This is the third of five Innovator Spotlight articles from our new Special Report, The Contextual Revolution, Five Companies Rewriting The Rules Of CTV Advertising. You can download the report for free thanks to Wurl and our other sponsors.

“Advertisers looking to deepen audience engagement should consider one often-overlooked factor—matching ads with viewers’ emotions,” says Peter Crofut, VP, Business Development - Agencies & Brands at Wurl. “Our BrandDiscovery product leverages this approach to help advertisers understand and apply emotions as a factor in their ad strategy, ultimately driving better engagement on streaming.”

ALAN WOLK (AW): What was the initial motivation for creating BrandDiscovery? Why focus on emotions over other factors?

PETER CROFUT (PC): BrandDiscovery emerged from a curiosity about what really drives performance for mobile advertisers. Early testing revealed that aligning the emotional tone of an ad with the emotions present in the content could boost engagement by two to three times. We found that if the emotions in the ad align with the emotions in the scene immediately preceding it, viewers respond more positively. This discovery led us to develop a model that scores content scenes and ad creatives for emotions and matches them in real time to optimize ad relevance.

AW: How does the AI identify and categorize emotions within content?

PC: We use Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions, which categorizes eight primary emotions with varying intensities, as the foundation for our model. Our AI identifies emotions by analyzing visual and audio cues, creating a consistent scoring system across content genres. This means we can apply the same criteria across various networks, apps, and devices. In addition to emotions, our AI assesses content for genre and brand safety, ensuring ads align not only emotionally but contextually and tonally as well.

AW: Do advertisers have any input into the emotional scoring of their ads, or is that determined solely by Wurl’s model?

PC: Brands typically provide us with their creative assets, and we score those based on their emotional content. They can choose to use our emotional targeting suggestions as part of their overall campaign strategy. Often, advertisers run A/B tests comparing results from standard audience-based targeting with our emotion-based targeting, and they usually see improved performance with the latter. The choice to integrate our emotional targeting is ultimately theirs, but most brands see the value once they compare outcomes.

AW: How is Wurl refining its emotional targeting model over time?

PC: High-quality, diverse data is essential. Wurl is one of the largest distributors of FAST channels globally, with a substantial amount of content across different genres and verticals. This extensive range of data allows us to keep the model accurate and relevant, continuously fine-tuning it to reflect shifts in viewer engagement with different emotional cues.

AW: Are certain verticals or types of brands finding particular success with emotional targeting?

PC: We’ve seen strong results with brands that have a natural emotional component, like beauty, CPG, and food-related brands. An interesting example was from a campaign we worked on with Monks, a financial services company targeting millennial moms, where certain combinations of emotions, such as anger, performed better than anticipated emotions like joy. For QSR brands, we’ve learned that emotions like “joy” combined with “anticipation” can drive hunger cues, improving in-store traffic and sales.

AW: Are advertisers able to incorporate additional data, such as weather or geolocation, into their emotional targeting strategy?

PC:  We understand that while emotions are a powerful layer of context, they work best in tandem with other data. We encourage advertisers to include weather, geolocation, or first-party data when relevant to enhance targeting. Emotions help with timing and context, but the addition of other datasets can create a much more effective campaign.

AW: Is BrandDiscovery an add-on to existing ad buys, or can it be used as a standalone strategy?

Wurl offers flexible transaction options. Advertisers can access our inventory directly or through leading DSPs and SSPs. We make it simple to find and use our segments by offering deal IDs across multiple platforms where advertisers can use it as an added layer to enhance their existing ad buys.  Our data doesn’t add extra cost to brands, which lets them integrate it without interfering with other ad sales channels. We work with OEMs and other partners who sell inventory, and by offering our data free of charge, we can enhance performance without competing with other sales teams.

AW: Are there specific KPIs that indicate emotional targeting’s effectiveness?

PC: There is no one set of KPIs we rely on—the metrics we look at really depend on each individual advertiser’s objectives. We typically work with third-party measurement partners to evaluate performance, whether the goal is brand awareness or conversion. Our case studies with major brands have shown significant improvements in KPIs like brand awareness and incremental store traffic. For example, one recent campaign achieved a 48% increase in store visits by targeting specific emotional cues.

AW: How does BrandDiscovery handle live content, like news and sports?

PC: Live content does present unique challenges, but our technology is built to keep pace with it. Our AI scans live content in real-time, scoring scenes as they happen, and helping advertisers place ads in contextually relevant, brand-safe moments. With sports, for example, we can identify high-impact moments, like a game-winning home run, to make sure ads align with the energy and relevance of the scene.

AW: What are some other areas that contextual targeting can help solve?

PC: One of the biggest challenges on ad-supported streaming is avoiding those “ads that suck” moments, where the ad has nothing to do with what the viewer’s watching and creates negative attention. I’ve seen it play out, like when my son’s friends were watching action sports, and suddenly a Pampers ad came on. It was irrelevant to a bunch of teenage boys, and it totally disrupted their whole viewing experience. That’s what we drill into advertisers: aligning the ad’s emotional tone with the content is key, so the experience feels seamless and natural rather than disruptive.

AW: How does emotional targeting help with one of streaming’s biggest issues, over-frequency, where the same ad shows up over and over again?

PC: For that, we recommend frequency capping based on relevance. The way I put it is, if you can sync the ad content with the viewer’s mindset in that moment, you get better performance without the fatigue. This approach is resonating with more advertisers as they see how irrelevant ads can push viewers away, especially when they’re watching longer, unskippable ad breaks.

AW: What’s been the response from advertisers—is interest in emotion-based targeting growing?

PC: There is some resistance, especially from those used to more traditional ad placements. Some advertisers still prefer the convenience of consolidated platforms, even if it limits their targeting options. But as more brands realize the impact of emotional targeting, they’re beginning to see the value of experimenting with new approaches. We’re helping them understand that a blend of audience and emotional targeting can drive better engagement and performance, especially in today’s highly competitive landscape.