Incrementality, creativity & the new era of retail advertising on CTV
2 min read·Oct 31, 2025
At this year’s GROW NYC, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Poonam Goyal hosted a lively discussion with Arthur Querou, CEO of Vibe.co, and Bryant Garvin from Triple Whale, exploring how Connected TV (CTV) is transforming retail marketing through incrementality, performance branding, and creative risk-taking.
Blending brand and performance
BG kicked off by revisiting his idea of “performance branding.” He challenged the old divide between brand marketing and performance marketing:
"If you’re doing branding well, it should drive performance—and vice versa."
Video, especially on CTV, bridges that gap by combining storytelling and measurable outcomes. That is why measurement models like incrementality testing and multi-touch attribution (MTA) are helping brands see the directional impact of their spend, rather than chasing impossible precision.
CTV: The right moment for marketers
Arthur Querou explained that CTV has hit its “right now” moment because it offers what traditional TV couldn’t—targetability and measurability. As privacy changes reshape platforms like Meta and Google, marketers are diversifying and looking for new, accountable channels.
"Nobody ever says, ‘I saw your ad on Google,’ but they do say, ‘I saw your ad on TV.'"
With CTV, even small brands can buy a single impression and test ROI on budgets as low as $10K, something that was once out of reach for all but the biggest advertisers.
Moving beyond clicks to incrementality
Click-based attribution never told the full story. Instead, brands should focus on incremental lift and understanding what additional value each channel brings. Here's what the new stack looks like:
MMM is your atlas (strategic overview),
MTA is your GPS (real-time guidance),
Incrementality is your stopwatch (showing which route performs best).
Together, they offer a more complete, realistic picture of what drives growth.
AI and the future of creative production
AI is rapidly reshaping how CTV ads are made. Arthur revealed that about 20% of creatives on Vibe.co are already AI-generated, predicting that number could reach 95% within a year.
AI tools allow for hyper-personalized creative testing, enabling brands to tailor messaging for specific audiences at scale.
In today’s fragmented landscape, the brands that win will be those that measure smart, move fast, and dare to stand out.
