• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Dentsu is on a roll. The company, which operates a network of global brands and agencies, has been working on significant projects with industry tech companies to guarantee and improve ad campaign performance through a variety of ways.

LoopMe will provide advertisers with a performance guarantee, and in an ongoing partnership with Dentsu X announced Tuesday, is launching “Guaranteed Brand Outcomes.”

The offering provides a guarantee backed by artificial intelligence (AI) and data analysis to ensure a specific campaign outcome, moving beyond delivering a set number of ad views.

The performance-based offering allows LoopMe to underwrite a fixed volume of ad views and lift when advertisers buy media. It confirms the percentage of consumers who have seen the ad versus those who did not.

The system dynamically increases impression volume and advertising reach to achieve the advertiser’s specified quota.

Califia Farms became the first company to share results through the collaboration. Early tests showed that it resulted in a 28% brand lift, with positive ad recall among 325,000 users and a 7.5% sales lift that surpassed the benchmark by 5x.

As a brand, Califia has become established in the natural beverage category, known for its almond, coconut milk and oatmilk products. It seems that the brand was looking beyond awareness to guaranteed outcomes for its campaigns.

As it launches the new offering, Dentsu seems to be willing to share brands' results.

With its partner PubMatic, a supply-side platform (SSP), the agency became the first to deploy “pause ad” campaigns across its connected TV (CTV) ad inventory. The collaboration follows a successful pilot between the two companies.

PubMatic’s pause ad format displays a static or video advertisement on a viewer's screen when they intentionally pause a streaming video on CTV. This is not the same as the ability to pause ads on search. The term "pause" refers to two completely different concepts.

The pause ad strategy could become an option for performance campaigns, although it has historically been used for branding, showing an effective use to drive measurable, bottom-funnel action.

Users can access the pause ad format through PubMatic’s “Activate” product, which gives agency reps the tools to optimize technology through algorithms that analyze the viewer’s pause behavior patterns to optimize campaign performance during ad breaks.

Activate leverages campaign optimization events that PubMatic calls pause timing, live scheduling data, content genre, and advanced viewing behavior data to reach high-intent audiences during engaged viewing moments.

Dentsu’s client Rabbits Black used the pause ads format to promote the movie "Stitch Head" on behalf of Briar Cliff Entertainment. The Halloween film is scheduled for release on October 29, 2025. The awareness campaign ran through DirectTV. The goal was to move viewers down the funnel from awareness to purchase movie tickets.

Agencies also can manage pause advertising alongside traditional CTV campaigns through integrated workflows and comprehensive measurement frameworks.