By Deborah Hall, CEO and Co-Founder, DIVE, which brings social content to DOOH and CTV devices.2025 is just around the corner, and it’s set to be a year that sees Connected TV continue to transform how brands engage audiences, by blending social media’s dynamism with television’s reach. The current wave of CTV innovation—driven by user-generated content (UGC), creators, and interactive ad formats—is taking the medium to new heights. For brands that have mastered the art of working with creators, the next frontier is set to combine the gold of the creator content with the power of CTV – this combination makes for a more immersive, impactful, and measurable environment.
The Opportunity: Taking Social to CTV
Marketers are investing more resources into crafting authentic, relatable content with creators, selecting individuals who speak directly to different audience segments. While this content often works well on social media in a silo, and creates deep engagement, it also remains confined to social platforms. CTV changes this game by allowing marketers to bring this goldmine of content into the living rooms of consumers, translating digital success into real-world attention.
By integrating the content and formats consumers love from platforms like TikTok, brands can ensure consistency while maximizing impact. The ability to hit “play” and reach audiences at scale in a brand-safe environment like CTV gives marketers a bridge to take what works in social media—creator authenticity, high engagement—and extend it to a more expansive medium. Few brands are fully leveraging this potential yet, but the ones that do are positioning themselves ahead of the curve.
The Challenge: Merging Active Engagement Passive Viewing
While the opportunity is tangible, integrating social media-style content into CTV ad strategies comes with its own set of challenges. The biggest hurdle is adapting formats designed for active, thumb-scrolling environments like TikTok into a more co-viewing and passive entertainment experience like TV. Consumers are used to broadcast being a one-way street, where they sit back and absorb content. This iteration of CTV is set to blur this line, offering interactive ad units that engage viewers in moments when they are ripe for action in their co-viewing environments..
For instance, ads on CTV can feature clickable links, QR codes, or even real-time interactive elements, allowing viewers to engage with products or services as they watch. This creates an entirely new way for brands to connect with their audience, moving away from the traditional passive ad-viewing experience and instead invites the consumer into a dialogue with the brand.
The Role of UGC and Creators
Integrating UGC and creator content into CTV campaigns is not just a clever strategy; it’s a powerful way to increase authenticity. Consumers value real voices and relatable experiences, and UGC, when done right, brings a layer of trust and transparency that’s hard to replicate. CTV provides an avenue to scale these efforts beyond the small screens of mobile devices and inspire new audiences outside of mobile platforms.
Creators can play a key role in this. They already have immense influence over niche markets on social platforms, so when their content is strategically tailored for CTV, it can resonate even more powerfully by appearing in spaces where consumers are accustomed to being entertained, such as during their favorite shows. This opens up the opportunity for marketers to create “super efficiencies,” as one creator’s message can simultaneously reach multiple segments across different markets.
Reinventing the Ad Unit & CTV’s Advantage
Traditional broadcast ads, despite their wide reach, have always suffered from a lack of actionable insight. Viewers saw the ad (if they were paying attention), but did engagement stop there? CTV is different. Not only does it allow brands to track engagement—such as dwell time or click-through rates—but it also opens the door to new kinds of ad units. Brands can now create fully interactive experiences that blend the storytelling of television with the engagement metrics of digital ads. Whether it’s a scannable QR code that takes viewers to a product page, a clickable banner that appears mid-show, or even an interactive quiz within the ad itself, the possibilities are exciting.
While platforms like YouTube have pioneered the CTV space for years, there’s now an influx of opportunity with apps like TikTok, Instagram, and even Netflix and Amazon. With every new app and platform that integrates into CTV, brands have more opportunities to target specific audiences with content tailored for engagement, and they need partners who can bridge the gap between mobile, social, DOOH and CTV.
