For years, marketers have debated whether streaming TV can deliver measurable impact beyond the reach advantage. Universal Ads’ latest study, conducted with MediaScience, answers with a confident yes—and then piles on numbers that should make social-only advertisers slightly uncomfortable.
The company, which positions itself as a way for brands of any size to buy, run, and measure premium video ads, analyzed more than 430 participants across controlled labs and real-world, in-home viewing. The goal: understand how pairing streaming TV with social video changes brand recall, perception, and purchase behavior.
The short version? Streaming-plus-social doesn’t just outperform social alone—it blows it out of the water.
Why This Study Matters Now
Advertisers have spent the last five years shoveling budgets toward TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Meanwhile, streaming TV (CTV) has quietly shifted from an expensive playground for big brands to something far more democratized. Costs have dropped, inventory has expanded, and buying tools—like Universal Ads’ platform—have lowered the barrier to entry.
That timing makes this study especially relevant. Emerging brands, which often live and die by efficient performance, now have evidence that CTV can punch harder than its reputation suggests.
What the Numbers Reveal
Universal Ads didn’t offer vague claims of “lift” or “engagement.” Instead, the study gives marketers concrete reasons to rethink their channel mix.
1. Purchase Intent Gets a Serious Boost
Adding streaming TV to social advertising increased purchase intent by 24%.
Emerging brands saw even bigger gains—two streaming TV ads delivered a 33% lift in purchase intent compared to just one social ad.
This depth of intent is critical. Social ads are great at quick impressions; streaming ads seem to linger longer in viewers’ minds.
2. Brand Recall Isn’t Even Close
If the findings had a headline number, it would be this:
Unaided recall was 2.8x higher among participants who saw ads on both streaming TV and social media compared to social-only exposure.
Pair streaming TV with social video specifically, and unaided recall jumps to 5x.
In performance terms, that’s the difference between a brand people vaguely recognize and one they actively seek out.
3. Emerging Brands See the Biggest Gains
While established brands already benefit from name recognition, emerging brands saw a 2.3x higher lift in brand perception than their well-known competitors.
This point matters: smaller companies often struggle to build early trust and familiarity. Streaming TV, with its living-room credibility, seems to help bridge that gap.
How the Research Worked
MediaScience, known for its neuroscience-driven audience measurement, ran the test using both eye-tracking biometrics and post-exposure surveys. Participants viewed 30-second ads from a mixture of emerging and established brands across streaming TV and social feeds.
By comparing physiological attention with self-reported recall and intent, the study produced a holistic view of what advertising actually sticks—and where.
Why These Findings Shift the Conversation
The takeaway isn’t just that streaming TV “works.” It’s that streaming TV amplifies social advertising in ways marketers can measure and attribute. For an industry that has spent the past decade optimizing for clicks, the ability to build memory, perception, and intention—at scale—matters more than ever.
This also comes at a time when attribution on social platforms has become murkier thanks to privacy shifts, fragmented attention, and diminishing patience for repetitive feed ads.
Streaming TV, once considered a brand-building luxury, now looks like a performance lever.
Universal Ads’ Bigger Pitch
James Borow, VP of Product and Engineering at Universal Ads, summed up the results by stating that streaming TV is now “much more easily accessible and affordable for any brand.” His argument: the combination of ease, affordability, and impact creates an opportunity for brands that have historically leaned too heavily on social alone.
The platform’s promise is straightforward: bring premium streaming ad access to brands that previously couldn’t justify the buy-in.
This study supports that narrative—and may give emerging brands a roadmap for smarter spend allocation.
Industry Impact: What Comes Next
If these findings scale—and there’s little reason to believe they won’t—it could reshape how small and midsize advertisers build their funnels:
- Social for quick reach; streaming for lasting memory.
- Streaming as the new trust engine for emerging brands.
- Dual-screen strategies as the new default media mix.
The study also adds pressure to social platforms scrambling to prove their own brand-building capabilities. TikTok and Meta may dominate attention minutes, but streaming TV appears to dominate attention quality.
As ad budgets tighten in 2025, marketers may increasingly trade a few cheap impressions for a stronger place in consumers’ long-term memory.
