Ad Week New York 2026 kicked off on Monday, and EMARKETER was on the ground to hear everything from the latest CTV strategy to how brands are using niche audiences to drive big engagement.

Here's a roundup of the buzziest conversations happening at one of the ad industry's most important events.

Marketing and Ad Tech

TiVo Ads released a new earnings update timed to Advertising Week, announcing that its TiVo One platform saw a 70% YoY spike in monthly active users (MAUs) and a 54% increase in advertising and related revenues in Q2 2026. In an interview with EMARKETER, Matt Milne, CRO of parent company Xperi and president of TiVo Ads, attributed much of the success to home screen connected TV (CTV) advertising, where engagement spiked 90% YoY.

• “What we’re seeing is that the home screen is a very performance-based ad unit,” Milne said. “Somebody has to have interacted to get there, so you know there’s actually a human that’s looking at [the ad].”
• “Our view is that [the home screen] is the most premium [CTV] real estate you could have because it’s the first ad that you see—before you even get to the stream,” he added.

TiVo’s success could help boost the adoption of home screen advertising—a “relevant and non-intrusive” CTV ad option for brands as streaming faces growing ad saturation, per Teads. If TiVo can prove the performance of this inventory beyond engagement, it could persuade more advertisers to enter its ecosystem and mature the home screen into a major touchpoint.

Payments

• Chase’s CMO Linda Hassan highlighted the importance of authentic, high-value experiences for premium members. While a dinner at MSG may only reach 80 members, the quality of the engagement can lock in loyalty— create opportunities for organic marketing by cardholders on social media.
• American Express’ Janal Morgul spoke about engaging with niche audiences like music superfans to drive acquisitions and deepen loyalty. Twenty percent of US music listeners qualify as super users, and women are particularly engaged: 37% turn live music into multi-day travel experiences, per Amex.
• And PayPal’s Dr. Mark Grether broke down the power of its commerce data with highly-engaged superusers on Venmo. As these “Chief Friend Officers” generate major traffic on the app by drawing in their friends, Venmo needs to engage them to jumpstart payments across those friendships.

Go deeper: We took an in-depth look at how issuers are targeting niche but super-engaged demographics to drive spend.