Kargo Wins CTV Innovation Award in 8th Annual MarTech Breakthrough Awards Program

August 14th, 2025

Prestigious International Annual Awards Program Recognizes Standout Marketing, Advertising and Sales Technology Around the World

Kargo, a leader in breakthrough advertising solutions, today announced that it has been selected as winner of the “Connected TV Innovation Award” in the 8th annual MarTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by MarTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the most innovative companies in the global marketing, sales and advertising technology industry today.

With Kargo, brands can harness CTV at scale driving incremental reach, take advantage of a single marketplace with streamlined workflow, and power campaigns with commerce, creative, and contextual innovations. 

Kargo’s breakthrough Television Creative Optimization (TCO) optimizes CTV, turning one TV ad into thousands of variations to tailor messages for different audiences, times of year, offers, and more - all without the need for reshoots. TCO takes commerce onto the big screen using product catalogs from retailers and brands to render dynamic CTV experiences.

Kargo’s Narrative format is an AI-driven innovation that repurposes existing brand assets, such as still images, into dynamic, compelling CTV creative. Instead of using standard video spots, a brand can craft ads using high-quality static visuals and an engaging audio overlay to reinforce brand messaging - allowing brands to deploy premium, TV-ready ads without traditional production costs.

The AI-powered ads can run across leading streaming platforms, ensuring broad and engaged audience reach. Additional options include Branded Canvas, where videos are surrounded by dynamic brand images to personalize and drive connection; TV Glass, which lets brands place ads directly on the homescreen of Smart TVs; and Squeezeback, which offers dynamic in-content ads that deliver creative impact without interrupting the viewing experience. 

Kargo Tiles takes in social media assets, transforming  vertical videos into a sleek CTV spot with tiled clips alongside a brand message. Flipbook lets brands tell a story around their product and sell it via an ad that can flip through features, branding and more, while Mirage captures viewer attention instantly with  playful animation that transitions seamlessly to a video asset.

“We’re reimagining CTV advertising with our AI-powered CTV Narrative format, which uses approved creative assets and AI-generated audio to offer a cost-efficient alternative to standard linear video production. Our recent campaigns have delivered stronger attention, greater brand lift, and major production savings,” said Harry Kargman, Founder and CEO of Kargo. “Thank you to MarTech Breakthrough for recognizing this novel approach. We’ll keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in CTV to help brands achieve greater visibility, business results, and most importantly savings.”

The MarTech Breakthrough Awards program is dedicated to recognizing the standout innovators, leaders and visionaries in the global marketing, sales and advertising technology industries. From marketing automation and customer experience to AdTech, SalesTech, performance marketing, RevOps, analytics, content marketing and beyond, for nearly a decade the awards have honored breakthrough solutions across the full MarTech spectrum. The 2025 program attracted thousands of nominations from companies across more than 15 countries, highlighting the global momentum and innovation driving this rapidly evolving industry.

“Kargo is making CTV advertising more accessible, engaging, and cost-effective. Producing high-quality video ads can be expensive and time-consuming, making it difficult for brands to scale their campaigns effectively. Brands of all sizes are looking to maintain creative impact without the need for extensive video production,” said Steve Johansson, Managing Director at MarTech Breakthrough. “With Kargo’s innovative CTV approach, brands don’t need massive production budgets to make an impact - they get a smart, AI-driven solution that optimizes engagement and efficiency. We’re pleased to award Kargo with the ‘CTV Innovation Award!’”

Additional Kargo offerings include Channel Targeting, which offers contextual relevance through curated channel lists to provide higher engagement, more reach, and a better CTV experience; Moments Targeting, which identifies actions, products, sentiments and objects in video scenes via AI to deliver relevant ads in streaming content; and Show-level Targeting and Transparency to allow brands to target and/or suppress app, channel or show-level content and get show-level reporting post campaign.