For most creators and influencers, television advertising has never been a realistic option. The barriers were straightforward: production costs could run five figures before any media spend, and actually buying airtime required agency relationships and industry knowledge most independents don’t have. The result was a channel that carried real weight with audiences but stayed out of reach for the people who might benefit from it most.
That’s starting to shift. The rise of connected TV, streaming platforms where most Americans now watch the majority of their TV, has separated audience access from the traditional media buying infrastructure. And a handful of newer platforms are trying to use AI to close the gap on the creative side too, automating ad production in a way that removes the need for production crews, scripts, or pre-existing video assets.
One of those platforms is Adwave, which launched in 2024 with a focus on small businesses and entrepreneurs including creators and influencers. The basic premise: enter a website URL, let AI generate a 30-second commercial from existing site content, then launch it on streaming channels for as little as $50. David Naffis, the company’s CEO and Co-Founder, describes the target user as someone who doesn’t have a marketing team and isn’t hiring an agency, just a business owner or creator who wants to get on TV without the traditional overhead.
The CTV Shift
The timing matters. As of mid-2025, streaming accounts for nearly half of all U.S. TV viewing time, and 73.6% of that time is spent on ad-supported platforms. The audiences are large, and increasingly, they’re reachable without going through traditional broadcast or cable infrastructure.
For creators, the relevance of TV as a channel comes down to a few things that are harder to replicate on social. A 30-second TV spot is non-skippable and watched in a lean-back environment where viewers are paying attention. Research suggests TV viewers are roughly three times more likely to search for a brand after seeing a TV ad than after seeing a digital ad. There’s also a familiarity and trust effect that tends to compound over time. Audiences who encounter a brand on TV tend to perceive it as more established than one that lives exclusively in their social feed.
None of that is new information. What’s changed is whether the entry point is realistic for someone without a traditional advertising budget.
What the Self-Serve Model Looks Like
On Adwave, the process starts with a URL. The platform’s AI pulls visual and messaging content from the site to generate a draft commercial, which users can then edit through a chat-based interface, adjusting images, copy, music, voice-over, and colors. Campaigns can be targeted by ZIP code, city, or state, and performance data is available in the dashboard in real time.
The geographic targeting is one of the more practically useful elements for creators with regional audiences or those testing a specific market, which means not having to buy a statewide or national audience when you only need to reach a particular area. Campaigns run across a network that includes NBC, Hulu, ESPN, Fox, and Discovery, among others.
The Creator Use Case
Creators are an interesting fit for self-serve TV for a few reasons. Most already have content assets and a defined visual identity. They’re used to moving quickly, launching something in response to a trend or a moment rather than waiting weeks for a production cycle. And many are actively thinking about how to build brand equity beyond social platforms, where algorithm changes and reach compression have made long-term planning harder.
Naffis points to a halo effect as one of the arguments for adding TV to the mix: “A TV ad changes how every other impression lands. Someone who saw you on Hulu treats your Instagram ad differently the next time they encounter you.” The idea is that a TV impression creates a layer of recognition that makes subsequent touchpoints, social ads, search results, and in-person encounters land differently than they would on their own.
Whether that plays out consistently for creators at modest budgets is a fair question. TV has traditionally rewarded consistency and repetition; a $50 campaign run once is a different proposition than a sustained presence over several months. But the low floor does at least make experimentation possible in a way it wasn’t before, which is how most creator marketing decisions get made anyway.
