CTV advertising delivers video ads on internet-connected TV devices, smart TVs, streaming sticks, and gaming consoles, within content streamed on platforms like Roku, Peacock, Paramount+, and Tubi. Unlike linear TV, CTV offers real-time targeting, measurable outcomes, and access to audiences across a fragmented streaming landscape. At GumGum, we layer the Mindset Graph™ on top, evaluating real-time signals to ensure your message reaches viewers when they're genuinely open to it, not just when they happen to be watching.

Streaming video advertising is the delivery of video ads within internet-streamed content, across CTV, OLV, and OTT platforms. It covers everything from pre-roll ads in a streaming app to Enhanced CTV formats that add branded environments around the video. The shift to streaming has given advertisers more targeting control and measurability, but also more complexity. Audiences are fragmented across dozens of platforms and devices. The real challenge isn't reaching people across those environments. It's identifying which moments within them are actually worth bidding on.

OTT (over-the-top) refers to how content is delivered, streamed over the internet, bypassing traditional cable or satellite. CTV refers to the device, a TV screen connected to the internet via a smart TV, streaming stick, or gaming console. In practice the terms are often used interchangeably, since most CTV viewing is OTT content. The more useful distinction for advertisers is between the screen, the content environment, and the mindset of the viewer in that moment — which is what actually determines whether an impression will land.

Most CTV targeting starts with demographics, age, gender, household income, layered with behavioral data and content categories. That tells you who might be watching. What it doesn't tell you is whether they're open to your message right now. GumGum goes further. The Mindset Graph™ combines understanding from linked devices with available CTV signals to assess which moments fit your message. When signals align, we activate. When they don't, we pass, so your budget is concentrated on moments more likely to drive real outcomes.

OLV (Online Video) advertising delivers video ads within digital content across desktop, mobile, and tablet, outside of the connected TV environment. It comes in two primary forms: Instream (pre-, mid-, or post-roll within video content) and Outstream (embedded within articles and non-video environments). OLV and CTV are increasingly planned together as part of a unified video strategy, reaching the same audience across every screen, with consistent messaging and shared intelligence about what's working.