Why “Clean Premium” CTV Just Had Its Cannes Moment

1. Shaken by supply, staged by strategy

CTV spend is surging—brands are migrating en masse—but CPMs are dipping. Digiday reports rates are off 10–30% YoY, driven by inventory flood and buyers prioritizing efficiency over exclusivity.

Cannes buzz echoed the same: marketers are chasing clean, curated inventories that justify bigger budgets, not open-auction leftovers.

2. Quality clean-up really matters

With so much “CTV” now including shuffles through UGC or fireplace apps, brands are demanding transparency and context. Gracenote flags that metadata gaps—genre info in just 32% of bid streams—is a major blind spot.

Cannes discussions emphasized that without clean tagging and contextual clarity, inventory remains suspect at scale.

3. Attention (not just reach) is the new currency

Eyes on screen matter again. Adweek notes attention metrics (eye-tracking, pod position, co-viewing) are now factoring into CTV pricing. Clean inventory + attention data = premium value.

The result? Brands are now paying—not for eyeballs, but for engaged eyeballs.

4. Curation beats chaos

OpenX’s pivot to curated deals—purging non-CTV content—yielded 27% higher CPMs and 45% denser bidding 

SSPs and buyers launching curated PMPs is exactly the shrewd, selective buying Cannes panels recommended—clean, quality-first, purposeful picks over spray-and-pray.

CTV’s at a crossroads: tons of inventory, falling CPMs, and a scramble for what's actually worth it. Cannes underlined that the future is premium, clean, and quantifiably engaged.

At Mavern, we’ve built SignalTap to align with this shift—not boom it from the rooftops, but plug it in where it counts:

• ✅ URL-level context ensures you’re buying real, relevant inventory, not ambient noise

• ✅ Semantic signals track when your ad runs in context—not just in a pod

• ✅ Transparency and attention overlays help brands justify higher CPMs—and earn them

  
  

Because when the market demands clean CTV with depth, you don’t just serve ads. You serve smart ads.