— Insights

What Every Brand
Should Know in 2026.

Three quick reads on the formats reshaping how customers find businesses today: streaming TV, vertical video, and trackable QR codes.

📺 Streaming TV 📱 Vertical Ads 🔗 QR Codes
— Deck 01 · Streaming TV

TV Is Bigger Than Ever.
Cable Just Isn't.

Your customers still watch TV — they just don't watch cable anymore. Streaming TV ads put your brand in front of them on Hulu, YouTube TV, Roku, Tubi, Pluto, and Samsung TV+ — without paying broadcast prices.

82%
82% of U.S. TV viewing time is now streaming or YouTube. Traditional broadcast and cable combined have fallen below 18% of viewing time for the first time in history. Nielsen "The Gauge," 2025 — share of total TV usage among U.S. households.
— 01 · Why It Matters

Your audience moved. Did your ads?

The customer who used to watch a cable commercial now watches Hulu, Roku, or YouTube TV. If you're still buying broadcast spots, you're paying for impressions that aren't there anymore.

— 02 · How It Works

Targeted, measurable, affordable.

Streaming TV ads (also called "CTV" or "Connected TV") let you target by ZIP code, age, household income, and interest — and you get real impression and completion data. None of that exists on cable.

— 03 · The Best Part

Premium quality. Local budget.

You can run on the same platforms as Fortune 500 brands for a fraction of the cost. A polished AI-produced 30-second spot is all most small businesses need to compete.

— Where Your Ad Can Run

  • Hulu, Tubi, Pluto TV — ad-supported streamers with massive U.S. reach.
  • YouTube & YouTube TV — 6-second bumpers, 15s pre-roll, or 30s spots.
  • Roku, Samsung TV+, Sling, Vizio — the smart TV home screens themselves.
  • Sports streaming — Paramount+, ESPN, Peacock for live-game audiences.

— What You Need

  • A 15s, 30s, or 60s spot (1080p min)
  • Captions burned-in
  • Clean audio mix at -23 LUFS
  • End-frame with logo + CTA
Get a streaming-ready ad →
— Deck 02 · Vertical Ads

Phones Are Vertical.
Your Ads Should Be Too.

Reels, TikTok, Stories, and YouTube Shorts all live in 9:16 — vertical video. Stretching a horizontal ad to fit looks lazy and gets scrolled past. Vertical-native ads convert 2–3× higher because they fill the whole screen.

90s
The average viewer spends ~90 seconds per session in TikTok, Reels, or Shorts. That's a vertical feed. If your ad pops up sideways, it gets a black bar treatment — and a fast scroll past. Meta & TikTok 2024 ad-platform performance reports.
— 01 · The 1-Second Rule

You have one second to hook them.

The user's thumb is already moving. The first frame, the first sound, the first motion has to stop the scroll — or it's over. Every vertical ad we make is built backwards from that one second.

— 02 · 9:16 or Die

Vertical-native, not "vertical-fit."

Cropping a horizontal commercial into 9:16 wastes the top and bottom of the screen. We compose for the 9:16 frame from scratch — subject centered, text in the safe zones, motion that fills the canvas.

— 03 · Sound-Off Friendly

85% of mobile video plays muted.

Captions aren't optional — they're the audio. We burn captions in, design typography on-brand, and time them to the cuts. Every vertical ad we ship is built to land with the sound off.

— Where Vertical Ads Live

  • Instagram Reels & Stories — the highest-converting ad surface on Meta in 2025.
  • TikTok — cheapest CPM in social right now, especially for service businesses.
  • YouTube Shorts — same algorithm as TikTok & Instagram, with YouTube's targeting on top.
  • Snapchat & Pinterest — niche but powerful for retail, food, beauty, and Gen Z.

— Best-Performing Lengths

  • 6s — pure hook + logo
  • 15s — sweet spot for most
  • 30s — for story-driven ads
  • 60s — long-form testimonial
Get vertical ads built right →
— Deck 03 · QR Codes

QR Codes Came Back.
Smart Ones Are Trackable.

Restaurants put them on menus, dentists put them on business cards, retailers put them on packaging. But most are static — they fire once and you learn nothing. A trackable QR code tells you exactly who scanned, where, when, and what they did next.

94M
94 million Americans scanned a QR code last year — up roughly 750% since 2020. And the smartphone camera now opens QR codes automatically. The friction is gone. Statista & Insider Intelligence U.S. QR usage data, 2024–2025.
— 01 · Static vs Dynamic

Static is a dead-end. Dynamic is a tool.

A static QR points to one URL forever — change the URL, you have to reprint. A dynamic QR is a permanent shortlink we control: change the destination anytime, no reprint, no waste.

— 02 · What You Can Track

Every scan is data.

Scans per day, scans per location, device type, time of day, whether they bounced or converted. You finally know which postcard, business card, or storefront sticker actually drove a customer in.

— 03 · Brand-Matched Design

Not a black-and-white square.

We design QR codes that match your brand — color, shape, logo in the middle, frame around it. They look like marketing, not a parking-lot violation.

— Smart Places to Put a QR Code

  • Business cards & printed flyers — track which networking events actually convert.
  • Product packaging — link to how-to videos, warranty signup, or review prompts.
  • In-store signage — turn foot traffic into followers, reviewers, or email subscribers.
  • End frames of video ads — viewer points camera at TV → lands on your offer page.

— What ArtIs Animations Builds You

  • Branded dynamic QR codes
  • Live scan dashboard
  • Print-ready vector files
  • Edit the destination anytime
Get a smart QR code →

Knowledge is half. Execution is the rest.

Want any of this built for your business? We do all three — streaming-ready commercials, vertical ads, and branded QR codes — in 48 hours.

Get a Free Quote →