Samsung Ads is advocating for media planners to integrate gaming console usage into their CTV advertising strategies by leveraging ACR data. The firm suggests that identifying gaming sessions allows advertisers to reach highly engaged audiences during transitions between gaming and streaming content.
Integrating gaming data into CTV planning addresses the growing reach gap among tech-savvy audiences who increasingly avoid linear ad loads. By using glass-level ACR data, planners can identify households that over-index on streaming but remain invisible to traditional measurement due to high console usage. This approach allows brands to participate in major cultural moments like the Grand Theft Auto VI launch without requiring direct in-game inventory or official sponsorships. As the streaming ecosystem fragments, the home screen serves as the critical gateway for capturing attention during the transition between play and watch modes. Watch for whether ACR-driven frequency capping across gaming and streaming becomes a standard requirement for 2027 upfront buys.
Samsung Ads has built its gaming-audience targeting on deterministic, one-to-one ACR data rather than modeled panel estimates. The company's gaming white paper details how its Smart TV ACR technology recognizes hundreds of popular game titles and identifies gaming sessions as separate from viewing sessions, with more than 19 million connected game consoles detected across Samsung Smart TVs. Samsung also launched its Gaming Hub in summer 2022, offering cloud gaming services alongside console play and providing advertisers with a dedicated placement environment on the home screen. The competitive landscape among OEM ad platforms is intensifying around gaming inventory. Samsung Ads, LG Ad Solutions, and Vizio's Platform Services division each operate their own ACR data engines, DSPs, and SSPs, and when a viewer plays a native game on an OEM hub, the resulting ad impressions are sold directly through the manufacturer's private marketplace. This bundling of gaming inventory with native FAST channel inventory gives OEMs cross-screen reach and attribution capabilities that independent publishers struggle to match, positioning them to capture programmatic budgets during high-engagement periods like the current GTA VI launch window. Samsung Ads has also been pushing the broader advertiser community to treat gaming audiences as a core CTV segment. At the second annual IAB PlayFronts event in New York, the company presented data showing that 82 percent of gamers' TV time in the Samsung universe is spent on streaming rather than linear, and that 73 percent of gamers rely primarily on streaming services for their viewing. Samsung's Gaming Hub Hero ad format was highlighted as a way to reach these audiences in a premium, gaming-optimized environment, reinforcing the argument that planners who ignore console behavior are missing the majority of a highly engaged demographic. Recent programmatic inventory expansion efforts further solidify this strategy.
Samsung Ads is encouraging media planners to integrate gaming data into CTV strategies by using ACR technology to identify console users. This approach allows brands to reach highly engaged audiences during transitions between gaming and streaming, helping advertisers capture attention that is often missed by traditional linear television measurement.
Gamers are 77 percent more likely to engage with home screen apps than the average viewer, and 82 percent of their TV time is spent streaming rather than on linear television.
Samsung uses deterministic, one-to-one ACR technology that recognizes hundreds of game titles and distinguishes gaming sessions from standard viewing sessions across more than 19 million connected consoles.
Launched in summer 2022, the Gaming Hub offers cloud gaming services alongside console play, providing a dedicated placement environment for advertisers on the TV home screen.
OEMs like Samsung, LG, and Vizio use their own ACR data engines, DSPs, and SSPs to sell ad impressions directly through private marketplaces, bundling gaming inventory with native FAST channel inventory.
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