Netflix, Omnicom Use AI to Match Ads to What You're Watching

Netflix and Omnicom Media are bringing audience data and AI-generated creative closer together in streaming advertising.

Announced during Cannes Lions 2026, the partnership makes Omnicom Media Netflix's first data collaboration partner for AI-powered advertising.

The deal lets advertisers tailor each ad to the viewer and the show they're watching.

It combines Acxiom audience intelligence, Netflix adtech, creative automation, and measurement tools to create ads aligned with what viewers are watching.

The move reflects the industry's efforts to make streaming ads feel more relevant to consumers while improving campaign performance.

"We very much nailed this process [...] of really understanding a consumer and market problem, and then building an innovation with partners to address it," Megan Pagliuca, chief product officer at Omnicom Media, said in a press statement.

As streaming platforms compete for ad dollars, the ones connecting audience insights, content context, and creative execution will lead in CTV advertising.

Ads Matched to What People Watch

The partnership allows advertisers to provide Acxiom audience segments and a brand brief to Netflix.

It then applies its AI and LLM technology to match relevant shows and films with advertiser assets produced through Omnicom Production.

The system can generate multiple versions of a single ad to align with different audiences and content environments.

For a more integrated viewer experience, Omnicom's digital twin technology also enables brand assets to appear within Netflix's visual style.

This deal puts AI directly into creative adaptation, a fast-growing area of advertiser investment in streaming.

"There's been placements in CTV streaming for quite some time, but there hasn't been relevant contextual content to feed those spaces and places," Omnicom Production CEO Alissa Hansen shared.

Matching creative to content is what makes an ad break worth watching, and it forces media planning and production to operate as one.

Streaming's Personalization Push

The Netflix deal matters because the conditions for personalized streaming ads are already in place.

Contextual CTV targeting lifts awareness, recall, and favorability across the brand funnel, and the inventory to run it is everywhere.

Ad-supported content fills 74.2% of U.S. TV time, with streaming making up 45.6% of it, per Nielsen's 2025 Ad Supported Gauge.

Viewers also accept the trade, since an IAB study found more than 70% will share data for personalized experiences and free content.

And Netflix brings the audience to match, with its ad-supported tier passing 250 million monthly active users.

The Netflix-Omnicom deal points to three moves any advertiser can apply, regardless of platform:

• Audience expectations are rising. Align creative with the viewing environment to lift engagement, since ads that match their surroundings get ignored less.
• First-party data is gaining value. Feed it straight into creative decisions, because brands that act on their own data outperform the ones sitting on it.
• AI is scaling personalization. Use it for creative versioning so one campaign can speak to many audiences at once.

The advantage goes to advertisers who connect these three before their competitors treat them as standards.

Our Take: What's the Cost of Letting Netflix Adapt Your Ads?

The performance gains here are real, and so is the catch.

The same company that adapts your creative also holds the audience data and grades the results, which is a lot of control to hand to one partner. 

We think that conflict of interest, not the AI itself, is what brands should scrutinize before signing.

A platform optimizing ads that it also measures has every reason to report that its own system worked.

Our advice to brands is to take the reach and the AI adaptation, but demand independent measurement and clear data rules as the price of entry.

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