Vevo’s rise on the big screen—where viewers spend more than 30 minutes per viewing session—has been in concert with the rise in connected television viewership. The trend accelerated during the pandemic and shows no signs of reversing, with linear ratings continuing to decline, and CTV offering networks and advertisers a swath of actionable data points.

“There’s infinitely more in your tool kit when you’re buying connected television than if you’re buying just a linear format that’s brought to you through one feed and distributed to the masses without a host of targeting that we know the industry needs more of,” Judelman says. “CTV is the natural place you need to be, and our content is foundational. It cuts through all audiences, all demographics, all geography. This is one of the first places you need to build for what will be your CTV presence in the future.”

Because not all connected TV platforms reach the same audiences, Vevo is continually expanding its reach into almost twenty platforms on which its content rides to better understand the nuances each brings with them and help advertisers get more comfortable in the space.

“A big part of everything we’re doing is learning how a Samsung, a Vizio, an Amazon or a Roku differ from one another with the same strain of content—and how to offer up products and boost media campaigns within those environments,” he notes. “By understanding those differences, we’re going to be able to deliver campaigns strategically against all of them where a certain audience may be more prominent in one platform vs. another. That’s what we’re planning to optimize in the coming year.”

“We know the audience is going to CTV, and we’re here to vie for where the linear ratings are declining. How can we capitalize on this dynamic and those ad dollars?”, says Tamberrino. “For us to be a partner that can uncover insights advertisers want to know, and curate a more personalized experience in this space, is the next phase.”

Ultimately the decision of where to advertise comes down to the featured content. Vevo’s multicultural reach and resonance is striking a chord with a broader mix of brands than ever before.

“Especially as we come out of the pandemic and having the social unrest and all the challenges society faced in 2020… we want to draw on the same emotion of the content and put brands in the relevant environment they want to be adjacent to,” says Tamberrino.

“Our entire client base is more diverse. The foundation is becoming a mile wide vs. being top-heavy with certain categories,” Judelman says. “More advertisers view our content as an environment that can work with any kind of campaign. The television screen has helped drive that narrative forward and brought new advertisers with it. As a result, we’ve gained steam with categories we were doing well with, and activated others.”

Telecom is among the sectors that are escalating, as is local ad content. And although CPG was always a strong category for Vevo, its television foothold enables advertisers to bifurcate exposure on the network. “There’s exposure digitally within the desktop and mobile setting, and now they’re looking at us as a television replacement to build in the reach and audience,” he says. “We’re a platform that can do both.”

With the global language of music as its mainstay, “We’re trying to target advertiser campaigns alongside more contextually relevant content, music videos in particular,” Tamberrino says. “And because of all the consumer insights we have within CTV, we can do that. With this cookie-less world we’re going to be entering, it only makes sense for us to lead with that approach from a content angle.”

Once advertisers come to the Vevo fold, the company has a growing playlist of offerings around which brands can message, including Moods, Moments, Concierge and its popular franchise, Official Live Performances.

Justin Bieber in March performed four songs live from his latest album “Justice” as part of an Official Live Performance, which melds live footage and original cinematography. J Balvin—Vevo’s most-watched artist of 2020—also used the format to engage audiences.

“We’re designed to amplify existing campaigns, building on the foundation of core audiences, satisfying needs in reach and frequency and then sprucing it up with these new products. There’s only a limited amount of them so we expect they’re going to move largely during the negotiations we’re doing right now,” Judelman says.

Next up is expanding Vevo’s original programming offering.

“We essentially have a hub in the living room [musicians] can participate in, and there’s a potential to create different content that lives there and test the audience’s appetite for different formats. We can create new formats and a new Vevo brand that gets even larger and more profound in the music industry than it has been historically.”

Music videos will always be the foundation, he says. “But when you start to add in content that’s created by our team, like that Justin performance, that is perfect to live on a television screen. So it’s about how else we can collaborate with artists to envision it and dream it. That’s the type of conversation we want to be having with artists and the type of enthusiasm we’re getting from the music community.”