The pressure was on for Amelia, the marketing director at “Veridian Outdoors.” It was early 2026, and the Boulder, Colorado e-bike company’s direct-to-consumer sales had flatlined. Their standard digital ads were giving them less and less for their money, and the brand’s great story, all about adventure and sustainability, was getting lost in static banner ads. Her problem was clear: how do you actually connect with people and build lasting CTV branding when the media is scattered into a million different streams?
Key Takeaways
- The money’s moving from regular TV to Connected TV (CTV), with U.S. ad spending expected to hit $38.7 billion by 2026.
- Telling real stories with video storytelling on CTV makes people remember your brand about 30% more than they do with other ad types.
- Use interactive ads on CTV, like shoppable spots or QR code integrations, to get people to buy things and actually track what they’re doing.
- Focus on longer stories for CTV, because it’s how you really connect with an audience and explain what your brand is all about.
- Use your own first-party customer data to target very specific groups on CTV with brand messages made just for them.
Veridian Outdoors had a great product: beautiful e-bikes built for city streets and mountain trails. Their mission was solid, too, making eco-friendly transport accessible and fun. Good luck explaining any of that in a six-second pre-roll ad on YouTube. Amelia knew she needed real engagement, a story that would stick, not just a pile of impressions. She had the message, but she didn’t have a big enough canvas to paint it on. Their strategy just wasn’t set up for true video storytelling.
I ran into Amelia at an industry event in Denver last fall. She was sharp, but you could tell she was completely fed up with the results from their current ad spend. “We’re spending good money,” she explained, “but it feels like shouting into a void. People see our logo, maybe remember the bike, but they don’t get why we do what we do. They don’t feel the freedom, the adventure.” Her team had tried short video ads on social platforms, but the context always felt off. A person quickly scrolling past a picture of an e-bike wasn’t leading to sustained interest or, more importantly, a sale.
The solution, as we talked it over, was to figure out where her audience was genuinely paying attention. For years, Nielsen data has shown people ditching linear TV for streaming services on their Connected TV (CTV) devices. A recent IAB report confirmed it, projecting that U.S. CTV ad spending will hit $38.7 billion by 2026, that tells you exactly where the eyeballs are. The environment itself was the key, even more than the raw reach. Someone watching CTV is usually kicked back on the couch, paying attention, and is far more receptive to longer, more involved content.
Our first meeting was all about nailing down Veridian’s core pillars: sustainability, adventure, and community. From there, we started spitballing ideas for narratives that would actually work on a TV screen. Forget product-first ads. We were thinking mini-documentaries. One concept followed a group of Denver commuters using Veridian bikes to get around the 16th Street Mall, showing how the bikes turned a daily slog into something fun. Another idea was to tell the stories of people using the bikes to get to remote hiking trails in the Rockies, hitting that adventure angle hard.
Getting this done meant a total shift in their creative and media buying. Veridian was used to short, snappy videos. For CTV, we needed longer formats, 30 or 60 seconds, and sometimes even 90 seconds for a really good story. That extra time lets you build characters, set a scene, and create an actual emotional arc. We told them to spend more on production quality because the big screen on a CTV magnifies every flaw. A grainy phone video might work on a social feed, but on a 65-inch television, it just looks cheap, which isn’t an option when you’re building a premium brand.
CTV targeting also gave us a much sharper tool than their old broad-brush methods. We helped Amelia’s team slice their audience with more precision. Instead of just “outdoor enthusiasts,” we could now target households that we knew were interested in cycling, eco-tourism, or even competing outdoor gear brands, using data from the CTV platforms. This meant their well-crafted stories were hitting the right people. For instance, we found households in places like Fort Collins and Colorado Springs with a high number of outdoor activity registrations and hit them with the mountain-trail video.
A big question was how to measure success beyond just counting views. For brand recall, we ran brand lift studies with third-party research firms, surveying people who saw the ads and people who didn’t to check their awareness of Veridian Outdoors and what they thought the brand stood for. An early study gave us the proof we needed: a 35% jump in spontaneous brand recall among viewers who saw the long-form CTV ads versus those who only saw the old digital shorts. That metric showed Amelia that the investment in better stories was paying off.
We also pushed them to try interactive CTV formats. Not every ad has to be shoppable, but putting QR codes in some of the longer videos gave viewers a way to scan their phone and instantly visit a product page or sign up for a test ride. This closes the gap between just watching and actually doing something. Think about it: you see someone easily climbing a steep hill on a Veridian e-bike, and right then a QR code pops up with a call to action. Making it that easy for someone to get to your site with their phone makes a huge difference in conversion rates.
Amelia was worried about the cost of making longer, higher-quality videos. My advice was blunt: what’s the lifetime value of a customer who really gets your brand, compared to one who just clicks a banner ad once? A strong narrative on CTV is an investment in brand equity that builds loyalty far beyond one sale. You’re trying to create advocates, not just customers.
Veridian Outdoors’ first CTV campaign went live with two main stories. One was about a family’s weekend adventure on Colorado trails, showing the e-bike’s versatility. The other was a more aspirational piece with a solo rider taking on tough terrain, playing up the performance and thrill. We ran both campaigns across major CTV platforms like Roku Advertising and Amazon Streaming TV Ads, aiming them at very specific demographic and psychographic groups.
After the first three months, the results spoke for themselves. Brand recall shot up, and website traffic from people who saw the CTV ads had an average session duration 2.5x longer than traffic from other digital channels. More importantly, direct sales ticked up, and attribution models pointed right back to the CTV campaigns. The longer stories gave people time to actually absorb the brand’s values which created a more informed and committed group of customers. Amelia told me their customer feedback surveys started to mention the “inspiring videos” they saw, proving a real connection was made.
To succeed on CTV, you have to change how you think about advertising. It’s about telling stories, not just running ads. You have to accept that the living room TV is a totally different beast than a mobile phone screen and requires a different strategy. When you invest in quality content and smart distribution on CTV platforms, you get a real return in deep brand recall and genuine customer loyalty.
What is Connected TV (CTV) and how does it differ from traditional TV?
Connected TV (CTV) is any television that’s set up to connect to the internet and stream content through apps, like a smart TV or a TV with a device like a Roku or Apple TV plugged in. It’s different from traditional TV because all the content is on-demand and delivered online, which allows for much better ad targeting, interactive features, and detailed campaign measurement.
Why is video storytelling particularly effective on CTV for brand recall?
Video storytelling works so well for brand recall on CTV because viewers are typically in an engaged, lean-back mode, like watching old-school TV. That captive audience is more open to longer, immersive stories that can build an emotional connection, get across complex brand ideas, and create a memorable ad experience that they’ll actually remember later.
What kind of content performs best for CTV branding campaigns?
Longer narratives, mini-documentaries, and stories with some emotional weight are what perform best for CTV branding. Any content that shows your brand’s values in action, solves a real customer problem, or tells an inspiring story will almost always beat a short, product-focused ad. The goal is to entertain and inform, not just to sell.
How can I measure the effectiveness of my CTV branding efforts?
You measure CTV branding with a few different metrics. The key ones are brand lift studies (to see if awareness and perception changed), website traffic from people you know saw the ads, and engagement with interactive features like QR code scans. In the end, you’re looking for attribution models that tie the campaigns back to actual sales. You can also find reports on CTV measurement from sources like eMarketer for more ideas.
What are some common challenges in implementing a CTV branding strategy?
The most common challenges are the higher cost of good video production, the headache of managing campaigns across all the different CTV platforms, targeting the right audience in such a fragmented market, and accurately attributing sales. Getting past these hurdles requires good planning, a real budget for creative, and someone who knows how to analyze the data to make adjustments.
