Why Pinterest–tvScientific Is a Big Deal for Advertising and Adtech
Pinterest’s acquisition of tvScientific (a Sharp Pen client) has major implications for advertising and adtech.
tvScientific pioneered the performance TV thesis: with the right measurement and optimization technology, TV should perform like search and social. If advertisers can measure TV’s impact on the bottom line — and optimize it with the same rigor as digital-native channels — TV can attract the performance advertisers who turned search and social into combined $500B categories. That would raise TV’s ceiling from roughly $90B (linear + CTV) to hundreds of billions, reshaping the economics of advertising for brands, publishers, and the adtech ecosystem.
Pinterest buying tvScientific is Silicon Valley putting real capital behind that thesis. Performance TV is no longer theoretical. It’s validated.
Why the Deal Matters for Advertising
TV remains the most powerful advertising channel. It’s the biggest screen in the house and the place where iconic brands like Mercedes and Coca-Cola are built. Many adtech CEOs will tell you it drives the most net-new demand and brand affinity, demand that search and social have historically captured.
But TV has been structurally disadvantaged. Without measurement and optimization comparable to search and social, it couldn’t receive full credit for its impact or full budget allocation. That’s why digital channels have eaten everyone else’s lunch for a decade.
This deal changes that.
tvScientific made TV measurable and optimizable. With Pinterest’s reach and data across 600M users, that capability now operates at massive scale. The result is better targeting, true cross-channel measurement, and optimization that connects awareness to purchase across TV, search, and social.
Since the dawn of adtech, the goal has been simple: reach the right customer, at the right time, with the right message, then measure and improve. The Pinterest-tvScientific deal is a meaningful step toward that original vision. It’s also critical for TV publishers, especially those fighting consolidation and pressure from walled gardens, who need advertising to perform better to compete.
Why This Matters for Adtech
This is an important moment for independent adtech.
1. It proves adtech can still build companies worth acquiring.
A $20B Silicon Valley platform just validated innovation in independent adtech. That matters because corp dev teams follow precedent, and Pinterest just gave others permission to take adtech acquisitions seriously again.
2. Performance TV is now a validated category.
Magnite acquired Streamr. Vibe reached meaningful scale. Comcast is betting on performance TV with Universal Ads. Now tvScientific exits to Pinterest. Performance TV is no longer a niche thesis — it’s an investable category. Others will follow, including companies working on the remaining pieces of the puzzle, like creative optimization (e.g. Emodo).
3. This is how the open internet grows.
Yes, the open web faces headwinds. But growth doesn’t only come from more users; it comes from more advertisers. Performance TV brings in performance budgets. That’s why I’ve long believed it’s one of the most important theses in adtech. The same logic applies beyond TV — to mobile (as AppLovin has shown) and to the web, where companies like OpenAds are pushing similar ideas.
Why the tvScientific Exit Matters for B2B Marketing
tvScientific CEO Jason Fairchild is one of the best practitioners of CEO evangelism I’ve worked with. We started together last fall. In H1 2025 alone, Jason generated ~4,000 LinkedIn engagements from weekly posts, averaging ~175 interactions per post. He made tvScientific the reference point for performance TV.
tvScientific VP of Marketing Emily Robinson helped scale this strategy — what she aptly called brand gravity: pulling advertisers, agencies, and industry influencers into tvSci’s orbit and establishing it as the authority on performance TV. The engine was Jason’s thinking and consistency.
A few lessons others can emulate:
1. Have one big idea — and repeat it relentlessly.
Performance TV was a drumbeat, sustained over years. Repetition builds credibility.
2. Be consistent.
Jason posted once a week. Emily and team layered in a newsletter and supporting content. That was enough to create momentum without requiring the CEO to become a full-time influencer.
3. Embrace productive controversy.
Jason wasn’t afraid to challenge Google and other Big Tech players when it aligned with tvScientific’s narrative and values. These posts performed because they were principled and grounded, not gratuitous.
Many factors drive a successful acquisition. Marketing is just one of them. But CEO evangelism is the single best way to maximize opportunity in 2025. No agency or playbook can substitute for a CEO with real ideas and conviction.
That’s why the CEO is the chief evangelist.
