You know when the faucet leaks, and at night you wake up to plink plink plink?
Well — that’s the perfect metaphor for the state of corporate content today.
According to Forrester/SiriusDecisions, between 60% and 70% of B2C content goes unused.
That means hours, budgets, and endless meetings producing materials no one will ever see. A leaking pipe. CMOs are overwhelmed with infinite operational flows, and at the end of the day, they don’t even have time to understand why they did what they did.
But let’s do some housekeeping and start with the audience. Let’s get back to understanding whom a CMO wants to talk to.
Gen X Discovers YouTube in the Living Room
I know what you’re thinking: “Ok, but that’s true for kids on TikTok, not for me with my 45 years, two kids, and Sky subscription.”
Not so.
According to eMarketer, by 2026, Gen X viewers on YouTube (47.4M) will be practically equal to those of linear TV (47.8M).
Translation: even people with mortgages are watching cooking creators on YouTube in the living room — not just Netflix or on their phone.
And it’s not an anomaly: Nielsen confirms YouTube is already the #1 “broadcaster” on U.S. TV, with over 13% share.
Which means the cathode-ray tube no longer belongs to broadcasters but to creators.
The Creator Economy Beats Hollywood (At Least in the Hearts of the Under-40s)
Deloitte tells us that 56% of Gen Z and 43% of Millennials consider social/creator content more relevant than traditional film and TV.
And about half say they feel more connected to a creator than to an actor.
And here I was, thinking the difference was made by production budgets. Spoiler: nope.
AI: The Missing Seal
So, we’ve got a leaking pipe and an audience looking elsewhere.
The good news? There’s a Teflon for advertising: AI.
To be honest, I had to Google what Teflon actually was, and Gemini gave me at least 40 links to buy it. It’s the stuff plumbers use to seal water pipes. Ask yours.
How does it work?
Generation: With GenAI, you produce creative variants much faster by blending classic crafting with creative prompting. You start from a good idea, and then it’s like having a five-person team developing it.
Testing: Multi-armed bandit systems immediately shift budgets to the best-performing versions. “Bandit” sounds like the Wild West, but it actually comes from a math system used in slot machines: here, instead of taking your money, AI helps you test dynamically without wasting options.
Using campaign data on CTV, you can dynamically distribute multiple creatives, adapting and personalizing them. This leads to algorithmic spots — ads that not only change based on demographics but also on time of day or device. Think of it like product packaging that changes depending on your mood or the weather, not just price or promotion. Conversion potential skyrockets.Distribution/Monetization: On CTV and YouTube, it will be possible to update sponsors in real time (Dynamic Ad Insertion). The video remains, the sponsor changes. A marketer’s dream. YouTube’s recent update promises big impact. Imagine dynamically adapting the ad type not only to user demographics but also to their moment in time and purchase propensity.
Yes, it’s a little scary — I get it. But it’s better to get an ad truly relevant to me in that moment than a flat, boring, intrusive one.
KPIs? Beyond Reach and Frequency
Forget just GRPs. Today’s real questions are:
How much actual time did they spend watching me?
What’s the cost of a minute retained and used?
How many more searches for my brand followed?
How many conversions did I assist (even if not immediate)?
Conclusion
Advertising is no longer a “polite interruption” but “content that flows together.”
Gen Z demands it, Millennials take it for granted, and even Gen X now watches YouTube on TV.
The message for brands is clear: either you become media brands, or you’ll remain just another annoying ad to skip.
And trust me — nobody wants to be something (or someone) that people just can’t wait to skip
.