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Connected TV Trends and Predictions

January 7, 2025

Connected TV wrapped: 2024 highlights and 2025 predictions.

Your CTV Wrapped has arrived! As we bid farewell to 2024, let’s take a moment to celebrate the evolution of Connected TV (CTV)—with a nod to one of our favorite audio advertising partners, Spotify. This year, CTV reshaped how we consume content and interact with ads. From the explosive growth

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5 min read

Connected TV wrapped: 2024 highlights and 2025 predictions.

By Ashley Finlayson

In 2024, streaming viewership surged, ad-supported models thrived, and programmatic took over. As we head into 2025, Connected TV is poised for even greater growth.

Your CTV Wrapped has arrived! As we bid farewell to 2024, let’s take a moment to celebrate the evolution of Connected TV (CTV)—with a nod to one of our favorite audio advertising partners, Spotify...

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5 min read

Connected TV Trends and Predictions

EMG’s Brett Hall on mastering streaming ads: Key trends and practical tips for dealerships.

By Lauren Beaney

Streaming ads can drive real results for dealerships—if they get the basics right. EMG’s Brett Hall shares key trends and practical tips to help dealerships succeed on streaming.

https://digitaldealer.com/dealer-ops-leadership/mastering-streaming-ads-key-trends-and-practical-tips-for-dealerships/ As streaming services grow, more car dealerships are tapping into this underu...

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4 min read

Mastering Streaming Ads for dealerships

EMG shares 3 streaming trends in automotive: Considerations for 2025

By Lauren Beaney

Streaming is reshaping the way car dealerships advertise—and 2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year. EMG breaks down three key trends every automotive marketer should have on their radar.

https://digitaldealer.com/marketing-advertising/3-streaming-trends-in-automotive-considerations-for-2025/ If you’re planning to lounge on the sofa and binge your favorite show Friday night, what...

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4 min read

Streaming Trends in Automotive

The great TV shift: How streaming is reshaping entertainment

By Ashley Finlayson

Streaming has redefined entertainment, transforming how people watch TV, sports, and movies across every screen. As traditional cable and broadcast TV subscriptions plummet and legacy media restructures, streaming has emerged as the new default—reshaping both viewership habits and the future of advertising.

Traditional TV isn’t what it was a decade ago. The days of steady cable subscriptions are giving way to cord cutting, major corporate restructurings, and a streaming boom that’s redefining how we ...

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5 min read

Streaming TV Entertainment Viewership Shift

Streaming monetization models explained: SVOD, AVOD, FAST, and hybrid.

By Ashley Finlayson

Streaming monetization models include ad-supported, ad-free, and hybrid approaches. Each contains sub-models—like SVOD, AVOD, FAST, and more—that platforms use to generate revenue. For marketers, accessing inventory across all of them is key to reaching modern streaming audiences.

SVOD, AVOD, FAST… feeling lost in a sea of streaming acronyms and industry terms? You’re not the only one. Fortunately, these terms are easier to understand than they sound—and knowing the diffe...

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4 min read

Streaming monetization models AVOD SVOD hybrid

Why marketers can’t afford to ignore streaming audio.

By Ashley Finlayson

Streaming audio boosts campaign performance by 30% when paired with Connected TV (CTV)—making it a must-have, not a maybe. Here’s why audio deserves a starring role in every dealership’s streaming strategy.

Connected TV deserves applause for its engaging format and digital targeting capabilities, but its often-overlooked counterpart deserves a standing ovation as well. Streaming audio—audio content acc...

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2 min read

Streaming Audio Advertising

Is Connected TV a performance marketing channel? Here’s what the data says.

By Ashley Finlayson

Although still widely used for brand building, Connected TV is undoubtedly a performance marketing channel, offering precise digital targeting, measurement, and optimization that drive online and offline conversions.

Connected TV (CTV) isn’t just a modern update to traditional television—it’s fundamentally digital, offering marketers unprecedented control, precision, and performance. Yet, many still don’t ...

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4 min read

Connected TV Performance Marketing

Content is king: What Netflix’s $18 billion content investment means for the streaming industry.

By Ashley Finlayson

Netflix is investing $18 billion in content to stay ahead in the streaming wars, raising the stakes for the entire industry and proving that content is the key to winning viewership.

The streaming industry has never been more competitive. Digital-first streaming platforms are fighting to hold their ground as legacy media companies assert themselves with their own streaming apps. T...

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4 min read

Streaming Content Investment

EMG joins exclusive Vendor 20 Group to support industry growth.

By Ashley Finlayson

EMG joins the exclusive Vendor 20 Group to collaborate with top automotive vendors and drive innovation in retail performance and streaming advertising.

https://www.autosuccessonline.com/vendor-20-group-membership-announcement/ EMG announces its Vendor 20 Group membership in the exclusive V20 forum for innovative automotive vendors. David Kai...

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2 min read

Deterministic Vs. probabilistic attribution: What’s the difference?

By Ashley Finlayson

For marketers, the proof is in deterministic attribution—delivering 100% certainty in connecting your ad campaigns to measurable sales outcomes.

The proof is in the pudding—and for marketers, the pudding is deterministically attributed sales outcomes. One of the biggest challenges in today’s advertising ecosystem is accurately measuring...

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3 min read

Streaming Advertising Deterministic Attribution

Why your streaming video ads belong on Connected TV, not mobile.

By Ashley Finlayson

CTV delivers a more immersive and trusted viewing experience than mobile or desktop, driving 32% more conversions and making it the clear choice for impactful streaming campaigns.

It’s Sunday night, and you’re choosing a movie to wind down. Are you watching on your mobile phone or your TV? If you are one of the 88% of U.S. households with a Connected TV, chances a...

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3 min read

Connected TV CTV Outperforms OTT

How local dealerships can benefit from CTV advertising.

By Ashley Finlayson

Connected TV (CTV) offers dealerships a cost-effective alternative to traditional TV advertising, combining the broad reach of TV with precise digital targeting to maximize campaign performance at a fraction of the cost.

Large-scale Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have traditionally held the advantage in traditional TV advertising (via cable and satellite), leaving smaller, budget-constrained dealerships at a ...

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2 min read

Small Dealership Streaming Automotive Advertising

Exclusive streaming ad inventory does not exist.

By Ashley Finlayson

CTV ad inventory is fragmented across multiple third-party sellers, meaning access to a streaming platform’s full inventory is often limited, complicating ad campaigns.

When you’re buying concert tickets, you have a wide array of options: official ticketing platforms like Ticketmaster or a venue’s box office, third-party resale platforms like StubHub and SeatGeek...

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4 min read

Automotive Streaming Advertising Strategy

Connected TV is the affordable, targeted alternative to traditional TV advertising.

By Ashley Finlayson

Connected TV offers a cost-effective, targeted alternative to traditional TV advertising by combining the reach of linear TV with the precision of digital, allowing dealerships to purchase ads per impression instead of paying for bulk inventory.

What if we told you that your dealership could advertise on one of the highest-performing ad channels—at half the cost? It's not too good to be true. Connected TV (CTV) advertising combines the powe...

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3 min read

Cost Effective TV Connected TV Advertising

Why cutting streaming ad inventory supply is a bad idea, mostly.

By Ashley Finlayson

An audience-first strategy in programmatic advertising eliminates the guesswork of handpicking specific streaming inventory, allowing advertisers to reach their target audiences across a fragmented landscape of over 35,000 apps—maximizing their campaign’s effectiveness by focusing on data-driven insights, not inventory selection.

Imagine you are a health lover selling a new juice product you created and only allow Sprouts Farmers Market to carry and distribute this product. Sure, all the Sprouts shoppers who enjoy juice will d...

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5 min read

Connected TV Streaming Ad Inventory

What marketers should know about CTV fragmentation.

By Ashley Finlayson

CTV fragmentation is growing, creating both opportunities and challenges for marketers. An audience-first strategy and private inventory contracts are key to navigating this landscape.

Connected TV (CTV) fragmentation has become a hot topic lately, both for consumers and marketers. If you're not sure what's changing, curious about the details, or completely new to the idea of market...

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5 min read

Connected TV Streaming Fragmentation

How rising streaming subscription fees are benefiting advertisers.

By Ashley Finlayson

Rising streaming subscription fees are pushing viewers to ad-supported tiers, creating more inventory for advertisers. With more households turning to AVOD and FAST platforms, advertisers can now reach a growing, targeted audience.

Many of today’s advertisers are worried about the continuous streaming subscription fee increases and unhappy subscribers. While this worry is understandable, advertisers should actually be celebrat...

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4 min read

Increasing streaming subscription fees

Unlocking Connected TV ad inventory’s secrets: supply paths, carriage deals, and contracts.

By Ashley Finlayson

CTV ad inventory is more complex than many advertisers realize, with direct deals representing only a small fraction of the available space. To fully access a platform’s inventory, advertisers must navigate a web of operating systems, digital media players, and carriage deals between apps, TV manufacturers, and networks.

There’s more to Connected TV (CTV) ad inventory than meets the eye. Many advertisers don’t fully grasp the intricacies of the supply chain, leading to missed opportunities to reach large segments ...

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10 min read

Connected TV Ad Inventory

A snippet from the “Streaming Metrics that Matter” at SAS 2024.

By Ashley Finlayson

Brett Hall of EMG emphasizes that measuring market share is key to evaluating streaming campaign success. Focus on performance lift, not just reach, to understand real-world impact and optimize marketing strategies.

https://youtu.be/r3F4uShNkRc The question, “Did my streaming campaign deliver meaningful results?” can only be answered by measuring deterministic outcomes that directly reflect performance li...

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2 min read

Streaming Metrics that Matter

EMG’s Brett Hall to present streaming insights at 2024 Digital Dealer Conference & Expo.

By Ashley Finlayson

Brett Hall, VP of Sales and Marketing at EMG, will host “How to Tame the Wild West of Streaming Advertising” at Digital Dealer 2024, focusing on how dealerships can effectively navigate streaming platforms and measure true ROI.

Brett Hall, EMG's VP of Sales and Marketing, has joined the Digital Dealer 2024 lineup to host a session titled "How to Tame the Wild West of Streaming Advertising.” Streaming advertising may sti...

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2 min read

Digital Dealer 2024 Marketing Advertising

Highlights from the Customer Spotlight at SAS 2024.

By Ashley Finlayson

Jeff Clark of Dealer Alchemist highlights the importance of expertise in streaming advertising, noting that dealerships partnering with experienced platforms see significant improvements in visitation and performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-aKMXEVHJA Although streaming is the most popular TV medium today, some dealerships are still hesitant to adopt it as an advertising channel. This is typically due...

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2 min read

Retail Automotive Streaming Advertising

Key moments from the SAS 2024 Inventory Panel.

By Ashley Finlayson

Kyle Benn of Magnite and Brian Singleton of EMG discuss the growing issue of app spoofing, emphasizing the need for transparency and careful monitoring of suspicious metrics to protect against manipulated inventory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acyD2jkG3hs App spoofing is a growing concern among marketers as fraud committers get increasingly adept at disguising their bid streams. Peek into insights from Br...

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< 1 min read

App Spoofing

Highlights from the Featured Keynote at SAS 2024.

By Ashley Finlayson

Joel Klatt, Fox Sports Analyst, discusses the shift from linear TV to streaming for scripted content and how advertisers must adjust to reach today’s viewers effectively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6qYI-611OU Joel Klatt, a Fox Sports College Football Analyst, offers a compelling analysis of the evolving landscape of linear broadcast TV viewership. Formerly do...

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1 min read

Joel Klatt Fox Sports

A snippet from “The State of the Union: Retail Automotive” at SAS 2024.

By Ashley Finlayson

Joe Kyriakoza and Tom Libby from S&P Global Mobility highlight how rising inventory levels are driving a recovery in brand loyalty, with projections for it to surpass pre-COVID levels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9N5M2qdVqo&t=6s The automotive industry is navigating a recovery phase following significant setbacks in recent years, including constrained inventory, rising ...

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< 1 min read

Retail Automotive Insights

Highlights from the Identity and Measurement Panel at SAS 2024.

By Ashley Finlayson

Natalie Kansteiner from The Trade Desk and Adam Lobelson from S&P Global Mobility highlight the role of identity graphing in privacy-compliant targeting across devices, using technologies like Household Graphs and UID 2.0.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAZkOrZGKE...

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< 1 min read

Identity Resolution, Identity Graphing

A snippet from “The Stream Has Gone Mainstream” at SAS 2024.

By Ashley Finlayson

Brian Singleton of EMG predicts that within the next decade, streaming will consolidate into a few dominant players driven by innovation and industry shifts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1dGtNTXLoY...

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< 1 min read

The Future of Streaming

Why marketers need to bridge the streaming visibility gap.

By Ashley Finlayson

Visibility gaps in streaming ads make tracking conversions challenging, but using display ads and the Household Graph helps link touchpoints to both online and offline actions, providing full attribution insights for optimization.

Visibility is important in many contexts. Imagine trying to read an essay with a third of the words blacked-out—understanding the full story would be difficult. Similarly, for advertisers, measuring...

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5 min read

Streaming Connected TV Advertising Attribution

Connected TV creative best practices for retail automotive

By Ashley Finlayson

Each consumer cohort — pre-market, in-market, economy, luxury — responds optimally to a certain style of automotive creative. To maximize engagement with each consumer segment, it’s necessary to tailor automotive creative to align precisely with their unique behaviors and needs throughout their customer journey. By placing specialized creative in front of each distinct audience segment, […]

Each consumer cohort — pre-market, in-market, economy, luxury — responds optimally to a certain style of automotive creative. To maximize engagement with each consumer segment, it's necessary to t...

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3 min read

CTV creative best practices for retail automotive

What is the household graph?

By Ashley Finlayson

Connected TV and streaming audio are powerful but hard to track. The household graph solves this by linking ad exposures on unclickable devices to real-world actions, enabling accurate targeting and attribution.

Connected TV (CTV) and streaming audio are unmatched in engagement and performance, but accurately targeting consumers and measuring cross-channel attribution on streaming can feel like throwing a dar...

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4 min read

Streaming Connected TV Household Graph Explained

Presenting EMG’s second annual Streaming Automotive Summit.

By Ashley Finlayson

EMG’s Streaming Automotive Summit returns April 16–18, uniting top voices in retail auto and streaming to explore this year’s theme: The Stream Has Gone Mainstream.

Thought leaders in streaming advertising and the retail automotive digital environment set to join forces around the topic "The Stream has Gone Mainstream." NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., March 14, 20...

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4 min read

Streaming Automotive Summit

EMG to join Experian Automotive at CES 2024.

By Ashley Finlayson

EMG joins Experian Automotive at CES 2024 for a studio session where CEO Brian Singleton and VP Brett Hall will share insights on the evolving programmatic landscape and its impact on Connected TV and Digital Audio.

The Consumer Electronics Show® (CES) is the arena for global innovators and business leaders to shape the future of technology. Organized and overseen by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, ...

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2 min read

Consumer Electronics Show 2024

CTV Wrapped—your 2023 Connected TV and CTV advertising recap and 2024 forecast.

By Ashley Finlayson

Connected TV ad spend surged 39.5% in 2023 as more viewers shifted to ad-supported streaming and away from cable. In 2024, CTV is expected to widen its lead, driven by cord-cutting, rising subscription costs, and advertiser demand for smarter targeting and better performance.

...

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13 min read

Connected TV Insights and Trends

How streaming advertising works with EMG.

By Ashley Finlayson

With 56% of U.S. households watching their television content exclusively on Connected TV (CTV) and 75% of households listening to their audio digitally, advertising on streaming audio and CTV are necessary to reach Americans where they watch — and EMG can help. Streaming advertising enables dealerships to connect with a huge pool of viewers through […]

With 56% of U.S. households watching their television content exclusively on Connected TV (CTV) and 75% of households listening to their audio digitally, advertising on streaming audio and CTV are nec...

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5 min read

Dealership streaming advertising

Reach the same viewer on Connected TV for half the price.

By Ashley Finlayson

Why overpay for Sunday Football ads when you can reach the same viewers on other streaming apps for half the cost? Programmatic targeting puts your message in front of real in-market shoppers—no guesswork, no premium price tag.

There’s nothing quite like Sunday Football — and nothing quite like the hyper-inflated cost of this ad inventory. What if we told you that you could reach the same individuals you are trying to re...

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3 min read

Cost Effective Streaming Connected TV Advertising

The power of pre-market in automotive advertising.

By Ashley Finlayson

Pre-market audiences are the most overlooked yet most influenceable group in automotive advertising—often ready to buy before they even realize it. Reaching them early creates brand preference before competitors even show up.

The pre-market audience cohort is the secret ingredient in automotive advertising campaigns. Well, it’s not technically a “secret,” but given the amount it is overlooked in most marketers’ aud...

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4 min read

Automotive Streaming Advertising Audience Targeting

Linear TV viewership is dropping like flies.

By Ashley Finlayson

Connected TV (CTV) has overtaken traditional cable TV as the dominant viewing platform, with more Americans cutting the cord in favor of affordable, on-demand streaming. This shift presents a massive opportunity for advertisers to leverage CTV’s precise targeting and expansive reach, revolutionizing how campaigns are executed.

You heard right, Connected TV (CTV) is now the dominant television medium. Adios linear TV! The trend of cord-cutting, once considered a radical TV approach fostered by millennials, has now become ...

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4 min read

Cable TV losing viewership

EMG’s automotive audiences: Pre & in-market, data, and curation.

By Ashley Finlayson

EMG’s audience curation uses data from millions of walk-ins to identify the top 0.2% of auto-intending consumers, segmenting the customer journey into Pre-Market, In-Market, and Conquest cohorts for highly targeted, high-conversion marketing.

One of our most frequently asked question is, “Can you explain your audiences to me?" If you’re wondering the same thing, you’ve come to the right place. This is a loaded question, but we can an...

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8 min read

Streaming Connected TV advertising audience targeting

It’s a win-win: Millennials stream the most and buy the most cars.

By Ashley Finlayson

Millennials are the largest generation of car buyers in the U.S. and the biggest streaming generation, making them a prime audience for dealerships to target through Connected TV and streaming audio.

Step aside Boomers and Gen X, millennials are entering the chat (and entering dealerships). The common myth that millennials dislike dealerships and don’t buy cars is busted. Millennials are the lar...

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3 min read

Millennial automotive streaming Connected tv advertising

Why car dealerships should advertise on Connected TV: Enhanced targeting, attribution, and optimization.

By Ashley Finlayson

CTV offers car dealerships enhanced targeting, access to premium inventory, and optimized budgets, making it a powerful tool to reach predictive car buyers and drive measurable results.

Automotive advertisements are meant for the flat-screen. With their compelling, cinematic video frames embellishing the elegance and features of the vehicle, a phone or tablet screen just can’t do i...

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7 min read

Advantages of Automotive Connected TV Advertising

How do you measure the impact of your streaming ads?

By Ashley Finlayson

Automotive marketers often focus on metrics like CPM and impressions when determining value, but measuring and optimizing from true lift metrics offers a clearer view of campaign effectiveness and ROI.

We like to ask the question “how do you measure the impact of your streaming advertising campaigns?” to marketers in the automotive industry. This question is great for three reasons. (1) For lear...

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7 min read

Automotive Streaming Advertising Strategy

CTV versus OTT: They are not the same.

By Ashley Finlayson

CTV refers to a device used to stream internet content, while OTT is the method of delivering that content. CTV advertising is more effective than OTT advertising due to the immersive, distraction-free experience it provides for viewers.

Are CTV and OTT synonymous? Is advertising on CTV and OTT the same? The confusion here is understandable considering these terms, amidst the multitude of streaming acronyms, are often misused. Many re...

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7 min read

Connected TV OTT Advertising

The future of advertising is now: How programmatic advertising outperforms endemic advertising.

By Ashley Finlayson

Programmatic advertising uses data to target specific audiences across streaming platforms on Connected TVs, offering a more efficient and precise alternative to traditional endemic advertising.

The era of endemic advertising is over, although some marketers can’t let go. This is understandable, as endemic advertising was ingrained as a staple digital advertising strategy used for over 30 y...

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7 min read

Modern Digital Connected TV Advertising Strategy

Audience curation: are you weeding out faulty advertising audiences?

By Ashley Finlayson

Programmatic advertising requires constant optimization of audience segments. Many audience segments are outdated or inaccurate, and without careful curation, campaigns will underperform.

When you buy a plant, you don’t plant it in the ground and then leave it be. Plants require a fair amount of upkeep to stay healthy, living, and growing. Like plants, the audience segments used in d...

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6 min read

Automotive Streaming Advertising Audience Curation

How does programmatic advertising work?

By Ashley Finlayson

Programmatic advertising automates ad buying and reaches unique consumers directly, making it the most efficient, targeted, and cost-effective advertising technique used today.

With 91% of digital advertising inventory (or available ad space) in the U.S. purchased programmatically this year, buying traditionally (via human negotiation) would warrant a jaw drop from the major...

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9 min read

Programmatic Targeted Streaming Advertising

What is streaming audio advertising? Here’s everything you need to know.

By Ashley Finlayson

Streaming audio advertising reaches listeners during their daily routines, offering a personalized and distraction-free experience. It capitalizes on the growing popularity of platforms like Spotify and Pandora, providing a unique opportunity for marketers to engage audiences with tailored messages.

Have you ever been jamming in your car to your favorite song and then suddenly interrupted by a thirty second ad? Us too. While the ad break does kill the vibe to some degree, you are highly likely to...

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10 min read

Digital Streaming audio advertising

EMG Proposals 101

By Ashley Finlayson

The EMG Dealership Proposal Tool offers precise, data-driven recommendations, allowing dealerships and marketers to instantly generate and download personalized streaming proposals for any dealership in the country. This trained model utilizes comprehensive vehicle sales data, regional insights, and regression analysis to craft an optimal performance recommendation for each dealership. With the tool, dealerships gain access […]

The EMG Dealership Proposal Tool offers precise, data-driven recommendations, allowing dealerships and marketers to instantly generate and download personalized streaming proposals for any dealership ...

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7 min read

Custom Dealership Streaming Proposal

What is Connected TV? The complete guide to CTV advertising.

By Ashley Finlayson

Connected TV (CTV) advertising delivers targeted, non-skippable video ads to viewers through internet-connected TV devices, combining the broad reach of traditional TV with the precision and measurement capabilities of digital advertising.

When you think of a television, say the one in your house, what does it look like? Does it have an antenna sticking out of the top of its thick, boxy frame, or is it pitch-black, thin with a small bor...

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20 min read

Connected TV CTV Advertising

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