The results
More sales from relevant news
More leads
Cost per sale
Cost per lead
−25%$291 vs. $391
Lead-to-sale
9.0%Local relevant news
The challenge
All news gets treated the same
Many advertisers avoid live news, using blunt exclusions that cut scale and performance. CarShield and its agency, InterMedia asked: If you can selectively target positive/Uplifting News — can you outperform a traditional news exclusion strategy on both lead efficiency and sales efficiency?
The insight
Buy the right news, not “avoid all news.”
Anoki’s ContextIQ reads speech, visuals and story progression in real time, so suitability follows how a story is told, not just what it mentions. Sub-segments and storylines classified as positive/uplifting delivered 28% more leads, 57% more sales, and 39% lower cost-per-sale than negatively-framed segments — at nearly identical spend — and both outperformed the untargeted run-of-network control.
The test · Five equal budget arms
Five-week controlled study on Spectrum Reach CTV
At a glance
Advertiser: CarShield · Agency: InterMedia
Inventory: Spectrum Reach premium local and national CTV news
Technology: Anoki ContextIQ for Live News
Design: Five equal budget arms over five weeks
Measured on: Leads, sales, cost per lead, cost per sale
Activation: PMP deals via The Trade Desk and Magnite
How it works
From live news to contextual decisioning in real time
Anoki’s ContextIQ analyzes live news content as it happens, understanding the full story, not just keywords.
The results · Relevant vs. less relevant news
Same spend. Better outcomes.
Spend and impressions nearly identical.
Leads
+28%
Cost per lead
−25%
Relevant news Less relevant news
Weeks with a CPL advantage for relevant news
Best weekly CPL, as efficiency improved over the flight
Cost-per-sale gap between the best and weakest segments
The execution · Live news became a performance signal
Spectrum Reach news inventory across its CTV streaming footprint, led by local news.
Real-time subgenre, sentiment and suitability calls set to CarShield’s brand-safety rules.
PMP deals via The Trade Desk and Magnite. No custom integration.
Cost per lead, leads, sales and cost per sale across all five arms.
The takeaway
News isn’t inventory to avoid.
When the context is right, it’s inventory that works harder.
Spectrum Reach’s premium news plus Anoki’s real-time contextual AI: scale and suitability, without the trade-off.
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Learn more
See what the right context can do for your brand.
Source: Final results as measured by CarShield attribution, Apr 27 – May 31, 2026, 5-week campaign.
* First-of-its-kind live news case study.