How To Make Seamless AI-Driven Streaming Ads: 12 Expert Tips

Forbes

23-07-2025

Netflix is experimenting with AI-powered advertising that mirrors the visual tone and storytelling style of its original content. For brands, this offering presents a new frontier: less intrusive, more immersive marketing that fits into the viewing experience instead of interrupting it.
Of course, this opportunity comes with a creative risk: Will a brand integration feel like part of the story or disrupt it? Here, 12 members of Forbes Agency Council share how they envision this AI-ad innovation evolving. Check out their insights and advice below to get it right.
1. Tell A Coherent, Cinematic Story
This new model marks a broader shift: Brands are no longer inserting ads into content—they're becoming the content. Audiences reward coherence and craft, not disruption. The future lies in cinematic storytelling where brands feel native, emotionally resonant and worth rewatching. - Sebastian Bondo Petit, WHY CGI
2. Create Emotional Alignment In Immersive Scenes
If done right, it could make ads feel more like immersive scenes than interruptions. The key is emotional alignment—if the tone, lighting and pacing match the show, the viewer stays engaged. I don't think it's about being louder; I think it's about being 'invisible' while still leaving a mark. - Miller McCoy, Limitless MFG
3. Add Value To The Viewer Experience
Brands have a unique chance to engage audiences in more immersive ways, including content that includes brand integration. This strategy focuses on adding value to the viewer experience, allowing brands to enhance the entertainment rather than interrupt it and contribute meaningfully instead of competing for attention. - Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising
4. Don't Try To Steal The Spotlight
This is a great idea that is doomed to failure. AI-generated promotion woven into the style of a show or movie will make consumers much more likely to accept and enjoy the advert. However, CEOs and marketers will hate the idea of their product not being the star of the show. They'll jump on the new format, but ruin it by doing everything they can to make their product stand out like a sore thumb. - Mike Maynard, Napier Partnership Limited
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5. Insist AI Train On Brand Guidelines
AI-driven, in-world advertising has real potential, but only if Netflix provides robust brand tools to train AI with each brand's visual and tonal guidelines. An on-demand creative strategy can match the narrative context, but without structured inputs, the result risks tonal dissonance. If executed right, this becomes a seamless, dynamic layer of storytelling. If not, it breaks immersion. - Cagan Sean Yuksel, Dreamspace
6. Make Ads Visual Parts Of The Storyline
We, as humans, are inherently visual creatures. Give us images or video, or give us death—not death in reality, but all text and no pictures make your advertising dull. Ads need to be compelling, intriguing and entertaining to capture your audience. It's far easier to gain acceptance by making your ads unobtrusive. Be a part of the storyline. There's huge potential when it's done right. - Terry Zelen, Zelen Communications
7. Adopt It Early And Get The Context Right
This is product placement on steroids. Brands that jump on it early and nail the context will win big. The key is blending in so well that you feel like part of the story, not a distraction from it. If your brand can entertain and sell without breaking immersion, you'll crush it. The future of ads isn't interruption; it's seamless and subtle integration. - Tony Pec, Y Not You Media
8. Be Memorable Without Breaking Immersion
It could be a game-changer for brands that align creatively with the content. Ads styled like the shows create a seamless experience that feels less like marketing and more like storytelling. If done right, it can boost engagement and brand recall without disrupting the viewer's experience. The key is blending in while still being memorable. - Guy Leon Sheetrit, Guac Digital
9. Extend The Story, Don't Interrupt It
If done well, AI-integrated ads could become story extensions instead of interruptions. For brands, the key will be creative alignment and staying true to the show's tone while offering value to the viewer. It's a powerful opportunity, but authenticity and restraint will separate the leaders from the noise. - Mary Ann O'Brien, OBI Creative
10. Prioritize Meaning, Not Mimicry
If brands use this to blend in, they'll disappear. Disruption doesn't come from mimicking style—it comes from using context to make meaning. Brands that prioritize resonance over placement here will win. Make something that shows effort and values the viewer's time (thoughtful, not lazy), and they'll reciprocate—not because it targeted them, but because your AI-driven ads earned their attention. - Shanna Apitz, Hunt Adkins
11. Bring Narratives That Feel Native
If Netflix pulls this off, it will reset expectations. The brands that benefit most will be those with a clear narrative and strong creative systems in place. This isn't about fitting into someone else's show; it's about showing up with content and stories that feel native to the world you're joining. - Kyle Arteaga, The Bulleit Group
12. Make Ads Feel Like Subplots, Not Pauses
For brands, this unlocks a transmedia branding opportunity: embedding their narrative across entertainment layers. Success will hinge on narrative continuity. The ad must feel like a subplot, not a pause. When brand storytelling mirrors the emotional arc of the content, resonance becomes retention. - Vaibhav Kakkar, Digital Web Solutions