Privacy-First Advertising that Delivers: In a world increasingly focused on user privacy, Seedtag and JustEggs' combined expertise ensures impactful advertising that respects privacy regulations and delivers results.
- Expanded Reach and Insights: With the integration of Seedtag's AI and JustEggs' creative solutions, advertisers and publishers gain a comprehensive view of their target audiences, optimizing campaign planning and execution across all digital platforms.
“The acquisition of JustEggs perfectly exemplifies Seedtag’s unwavering commitment to global expansion, particularly within the APAC region,” said Albert Nieto, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Seedtag. “We are thrilled to partner with such a stellar team in our industry, pushing the boundaries of contextual intelligence to new heights.”
“Joining forces with Seedtag catapults us into a new era of digital advertising innovation for the ANZ market,” said Nik Kontoulas, founder of JustEggs. “With their cutting-edge technology and global reach, we’re equipped to conquer the cookieless world and beyond. The future is bright!”
“Australia boasts a highly sophisticated market driven by data and technology, and we’re confident we have a lot to offer the local digital advertising scene,” said Dal Gill, VP of New Markets at Seedtag. “Following our successful foray into India, this marks our second market launch in APAC. We’re firmly convinced that our unique contextual advertising solutions will empower Australian brands and publishers to achieve their advertising goals while fulfilling the demand for privacy-centric, scalable targeting.”
With privacy concerns on the rise and consumers demanding more relevant and engaging experiences, this strategic alliance ensures brands can flourish in the privacy-first era, delivering exceptional results along the way and empowering brands to connect with audiences in more markets than ever before.
Are your ad campaigns keeping pace with these evolving trends? Discover how Seedtag’s enhanced contextual advertising solutions can propel you ahead of the competition and connect with your audience in a whole new way. Contact us today to learn more.
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