Meet Marketing’s Most Dynamic Duo: Connected TV and Social

As consumer habits continue to change, MNTN (pronounced “mountain”) helps brands stay nimble and find new opportunities as a leader in self-serve and performance for connected TV marketing.

At ADWEEK’s 2025 Social Media Week in May, Kristen Navarro, the director of customer success at MNTN, sat down with Annie Waskover, an svp of accounts at digital tech ad agency Maison MRKT, to talk about how CTV and social media can work together to supercharge a brand’s awareness in the eyes of consumers.

Connected TV as a growing marketing landscape

According to Navarro, Connected TV has grown tremendously in the past few years, and with streaming networks like Netflix and Amazon moving to ad-supported content, the trend is only going to continue. This growing space has opened new opportunities that MNTN is leveraging. 

“From a consumer standpoint, we obviously value the flexibility, the convenience, the on-demand capabilities,” Navarro said. “And then from a brand standpoint, it’s targetable. It’s measurable.”

CTV might feel intimidating for brands to venture into because it feels like a traditional commercial, but MNTN has all the tools and resources to lead the way. In fact, they work with a production company called Quick Frame to help brands create short videos that can be part of a CTV campaign. Waskover credits MNTN for helping get over the “bottlenecks” of creative and the learning curve of a new channel.

MNTN also prioritizes keeping the management of these “new” campaigns accessible. Navarro says it’s very similar to how a marketer would manage both traditional and digital strategies. 

“You don’t need to go through vigorous training to get acclimated,” she said. “MNTN is here to support our customers and our agency partners and make it simple for you to create campaigns, deploy them, and target them.”

The perfect match

Waskover sees CTV campaigns as a complement to social marketing because of the trend of consumers watching TV while on their phones. So, having an ad play with the TV program, while also showing up on the phone, is adding another opportunity for brands. 

“We want to reach consumers in every part of their lifestyle,” Waskover says, even including traditional ads, like on the subway or billboard, as important touch points.

And CTV allows for very specific targeting. 

MNTN’s technology allows brands to get as narrow or broad as they want with an audience. From geo-targeted local markets to going wide to maximize reach and awareness, CTV can do it all. 

“It’s bringing it back to the basics,” Navarro said. “Are you targeting the right household? Are you targeting it at the right time? And are you driving measurable outcomes?”

Using AI to find the right audience

MNTN also has MNTN Matched, which Navarro describes as AI that scrapes data and identifies keywords based on lifestyle, including milestone birthdays or shopping events. From there, brands can curate an audience, target intentional households, and identify niche markets. After looking at the granular data, an unlikely demographic may actually be revealed to be a valuable one.

Waskover has also been very impressed with MNTN’s tools, especially in helping smaller brands. 

“Some of these brands don’t have hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in advertising spend a year. So, we have to be very specific and targetable,” Waskover said. “With a lot of the tools that MNTN has, it makes it quite unique and favorable to show the ads to specific people.”

In this new age of consumer spending, MNTN proves that TV and social work well together. 

“All of these [marketing] channels are so valuable,” Navarro said. “They’re so important to diversify your mix and reach people wherever they’re consuming content. But CTV can be that fulcrum point in your media strategy.”

FEATURED PANELISTS

Kristen Navarro – MNTN

Annie Waskover – Maison MRKT