As part of the integration, Vizio users will be able to discover videos from TikTok creators and topics directly from the smart TV home screen without the need to download an app. Vizio is highlighting TikTok TV content on the smart TV homepage in a dedicated carousel that features popular trending genres to help viewers discover videos more easily. While not TikTok’s first smart TV integration, the custom carousel on the home screen is a first of its kind for TikTok genres on TV.

Influencers get ready, Vizio has announced that the large format version of TikTok is now available on its SmartCast TVs from this year and earlier.

Because there’s no real app store on Vizio SmartCast TVs, Vizio says that users can discover videos from their favorite TikTok creators and topics directly from the Vizio home screen — no downloads required.

What’s noteworthy about this particular rollout is that VIZIO TVs are known for being cheap. You can purchase, for instance, Vizio’s V-Series 43-inch 4K HDR TV for a little under $300. Compare that to Samsung 4K TVs. You'll likely pay over $400 for one, and that's assuming it's on sale.

TikTok coming to Vizio TVs means you have a popular app being made more widely available to the TV consumer.

Best budget: Vizio D-SeriesWhy it made the cut: An all-around solid 32-inch TV for the price, featuring Vizio’s SmartCast technology that allows for streaming without any additional hardware needed and a bright backlit LED display.

In terms of TV brands, when smart TV households were asked what brand they own, 41% said Samsung, while Vizio was second with 19%, followed by LG (18%), TCL (11%), and Sony (10%).

“Samsung, Vizio and Roku need to come to the table,” Eng said. While these companies are IAB members that participate in working groups, they’re reluctant to share first-party data outside their own systems.

Among surveyed Internet adults owning a smart TV, 41 per cent reported owning at least one Samsung Electronics smart TV. Vizio and LG Electronics were distant competitors, with 19 per cent and 18 per cent of US smart TV households owning these brands, respectively.

​​Vizio said that the original 10-part series @Home with Tori starring Tori Spelling launched Thursday exclusively on its WatchFree Plus streaming services.

The series features branded content integrations from sponsors including Mattel, Hilton and Party City. Other sponsorship opportunities include co-branded home screen promotions and episodic title sponsorships.

Joe Marino, head of client success organization at MadHive, said local is not a very sexy category, but it’s getting there. As connected TV gets larger, “it’s pushing local five years into the future faster,” he said. “I do think CTV has expedited the local markets’ adoption of digital.” Midterm political spending should expedite things as well. “There’s going to be a lot of inventory missing in the linear world in a few months,” said Gaynor. “CTV offers an opportunity for political money coming in.”

Web3 is influencing new ownership models and redefining the relationships between leagues, owners, players and fans. Driven by blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs, Avatars and DAOs, this new player/fan-oriented model is transforming the sports industry as it enters the Metaverse. Join us to discuss how Web3 will empower fans to become owners, bringing them closer to the sports, athletes and teams they love.

Doug Scott, Co-Founder of Subnation

Peter Hutton, Director of Media Partnerships at Meta

Moderator: Andrew Klungness

Adam Bergman, VP at Vizio Ads, also described his outfit as content-forward. The SmartCast platform powers every new Vizio TV. Bergman mentioned how each TV in a different room in the house provides a different viewer experience. “If it’s good for the consumer, then it’s a business choice worth pursuing,” Bergman said.

57%. That’s the percentage of clicks on marketers’ emails that occured on mobile devices in the first quarter of 2022 throughout North America, according to data shared with Datacenter Weekly by Cheetah Digital, the enterprise marketing technology company that works with thousands of brands—and sends 1 billion messages to consumers every day on behalf of those brands. Among all marketer categories, restaurants had the highest mobile-device click percentage at 75% (vs. 25% of clicks that came via desktop/webmail), followed by retail at 63% and finance at 61%.

Best overall: VIZIO V-Series 4K HDR Smart TV
Why it made the cut: The VIZIO V-Series 4K HDR Smart TV is a mid-level entry in a crowded market. Its affordable price and expected-from-a-TV features make it a competent buy for most people.

What sets this 4K TV apart from others? The Vizio 4K TV delivers brighter and more vivid colors than standard TVs, thanks to its Quantum color display. This is in part due to a light source behind the screen that brightens or dims automatically based on what you’re watching. Thanks to DTS Studio Sound II support, the audio is excellent too. Some smart TVs are only compatible with Android or Apple AirPlay 2; it’s rare to see one that works with both Android and Apple iOS. But this Vizio TV does! It’s compatible with Android smartphones and tablets with the Vizio app and Google Chromecast. And it works with Alexa and Google Assistant devices for smart-home options.

Vizio’s P85 is nothing short of spectacular. If you would never spend $3,000 on TV, then I’m not sure I could convince you to try it. But if you’re willing to spend more on luxury, this TV should be on your shortlist. It’s spectacular.

Nicole Baio is on the business development team at Vizio, where she oversees partnerships for WatchFree Plus and manages various connected-TV app and tech partner relationships and development. Previously, she was at Sony Pictures Television-owned Game Show Network, where she held various roles in content distribution and partner marketing.

Adam Bergman, VP, National Ad Sales at VIZIO pointed out the advantages of superior measurement that CTV offered as well as the ability to use that data to better target ads to a relevant audience. CTV actually opens the door for new ways for brands to understand the efficacy of their campaigns and through the use of viewing data, can improve an advertisers’ incremental reach, and the ability to connect with streaming viewers whom they couldn’t reach with a traditional TV campaign. For brands, CTV opens up a better understanding of consumer viewership habits -- actually knowing what hits the glass and understanding what consumers care about allows for better campaigns for advertisers. We are moving to a world where all CTV advertising is capable of being addressable which means a more relevant advertising experience for consumers and for brands a better way to connect with local and national audiences in a way that regular linear advertising simply can’t do.

The Tribe Dynamics subsidiary of influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ has shared data with Datacenter Weekly that sheds light on how brands are grappling with the creator economy in their marketing efforts. Tribe Dynamics surveyed executives at 150 brands and found that:
• Slightly more than half (52%) of brands expanded their influencer marketing efforts by investing in new staff in 2021 vs. 2020, while 42% stayed steady and 6% shrunk their teams.
• A sizable majority (70%) of brands say that finding the right creators to partner with is “somewhat” or “very” challenging. But 86% of those surveyed are doing their creator/talent hunting and acquisition in-house, as opposed to outsourcing those efforts.
• Brands are still looking to grow their in-house influencer marketing teams. Some 66% of those surveyed said that they don’t yet have all the necessary team members in place to deliver on plans to scale their brand’s influencer marketing campaigns.

As an agency, it is crucial to work at scale and with speed. As an influencer marketer, I have demoed, tested, and worked with numerous SaaS solutions like CreatorIQ, Klear, Traackr, and a bunch of smaller ones like lefty, Dovetale, and Woomio, to name a few.

This latest report recaps and updates the findings from the first two reports and offers a glossary of sorts of common terminology used in the CTV space. You’ll also find case studies on how LG Ads Solutions helped a major streaming service drive app downloads, how Samsung Ads helped drive winter tourism in Michigan, and how VIZIO Ads’ Household Connect solution helped a cable TV channel reach viewers both on and off the VIZIO platform to drive tune-in for an important season premier. (Key to all stories is the fact that these services own their own hardware and software.) Finally you’ll find exclusive one-on-one interviews with three key industry leaders: VIZIO’s Oz Lang, Samsung’s Justin Evans and LG Ads Solutions’ Serge Matta.