Ad breaks when streaming are something we all deal with daily, but something we in this industry have never had access to. Auto companies use it. Insurance companies use it. Consumer brands use it. The firearms industry has largely been locked out. Not because you don't have great video that you spent lots of budget creating and not because your customers aren't streaming. The problem is access and restrictions. Mainstream CTV platforms have made it difficult or impossible for firearms and adjacent brands to participate, and when it is allowed, you can't actually show the product you're trying to sell.
Armanet changed that.
What Is CTV?
Connected TV, or CTV, is advertising delivered through streaming content on internet-connected televisions and devices. Think Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Samsung TV Plus, TCL, Vizio, and other platforms people use to watch content in their living rooms.
Instead of squeezing a video into a social feed or hoping someone watches it on a desktop, CTV puts your brand where video was meant to be watched: full screen, sound on, in the living room.
For 2A brands, though, the important part isn't that CTV exists. It's that you can finally access it.
CTV Without The Banana Prop
If you've advertised firearms long enough, you know the drill.
Don't show the firearm. Don't show the product in use. Change the language. Change the creative. Find some clever workaround that technically satisfies the platform's policies while barely resembling the campaign you actually wanted to run.
Sometimes that means getting creative. Sometimes it apparently means reaching for a banana.
You don't need the banana prop here.
Armanet did the legwork and secured unrestricted placements on top CTV platforms. Now, firearms brands can run advertising built around their actual products. Your video can look like your brand, feature what you sell, and tell the story you intended to tell.
CTV gives you the canvas. Armanet gives this industry access to it.
Where Armanet CTV Runs
Armanet currently provides CTV access through publishers including Rumble and Real America's Voice, with a growing footprint across Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Samsung TV Plus, TCL, Vizio, and other connected devices. That opens up an entirely different environment for 2A creative: the living room, the big screen, and an audience that's actually sitting down to watch.
CTV Is Becoming More Accessible
Historically, premium video came with premium pricing, especially when multiple layers sat between the advertiser and the actual inventory. We've spent the last year working on the supply side of that equation.
By improving how Armanet accesses CTV inventory and removing unnecessary markup layers, we've brought the cost of reaching these audiences down significantly compared with where it was a year ago.
CTV Isn't The Only Place Video Belongs
CTV is the big-screen opportunity, but it isn't the only way to put video to work.
Armanet also supports instream video, including pre-roll and post-roll placements inside publisher video players. These placements give advertisers a more contextual way to reach audiences while they're actively consuming content across the endemic web.
We don't see the two as competing products.
CTV gives you the living room. Instream puts your video inside the content your audience is already watching. Together, they give 2A brands more places to tell their story beyond a static banner.
This Isn't Theoretical
Brands including Trijicon and Dead Air have already run CTV campaigns through Armanet.
We're not talking about something the firearms industry might eventually be able to use. The infrastructure exists. The inventory exists. Brands are already running on it.
The opportunity now is to make CTV a normal part of how this industry thinks about media. We have opened the door, now is your chance to leverage our hard work.