VAB, the New York-based video advertising trade body, on October 8, 2026 sent out an infographic that condenses a Tatari survey of 41 digital-native brand marketers into nine panels on television spending around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The graphic never states how many brands answered; the accompanying email does.

In Short

A trade group for video advertising emailed a one-page graphic that sums up a survey of 41 brand marketers about how they intend to advertise on television around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The graphic talks about advertisers in general without saying that only 41 brands took part, and most of its figures repeat a report that was shared with journalists in September. That makes it a small group's stated plans from July, repackaged, rather than a measurement of what the wider advertising market will do.

A second outing for September's survey data

The email carrying the graphic is dated October 8, 2026 at 14:30 according to its header, and gives the work the title "Advertisers' Holiday Wish List". It describes the respondents as digital-native brand marketers and direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisers. According to VAB, "Tatari surveyed 41 digital-native brand marketers and DTC advertisers across industries to see what's on their wish lists ahead of Black Friday & Cyber Monday." The same message promises "9 essential stats straight from advertisers".

Neither attached document gives fieldwork dates or says where the respondents came from. Those details sit in a 15-page VAB deck sent to press on September 23, which placed fieldwork between July 13 and July 24, 2026 and drew all 41 respondents from Tatari's own client base.

The calendar is worth setting out. Fieldwork closed 76 days before the email went out; Black Friday, on November 27, falls 50 days after it, with Thanksgiving on November 26 and Cyber Monday on November 30. Every figure in the graphic therefore describes intentions formed in midsummer for a trading period that has not yet begun.

What the nine panels say

Budgets and timing

The lead panel says 59% of advertisers are increasing their Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) TV budgets this year, with 22% planning a significant increase. In the September deck the same 59% broke down as nine brands planning a significant rise, 15 a slight one, 14 holding flat and three cutting, which makes 24 of 41. The remaining 17 brands, about 41%, planned flat or lower budgets - a group the graphic does not mention.

The timing panel puts 54% of respondents on air before the middle of November and 17% on air as early as October. In deck terms that means 22 of 41 brands - seven starting in October and 15 in early November - against 19 that begin in mid-November or Thanksgiving week. The deck had labelled the same 54% as starting at least four weeks before Black Friday, a description the calendar does not support. Four weeks before November 27 is October 30, so at most the seven October starters qualify. The graphic's calendar wording avoids the problem. With the email dated October 8, those seven brands are, on their stated timetable, already on air or about to be.

Channels and AI

Linear television and streaming or CTV "ranked in the top 3" when respondents were asked which channels they are prioritizing for BFCM media buys, at 76% and 73% respectively. The graphic leaves the third member of the top three unnamed; the deck had paid social at 76% alongside linear, with paid search at 60%, YouTube at 50% and LLM platforms at 20%. A year earlier, according to Tatari's sponsored write-up on Adweek dated October 28, 2025, 72% of 65 surveyed brands planned to include linear TV and 57% streaming. The question wording differs and this year's sample is 24 brands smaller, so the two years do not form a clean series.

On AI, the graphic says 61% of advertisers are already using it in their BFCM TV campaigns "across creative, targeting, optimization, strategy, reporting, and production". The list spans six functions, and the graphic does not say how many each brand covers or whether use means live deployment or a trial. The deck's AI headline stood higher, at 73%, because it also counted brands planning to use AI; the graphic carries the narrower figure.

Measurement and cost thresholds

The graphic says 70% of advertisers use pixel-based attribution to measure TV performance, and 83% say "maximizing performance matters more than clearing budget". The deck's fuller list, on a base of 40, put incrementality testing at 52.5%, media mix modelling at 45.0% and brand lift studies at 20.0%, with 12.5% using none of them; respondents could pick several methods. Seven of 41 brands, 17%, ranked clearing budget above performance.

Trust in television measurement is contested elsewhere in the market. A Jamloop survey of 120 senior marketers, reported in July, found 62% holding some scepticism toward platform-reported results, while 42% said CTV is held to the same accountability standards as search and social. Adstra's study of IP-based targeting, reported the same month, found that only 23% of residential IP addresses reached their intended geographic target. Jamloop sells performance CTV and Adstra sells identity products, and the Adstra study concerned geographic targeting rather than attribution. Both come from companies selling in the same market, a caveat that applies equally to Tatari's survey.

The ninth panel has no counterpart in PPC Land's September coverage of the deck. It says 39% of advertisers have not changed their CPA and CPM thresholds for TV compared with the rest of the year - the cost-per-acquisition and cost-per-thousand-impressions limits that govern buying. The graphic does not say what the other respondents did, or whether they set such limits at all. According to Tatari's 2025 write-up, 42% of brands left CPA or CPM thresholds unchanged and 38% adjusted them; on a sample of 41, the three-point difference is about the weight of one brand.

Creative, creators and where sales land

Only 20% are developing BFCM-specific creative, the graphic says, while 37% are repurposing existing non-holiday creative. The deck also recorded 14.6% reusing earlier holiday creative and 29.3% undecided, so the two headline shares account for 23 of 41 brands. According to Tatari's 2025 write-up, 26% of its 65 brands planned net-new holiday creative.

On creators, 15% are repurposing creator content for TV and CTV, and 24% are "actively exploring the convergence" without having committed for the season. The deck showed 58.5% keeping the two separate and 2.4%, one brand, co-producing. VAB published its own research on the overlap in August: a survey run with Hub found that 52% of 889 creator followers were more likely to look up a brand when a creator they follow appears in a TV or streaming programme.

On sales, 58% are focused on their DTC websites for BFCM, and 39% are taking an omnichannel approach "still centered on digital". The deck described that 39% as brands combining their own website with other digital channels and physical stores, and recorded 3% for Amazon and none for in-store only, on a base of 38. The 58% matches the share of brands directing viewers to websites in Tatari's 2025 write-up, though the question framing is not identical.

Reading the sample

Counting the figures printed on the graphic gives 16 percentages, since 39% appears twice. After rounding, 14 match the September account of the deck. One, the 61% on AI, is a narrower cut of a larger figure; the other, the 39% on CPA and CPM thresholds, has no counterpart in that coverage. What the graphic omits is context rather than numbers: flat and lower budgets, undecided creative plans, and the channels outside the top three.

The base is the larger gap. Five of the nine panels name "advertisers" as the subject of the percentage; none states a sample size, and the number 41 appears only in the email. On that base each brand is worth about 2.4 points, and the deck's bases ran from 38 to 41 depending on the question. The distance between the 54% on timing and the 59% on budgets amounts to two brands.

The respondents came from Tatari's client base, and brands named in the deck included BYLT, MANSCAPED, Bearbottom Clothing, Lectric eBikes and Tecovas. The survey also records stated intentions in July, roughly four months before the sales events, not spending.

VAB is a trade body for video advertising and Tatari sells television advertising services. According to the email, marketers, agencies and VAB members get "free, immediate access" to VAB's library of guides, glossaries and case studies after creating an account, and the graphic closes with the prompt "Want to unwrap the full report?" Neither attached document discloses the response rate, the questionnaire or how Tatari chose which clients to invite. How far can 41 brands carry a claim about advertisers generally?

The wider forecast

The IAB raised its 2026 US advertising forecast to 12.3% growth in September, up from 9.5% in January, with CTV growth revised to 15.6% from 13.8% and a 1.5% decline projected for linear TV, against 1.7% in the earlier forecast. The survey's headline on budgets points in the same direction, yet neither attached document gives a spend amount or a market total; both report shares of brands only. Channel priority also differs from channel growth: linear TV at 76% and streaming/CTV at 73% sit close together in the survey, while the IAB's growth rates for the two diverge.

Set against September's deck, the graphic adds one new statistic and a shorter list of caveats.

Timeline

Summary

  • Who: VAB, the New York-based video advertising trade body, and Tatari, which surveyed 41 digital-native brand marketers and DTC advertisers.
  • What: A nine-panel infographic titled "Advertisers' Holiday Wish List", carrying 16 percentages on Black Friday and Cyber Monday television plans, 14 of which match September's deck after rounding.
  • When: The email is dated October 8, 2026 at 14:30; fieldwork ran July 13-24, 2026, according to the September deck; Black Friday falls on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30.
  • Where: VAB's address is in New York; neither attached document states where the respondents are based.
  • Why: VAB and Tatari are promoting the findings and a full report, and the 41-brand base limits what the percentages can say about advertisers generally.