Why Emotionally Aware CTV Campaigns Are the Future of Measurement

“It was actually people who were watching content that was joyful, or had levels of anticipation—these emotions that were actually present.”
—Field Garthwaite, CEO & Co-Founder, IRIS.TV

And that emotional moment? It converted.

In today’s complex media landscape, reaching a viewer is just the start. To truly understand what drives outcomes, it helps to not only know what kind of content they were watching—but what kind of mood it put them in—when your ad appeared.

Thanks to Viant’s integration of IRIS_ID into our DSP logs, marketers can now connect content-level emotional signals directly to real-world outcomes.

In a recent AdTech Decoded video, Field explains how Viant and IRIS.TV are teaming up to give advertisers something they’ve never had before: emotionally intelligent, content-level insights—at scale.

Contextual Targeting, But Make It Emotional

For years, marketers have talked about the importance of reaching the right person at the right time. Now, thanks to the integration of IRIS_ID into Viant’s DSP, we’re adding a third dimension: the emotional context of the content being watched.

Did a viewer see your ad while watching an inspiring sports documentary? A joyful reality show? A tension-filled thriller?

Now imagine understanding how those content emotions influenced the conversion rate of your campaign.

Why It Matters for CTV Measurement

Viant is the first ad platform to integrate the IRIS_ID directly into platform logs, which means advertisers can:

• Measure which content-level signals correlate with real business outcomes (like site visits or purchases)
  
• Understand which emotions were present in the content that viewers were engaging with
  
• Use these insights to refine targeting strategies across future CTV campaigns
  

CTV is no longer just about reach and frequency—it’s about resonance.

What This Means for Advertisers

Let’s say you purchase a CTV ad campaign and buy a million impressions. With the Viant + IRIS.TV integration, you can now see:

• Which impressions actually drove people to your site
  
• What types of content those viewers were watching at the time
  
• And, more intriguingly, what emotional states that content evoked
  

Armed with this data, advertisers can finally move beyond demographics and into a world where campaigns are optimized for mood, mindset, and moment.

The Bigger Picture: Autonomous, Emotionally Intelligent Advertising

This is more than a technical integration. It’s a step toward autonomous advertising systems that use emotional intelligence to inform campaign strategy. And it’s a key pillar of Viant’s AI-powered approach to making digital advertising more accountable, transparent, and human.

As Field puts it:

“That’s really one of the most exciting things we’re driving forward right now with Viant.”

We agree.