2026 is already shaping up to be the year marketers get bolder.
Nearly half of marketing teams say they are testing new campaign objectives. More are making TV the core driver of both brand and performance, and a growing share are pushing beyond their usual playbooks to test new audience segments.
These insights come from tvScientific’s 2026 State of Performance TV report, and the takeaway is simple. The traditional channel mix isn’t working the way it once did, and marketers are adjusting where and how they invest.
This month, we pulled together what you need to stay ahead:
- 📺 Paramount brings programmatic buying to live sports
- 🎬 Creative spotlight: Coca-Cola’s “Bubbling Up”
- 📊 The 2026 trends redefining Performance TV
- 🧠 The product edge most TV plans are missing
- 🏹 How MTN OPS turned storytelling into measurable sales
Paramount brings guaranteed programmatic buying to live sports
Paramount is taking a big swing in sports advertising by introducing guaranteed programmatic placement for select live, in-game ad units. The offering kicked off with Paramount+’s UFC event Pimblett vs. Gaethje on January 24.
What this means for advertisers
Live sports remain one of the few environments that consistently deliver real-time attention at scale. Adding guaranteed programmatic buying brings flexibility, speed, and accountability to an inventory type that has traditionally required upfront commitments.
For advertisers, this signals a shift toward Performance TV models in premium sports, where automation and guarantees can coexist with high-impact moments. As more live sports inventory becomes programmatically accessible, brands can activate faster, optimize in flight, and tie outcomes more directly to moments that drive immediate engagement.
Creative spotlight: Coca-Cola’s “Bubbling Up”
Coca-Cola’s World Cup spot captures the moment fan excitement starts to rise and it becomes impossible to contain. It is a simple, sticky idea: when the tournament is coming, emotions do what bubbles do.
The details
- Coca-Cola unveiled its global campaign as the official soft drink sponsor of the FIFA World Cup.
- “Bubbling up” is the first of three TV spots rolling out ahead of kickoff, spanning 180 markets globally.
- Van Halen’s “Jump” is reworked into an anthem that builds as fan emotions start bubbling up in everyday places.
What we loved
It turns a universal fan truth into a brand-native metaphor. The bubbling emotion feels instantly recognizable, and Coke’s execution keeps it big and joyful without overexplaining the message. It is the kind of storytelling that can scale globally while still feeling personal in the moment.
How top advertisers are rethinking TV
Performance TV is the #1 channel for spend
The 2026 State of Performance TV is finally here! Explore tvScientific’s annual research report with 600+ marketers on how they’re rethinking the media mix.
Marketers are moving their budgets…fast
57% are pulling from YouTube, 56% from Meta, and 52% from TikTok in favor of Performance TV. Dive into all the insights.
The edge most TV plans are missing
Optimize your bid by household
Our household graph patent connects devices, viewers, and behavior at the household level to unlock smarter targeting.
Prioritize impressions that drive outcomes
Introducing the tvScientific Supply Side Optimization Agent: a pre-bid intelligence layer that evaluates every impression in real time.
How MTN OPS turned storytelling into sales
MTN OPS put AI-powered Performance TV to the test: Could brand-led storytelling still drive measurable results?
tvScientific AI answered that question fast. Trained on MTN OPS goals, it optimized every impression in real time so the team could see exactly how upper-funnel storytelling translated into site visits and purchases.
The numbers tell the story:
🔥 7.19x lift in site visits that held for 20 minutes on average
🛒 13% incremental lift in both visits and purchases
📺 4.4M households reached and 15.4M impressions delivered
🏹 3,000 plus purchases driven
AI is changing how people find answers. TV is changing how demand gets created. And performance is no longer something that lives at the bottom of the funnel.
The brands seeing results are the ones connecting storytelling, data, and outcomes across the entire journey.
Happy advertising!
