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Digital video captures nearly 60% of total TV/video ad spend in 2025 — double its share from just five years ago, according to the IAB, which held its day-long NewFronts last week.
But as its dominance grows, so does the complexity of marketing in this format. At this year’s IAB NewFronts, one message came through clearly: performance and storytelling are no longer separate strategies — they’re becoming inseparable.
As the media landscape fragments and matures, traditional metrics like impressions, reach, and frequency are losing relevance. Katie Klein, Chief Investment Officer at Omnicom Media Group North America, explained during a panel hosted by Cadent that “what gets measured” is evolving. “There’s no longer a one-size-fits-all,” she noted, emphasizing that brands today are aligning media decisions not just to scale, but to outcomes like leads, sales, affinity, and loyalty.
But these new expectations for measurability don’t stop at media buying—they’re reshaping how content is conceived. In today’s environment, storytelling must also be accountable. And predictive media platforms are helping content deliver results.
Doug Rozen, President of CTV ad sales platform Cadent, positioned predictive advertising as a tool that empowers brands to “grow forward” by anticipating which impressions will drive specific outcomes. Rather than simply targeting more efficiently, platforms like Cadent use massive data inputs to match content with audiences most likely to convert—turning ad placement into a performance lever.
This doesn’t come at the cost of brand-building, Klein added. “The opportunity is to anchor in content, then layer on the ability to get as mass or as targeted as you want.” In other words, predictive tools don’t replace storytelling—they help shape its distribution for maximum impact.
Digitas CEO Amy Lanzi echoed this sentiment in announcing the launch of Digitas Pictures, a branded content studio designed to marry creativity with performance. “Today’s most impactful brands aren’t waiting for permission to tell their stories,” she said. “They’re becoming producers in their own right.”
This isn’t just a creative shift—it’s a business strategy. “We're elevating brand entertainment to new heights, creating culturally relevant, premium content that pushes creative storytelling boundaries and delivers tangible business impact,” Lanzi said. Storytelling isn’t just about relevance anymore—it’s about ROI.
If, as OMG’s Klein puts it, performance is no longer about counting impressions but driving business results, Lanzi argues the best way to achieve that is by creating emotional gravity—stories that turn passive viewers into passionate participants.
This blend of data and emotion came to life in examples like Sephora’s “Faces of Music” docuseries, which Lanzi cited as a case study in fan-building. By aligning content with culture, the brand deepened its identity beyond products and positioned itself as a platform for artistic expression.
“Our job is to really create super fans of our brands,” said Lanzi. In this new model, success isn’t just sales—it’s sustained engagement. That requires marketers to think more like showrunners than media buyers.
To make this shift, Klein urged industry peers to stop relying on legacy metrics to forecast future success. “Immerse yourself in the client's business, not just immediate business, but their [overall] business,” she emphasized. The idea is not just to optimize for the next campaign, but to build long-term value.
For Lanzi, that means thinking beyond branded content toward branded entertainment that competes with the best of pop culture. “The new frontier isn't just ‘branded content’ — it is about competing for attention against entertainment itself. From documentaries that continue to resurface during culturally relevant moments to intellectual property partnerships that feed audience hunger between seasons, creating ‘culture-breaking content’ that stands out in a crowded landscape is critical.”
With digital video ad spend projected to grow another 14% in 2025, reaching $72 billion according to the IAB, brands face rising pressure to prove performance—while also standing out creatively. What the NewFronts made clear is that these goals are not in conflict. They’re converging.
The future belongs to marketers who can engineer content that performs and inspires—who don’t see measurement and storytelling as competing mandates, but as dual engines for growth. In a media environment defined by fragmentation and attention scarcity, the brands that win will be the ones that move culture and the bottom line.
