Universal Ads must pass the pizza test if it's to steal ad dollars from social

Universal Ads is expanding features to attract performance-minded small and mid-sized advertisers to connected TV. Comcast released an MCP extension that lets small marketing teams connect AI media agents built with Claude or Gemini directly to Universal Ads for campaign optimization and data analysis. Universal Ads also partnered with Koddi to enable retail data targeting across Fox, NBCU, and Paramount inventory. Linear inventory was added to the Universal Ads self-service platform, allowing SMB advertisers to run commercials, including ones created with AI tools, against broadcast TV. These changes aim to move SMB budgets from paid social, search, and direct mail into CTV. A test by Slice.com used Universal Ads to place pizza ads in local zip codes during Winter Olympics coverage, with participating pizzerias spending about $500 per month each over three months.

"Universal Ads released an MCP (Model Context Protocol) extension, following a similar policy change from Meta in April. The move means that small teams of marketers can connect home brewed AI media agents built with Claude or Gemini directly with Universal Ads, allowing them to build tools for campaign optimization or data analysis."

"Earlier this month, it inked a partnership with commerce media firm Koddi that allowed small business advertisers to use retail data to target audiences using Fox, NBCU and Paramount inventory. The week prior, it added linear inventory to the Universal Ads self-service platform, allowing SMB advertisers to run commercials (some made using AI tools) against broadcast TV."

"All of this is intended to tempt small businesses, like Camillo's Italian Restaurant Pizzeria & Bar, to take their paid social, search and direct mail dollars into CTV. The Kutztown, Pa., restaurant was part of a recent test run by Slice.com, a company that provides digital ordering and fulfilment to family-owned pizzerias, using Universal Ads to put pizza ads against coverage of the Winter Olympics."

"20 pizzerias including Camillo's (alongside Jersey Pizza Boys, El Centenario Pizza and the Prima Pizza Kitchen in Staten Island, NY) targeted viewers within their own zip codes, spending around $500 a month each over a three-month period. "This is the first time that these businesses ever imagined that they could be on the larger screen in the home," said Terrance Morash, vp of"

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