As consumer habits evolve, seasonal peaks like Memorial Day no longer represent just retail milestones—they’re now data-rich opportunities for contextual engagement across connected devices. With shoppers increasingly turning to Connected TV (CTV) to discover products and experiences during holiday seasons, marketers must shift strategies toward channel-aware, intent-driven campaigns.
At MarkApp, we’ve seen firsthand how national holidays amplify media performance. In Q2 2025, our Pantheon contextual bidder processed a surge of over 950 million CTV bid requests tied to seasonal shopping behavior. Campaigns running during Memorial Day week saw a 34% higher engagement rate on CTV compared to standard video placements, and a 21% lift over mobile and desktop video environments.
What drives this surge? The answer lies in consumer mindset and screen behavior. During long weekends and national breaks, viewers engage longer with CTV content, seeking inspiration and entertainment. This translates into higher dwell time, longer ad exposure, and more receptivity to tailored offers especially when those offers are placed in contextually aligned environments like TCL, Rakuten TV, or Scripps.
MarkApp’s proprietary contextual signals delivered via OpenRTB 2.6 enable advertisers to tap into granular content taxonomies, app genres, time-of-day insights, and household-level engagement scores. These real-time enrichment layers unlock smarter buying strategies during seasonal periods. For example, a travel brand promoting weekend getaways can target viewers watching documentaries or travel shows on Rakuten or WedoTV, while a consumer electronics brand may engage users streaming tech-related content on TCL.
The Pantheon bidder’s adaptive engine dynamically aligns creatives with the optimal placement by analyzing metadata in real-time. Unlike traditional audience targeting that relies on cookies or identifiers, Pantheon drives performance through context a method proven to outperform behavioral data in a post-ID era. During the 2024 holiday season, advertisers who activated Pantheon saw a 29% lower cost-per-action and 3x higher return on ad spend (ROAS) in key consumer verticals.
Why should this matter to agencies and brand marketers? Because timing and intent now dictate effectiveness. Seasonal events represent compressed windows of opportunity, and CTV offers a high-attention, living-room-first screen with proven lift across both branding and performance KPIs.
In a world where privacy regulations continue to limit legacy targeting techniques, contextual targeting becomes not just an alternative—but the most sustainable performance solution. MarkApp’s blend of CTV partnerships, proprietary taxonomy layers, and real-time data intelligence positions us to help advertisers win during these moments that matter.
With over 5 billion monthly CTV impressions globally 60% in North America and 30% in EMEA, MarkApp delivers unmatched scale and contextual relevance during retail surges. We are proud to empower leading advertisers to connect with audiences not only where they are but also when they’re most likely to engage.
The future of holiday advertising isn’t just about timing it’s about context. And at MarkApp, we’re turning seasonal spikes into strategic victories with every impression.
