Streaming Services Require More Than Traditional Television
In the ever-evolving world of advertising, brands are increasingly turning to live streaming as a platform for engaging audiences and driving business outcomes. According to the IAB's July 2025 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy report, advertisers expect live streaming partners to provide capabilities superior to traditional linear TV vendors.
One of the key areas where streaming platforms outshine linear TV is in offering unique interactive experiences and real-time data access. Approximately one-third of advertisers are keen on these features, reflecting a desire for more engaging and data-driven advertising opportunities beyond the linear model.
Advertisers are also shifting their focus towards business outcomes as the primary performance metric, prioritizing store visits and sales over traditional brand awareness measures. In this context, digital video buyers consider failure to deliver business outcomes a key reason to reduce spend with streaming partners.
Streaming vendors expose varying depths and timeliness of metadata, with some providing rich contextual signals such as genre tags, sentiment analysis, and real-time live/rewind indicators. To leverage these real-time data effectively, advertisers should look for partners with robust contextual APIs.
Implementing real-time performance dashboards that combine live impressions, completion rates, and interaction metrics allows for quick identification of underperforming creative or inventory segments. This data-driven approach enables brands to refine targeting and creative in real time, optimizing their campaigns for maximum impact.
Interactive ad units, such as shoppable overlays, swipe-up links, poll widgets, and social-share prompts, can boost engagement and capture first-party data. These elements transform passive viewing into direct response opportunities, creating a more interactive and immersive experience for viewers.
The Twitch Trials New Ad Format aims to keep streams uninterrupted, ensuring a seamless viewing experience for users while still providing opportunities for brands to engage with their audience. Beyond sports, live events now include award shows, e-commerce launches, and VR concerts, offering chances to reach niche audiences with bespoke experiences.
Non-traditional live events, such as award ceremonies, product unveilings, industry webinars, and cultural livestreams, offer growth opportunities for interactive executions due to higher dwell times and social conversation. The Insider’s Handbook provides a guide for brands to Twitch streamer partnerships, offering insights into this growing trend.
To outpace buyer expectations in live streaming, senior social media and influencer marketing leaders must elevate their partnerships, creative approaches, measurement systems, and event strategies. The IAB report emphasizes that live streaming is a distinct channel with its own rulebook, requiring advanced targeting, interactivity, and real-time insights for brands to differentiate themselves and drive stronger business outcomes.
In conclusion, the future of advertising lies in interactive, measurable, and outcome-oriented live streaming. By piloting interactive elements in lower-stakes broadcasts, refining user flows, creative timing, and measurement hooks, brands can successfully roll out these innovative strategies in high-visibility events, creating a more engaging and data-driven advertising landscape.
- As the focus of advertisers shifts towards business outcomes, technology advances in data-and-cloud-computing enable the creation of real-time performance dashboards, facilitating the quick identification of underperforming creative or inventory segments for real-time optimization.
- The interactive nature of live streaming platforms integrates social-media elements, such as shoppable overlays, swipe-up links, poll widgets, and social-share prompts, transforming passive viewing into direct response opportunities and contributing to a more engaging and immersive lifestyle experience for viewers.
- To reap the benefits of live streaming and drive stronger business outcomes, senior marketing leaders must invest in partnerships, creative approaches, measurement systems, and event strategies that provide superior interactivity, advanced targeting, and real-time insights, aligning with the unique characteristics and rulebook of the live streaming channel.
