A national or regional CTV buy creates awareness at scale, but it does nothing to convert the person standing at your booth or walking past your pop-up unless the timing and geography line up on purpose. Winston Francois builds the plan that puts CTV spend and field activation in the same market, in the same week, so each one makes the other work harder.
The Problem
CTV media and field events run on separate calendars with separate owners
The media team locks the CTV flight schedule against a national or DMA-level plan months out. The field or events team books trade show floor space and pop-up locations on its own timeline, usually driven by industry conference dates rather than the ad calendar.
CTV geo-targeting and event market selection are picked independently
Programmatic CTV buys can be sliced to DMA or zip-level geos, but that targeting is usually set by media efficiency, not by where the field team is showing up. Meanwhile events get picked by trade show location, sales territory, or where a regional manager happens to have relationships.
There is no way to isolate what caused a bump in local conversions or foot traffic
When a CTV flight and a regional event both run in the same market in the same month, and local conversions or booth traffic tick up, most teams have no clean way to separate the CTV effect from the event effect from plain seasonality. Without a holdout market or a pre-defined lift test, the post-mortem becomes a guess dressed up as an insight, and that guess drives next quarter's budget split.
Media budget and field budget compete instead of coordinate
CTV media and event/field spend usually sit in different line items owned by different VPs, and every planning cycle turns into a fight over who gets the marginal dollar.
How We Help
We start with an audit of your CTV media plan against your existing or planned event and field calendar – flight windows, geo-targeting settings, DMA-level spend allocation, and every trade show, pop-up, sampling activation, or regional event on the books for the next two quarters. Most of the time this is the first document that has ever put both calendars side by side.
From the audit we build a coordinated geo-and-timing plan: which event markets get concentrated CTV weight in the two to four weeks surrounding the event, which planned events should shift a week or two to land inside an existing CTV flight instead of outside it, and where the event calendar itself should expand or contract based on where CTV is already delivering reach efficiently.
For B2B CTV and ad-tech companies specifically, that plan also covers industry-specific venues – Possible, the upfronts and newfronts circuit, and category events where CTV buyers, sellers, and platform partners are physically in the room – and how a CTV media presence in that same window (ad recall, retargeting attendees) reinforces a booth or sponsorship rather than sitting on a separate track.
Execution covers both sides: creative consistency between the CTV spot running in-market and what shows up at the booth, pop-up, or sampling table, so the person who saw the ad recognizes the activation instead of encountering two unrelated brand experiences; and the field logistics – staffing, local media add-ons, sampling or demo mechanics – built to convert the audience the CTV flight is already warming up.
Measurement is built in before the event runs, not reverse-engineered after. Where volume allows, we set up geo holdout markets – comparable markets running the CTV flight without the paired event, or vice versa – so the lift from the combined push can actually be isolated instead of assumed.
The budget tradeoff conversation happens explicitly, not by default. We build a simple framework for when an incremental event-market activation dollar outperforms an incremental CTV frequency dollar in that same geo, based on the event type, the audience, and what you are actually trying to move – awareness, pipeline, or local conversion.
If your CTV spend and your event budget have never been in the same room together, that is the first thing worth fixing before either team plans the next quarter – book a strategy call and we will map the overlap.
What we deliver
- CTV-and-event calendar audit – side-by-side view of flight windows, geo-targeting, and every planned field activation for the next two quarters
- Geo-concentration and timing plan – which markets get CTV weight increases around events, and which events should shift to land inside a flight window
- Creative alignment brief – shared messaging and visual consistency between the CTV spot and the booth, pop-up, or sampling activation running in the same market
- Industry-event playbook – how to pair a CTV media presence with B2B category events like Possible and the upfronts/newfronts circuit
- Lift measurement plan – geo holdout design or baseline-comparison metrics defined before the event runs, not after
- Budget tradeoff framework – a working model for when field spend outperforms incremental CTV frequency in a given market
A CTV flight and a trade show booth in the same city, in different weeks, are two separate marketing programs that happen to share a logo. Put them in the same week and they become one program that converts twice.
Our Methodology
This work is built around geography and time, not creative or brand voice – we are not writing your event booth script or your CTV spot, we are making sure the two are pointed at the same market on the same calendar so neither one is wasted. The audit phase requires real data: your current or planned CTV media plan with geo-level spend, and your actual event and field calendar with dates and locations, not aspirational ones.
We weight the plan toward markets where you can actually measure something. A market with no baseline data and no ability to hold out a comparison group is a market where the combined CTV-and-event push might work great, but you will never be able to prove it and reuse the budget case next year. We would rather concentrate the first coordinated push in two or three measurable markets and prove the model than spread it thin across every event on the calendar with no way to read results.
The methodology also accounts for the reality that event calendars are set by industry timing (conference dates you do not control) while CTV flights are more flexible. In most engagements, the CTV plan bends to the event calendar – not the other way around – because trade show dates and industry upfronts do not move for anyone.
How We Work
Days 1 to 30 are the audit and the geo-and-timing plan: pulling your CTV media plan and event calendar into one view, identifying the markets with real overlap opportunity, and building the initial concentration and shift recommendations. This phase also includes scoping which markets can support a genuine lift measurement approach versus which will only get directional read.
Days 30 to 60 build the execution layer – the creative alignment brief so the CTV spot and the field activation reinforce each other, the industry-event playbook if B2B category events like Possible or the newfronts are part of your calendar, and the measurement plan locked in before the first coordinated push runs. This is also when the budget tradeoff framework gets built and reviewed with whoever owns media and whoever owns field/events, together in the same room.
Days 60 to 90 cover the first live coordinated push in your priority markets and the read-out: what the combined CTV-and-event activation actually produced against the baseline or holdout, and what that means for how the next quarter's budget should split between incremental CTV frequency and incremental field spend.
On the client side, this engagement needs one owner from media/growth and one owner from events/field who can actually move dates and budget – not just observers. On our side it is a single senior operator running point through all 90 days, not a rotating team.
- Geo-timing alignment – percentage of event-market activations landing inside an active CTV flight window versus outside one
- Isolated lift read – measurable local conversion, foot traffic, or booth engagement lift attributable to the combined push where a holdout or baseline was set up
- Budget efficiency – the ratio of results per dollar between coordinated markets and un-coordinated ones
- Creative consistency – reduction in disconnected brand experiences between what a prospect saw on CTV and what they encountered at the activation
If your ctv / connected tv company needs event & field marketing leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
How does pairing event marketing with CTV actually work in practice?
We line up your CTV flight's geo-targeting with the markets where you already have or are planning field activations, then either increase CTV frequency in those markets around the event date or shift the event date to land inside a flight window. The goal is that someone in that market sees the CTV spot and then encounters your booth, pop-up, or sampling activation within the same window, so the two reinforce each other instead of running as unrelated efforts.
How much does an event and field marketing engagement paired with CTV cost?
The 90-day engagement covering the calendar audit, geo-timing plan, creative alignment brief, and measurement setup runs $18,000 to $40,000 depending on how many markets and events are in scope and how much of your CTV media plan already has clean geo-level data. Ongoing quarterly support to plan the next wave of coordinated pushes typically runs $6,000 to $12,000 per quarter.
How long does it take to see results from coordinating CTV and event marketing?
The plan itself – the audit, geo-timing recommendations, and measurement design – is built in the first 30 days. Whether you see a measurable lift depends on when your next event or CTV flight is actually scheduled, since we are working within your existing calendar rather than manufacturing a new one.
Who needs to be involved from our team – media, events, or both?
Both, and this is usually the biggest internal shift the engagement forces. We need one person who owns or influences CTV media planning and one who owns or influences the event and field calendar, because the whole point is getting those two functions to plan against each other instead of independently.
How is this different from a general event marketing agency?
A general event marketing agency plans and executes the booth, the sponsorship, or the activation itself – the physical experience. We are not building your booth design or running your sampling logistics.
What kind of company is this the right fit for?
This fits Series A/B or growth-stage companies, roughly $5M to $100M ARR, that are already spending meaningfully on CTV and also run a regular calendar of trade shows, pop-ups, sampling, or field activations – even a handful a year is enough to start. It is not a fit for a company running CTV with no field presence at all, or a field marketing program with no paid media budget behind it, because there is nothing to coordinate yet.
