Omnicom bets big on connected TV to reshape streaming advertising

MUMBAI: The television remote is becoming a data dashboard. Omnicom is making a decisive play to redefine connected TV (CTV) advertising, unveiling a series of partnerships that signal its ambition to transform streaming from a premium video channel into a fully addressable, AI-powered and measurable advertising ecosystem.

Over the past few months, the advertising giant has forged collaborations across the United States and India, bringing together identity data, artificial intelligence, contextual intelligence and cross-screen measurement to help brands manage television advertising with the precision traditionally associated with digital platforms such as search and social media.

One of the biggest moves came through a partnership with Disney Advertising, where Omnicom Media introduced a new CTV solution designed to tackle one of streaming’s biggest pain points—repetitive advertising. Powered by Innovid, the platform combines Disney’s identity graph with Acxiom data and Omnicom’s Omni operating platform to deliver sequential storytelling, allowing brands to serve evolving creative messages across live events and on-demand programming while reducing ad fatigue.

The company has also teamed up with NBCUniversal to introduce Dynamic Contextual Content (DCC), a CTV solution that combines Acxiom’s audience intelligence with NBCUniversal’s contextual metadata. Rather than relying solely on demographic or behavioural targeting, advertisers can tailor creative to the specific programme, episode or viewing environment, making campaigns more relevant to what audiences are actually watching.

Artificial intelligence forms another cornerstone of Omnicom’s strategy. Through its first partnership with Netflix, the company is integrating Acxiom’s audience intelligence, Omni’s planning tools and Omnicom Production’s generative AI capabilities with Netflix’s advertising platform. The collaboration includes AI-generated digital twins, virtual product placements and closed-loop measurement systems that evaluate campaign performance across audiences and content.

Measurement, long regarded as one of television advertising’s biggest challenges, is another area receiving attention. Earlier this year at CES, Omnicom expanded collaborations with Roku, Amazon and VideoAmp, enabling advertisers to measure reach and frequency across linear television, connected TV and streaming while linking campaign exposure to business outcomes through Amazon’s commerce signals or advertisers’ own first-party data.

India is emerging as a key market in Omnicom’s connected TV strategy. The company recently partnered with JioStar and Whisper World to launch a unified in-content advertising solution spanning linear television, OTT platforms and connected TV. Debuting with NIVEA India, the solution allows brands to execute contextual campaigns across television and JioHotstar using shared audience intelligence through a single planning framework.

The initiative comes as India’s connected TV market continues to gather momentum, fuelled by rising smart TV adoption, affordable broadband, premium sports streaming and the rapid expansion of ad-supported OTT platforms.

Taken together, the partnerships reveal a broader strategic shift. Rather than simply buying advertising inventory across streaming services, Omnicom is investing in the technology and data infrastructure that underpins the future of television advertising. By combining AI, contextual intelligence, identity data and cross-screen measurement, the company is positioning connected TV as a fully integrated, performance-driven advertising platform.

As audiences increasingly migrate from linear television to streaming, the race is no longer about attracting advertising budgets alone. It is about building the infrastructure that enables brands to deliver smarter, more personalised and measurable campaigns and Omnicom is making it clear it wants to be at the centre of that transformation.