How to approach CTV advertising in 2025 with The Trade Desk

Disney continued to innovate its advertising platform, and we were proud to be announced as one of the first demand-side platforms directly integrated into the Disney Real Time Ad Exchange (DRAX). Through this direct connection, advertisers have the opportunity to see improved transparency into Disney inventory, and better access to reach and measurement against high-value audiences. This capability empowers advertisers to build campaigns focused on effectiveness and innovation while also benefiting from the enhanced flexibility of biddable programmatic marketplaces.

In April, Roku announced that they would adopt our Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) solution in a strategic partnership that increased addressability across its ecosystem. By pairing Roku’s household identity with our identity solution UID2, this partnership gives you insight into viewership and enables you to reach Roku’s high-value CTV audiences across the open internet. As streaming becomes increasingly central to media consumption, the combination of Roku’s reach and UID2’s precision is a game changer for making your buying more effective and maximizing your business outcomes.

In May, Netflix announced its programmatic partnership with us giving advertisers access to their inventory, starting in US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. This means brands have the opportunity to connect with highly engaged audiences on one of the most popular streaming platforms in the world. Advertisers can now work toward crafting campaigns that deliver maximum impact in a premium-video environment. This partnership is just the beginning, with plans to expand access globally in 2025, which could pave the way for greater possibilities for brands.

Also in May, we integrated locality into our CTV forecasting and budget allocation. This development gives advertisers the means to optimize their budgets and incorporate data-driven forecasting into their campaign designs. With these tools at your disposal, you can work toward maximizing ROI in key geographic areas by tailoring your campaigns to local audiences.

In June, we introduced the Sellers and Publishers 500+, an inventory buying option that was designed to help simplify reaching audiences across the best of the open internet. To meet these enhanced quality standards, we now filter our inventory using channel-relevant metrics, including viewability, ad load, ad refresh rate, and video playback type. These features position the Sellers and Publishers 500+ to be able to offer you a more scalable solution than private marketplaces and of a higher quality than the open marketplace.

As the nation watched the 2024 Summer Games from Paris, France, we met the cultural moment by partnering with NBCUniversal to offer advertisers programmatic access to their Olympics inventory as well as coveted ad slots. From the Opening Ceremony to medal-winning moments, brands had a direct line to the millions of viewers captivated by the world’s largest sporting event. Critically, our platform’s proprietary pacing technology helped marketers capitalize on high-impact opportunities and optimize in real time. There are many opportunities to reach live sports audiences all year globally. Don’t miss the moment!

Also in August, we partnered with Comscore in a first-of-its-kind Get local incremental reach insights across CTV and linear TV measurement solution that empowers you to measure and understand incremental CTV reach over linear TV, across demographics at the hyperlocal level. Using our integration of Comscore’s campaign measurement, you can allocate campaign spend where it matters most and improve campaign efficiency, with a local view from Comscore campaign data. Learn more.

CTV ads are often most effective when they’re part of a balanced omnichannel strategy. Omnichannel boosts ad performance and offers a more engaging customer experience. To help you unlock these benefits, in September, we launched Kokai, our most transformative platform update yet. By running your campaigns in Kokai, you gain a cohesive optimization framework that operates seamlessly across channels. Kokai makes it easy to analyze all active channels, strategically prioritize CTV households, and engage audiences with fresh content on other channels, such as audio or display.