• by Wayne Friedman , October 1, 2025

Content-based "contextual" advertising continues to essentially get a thumbs down from brands -- especially when it comes to media buys on connected TV (CTV) platforms, according to a recent Gracenote survey.

“Marketers, brands, agencies have evolved their thinking about CTV as a paid media channel -- but have not evolved their strategies accordingly,” according to authors of the report.

As a result, the report says, 32% of media-executive respondents in the report said they do not consider CTV to be very effective as a media channel. 

The IAB estimates that CTV will grow 13% versus 2024 to $26.6 billion.

Gracenote focuses heavily on contextual advertising based on its longtime business around massive entertainment metadata and expects that with key data, brands can expand media buys beyond core “audience”-based deals into brand messaging in or around program content itself on media platforms.

According to its survey, right now 80% of brands use audience-based targeting of all types -- with "demographic" targeting the most prioritized -- getting a 29.5% score among survey respondents.

Internet-based targeting is next at 21%, with geographic targeting at 19% and behavioral targeting at 10.3%.

Content-based targeting ranks lower. Contextual targeting at the channel level comes in at 11%, and at the program level it scores 9.2%.

Overall, the finding is that "brand awareness” continues to be top objective in CTV/streaming media spending -- with a 30% score from survey respondents. That is followed by "revenue growth” at 28% and customer acquisition at 22%.

Two of the lesser goals are content-based -- "customer retention" at 16% and "competitor conquesting" at 5%.