As a partner in Peer39's Contextual Data Marketplace®, we had the honor of sitting down with Zack Rosenberg, Founder and CEO of Qortex. Qortex helps advertisers make wiser decisions about where their video campaigns appear, not just whether inventory is available, but whether it actually makes sense for the brand, the moment, and the objective. Through their partnership with Peer39, Qortex's newest contextual video intelligence pre-bid segments are now available directly inside leading DSPs, making it easy to activate smarter contextual strategies at scale.
Why isn't traditional video classification enough?
Zack Rosenberg: Most video campaigns today rely on broad labels, assumed audiences, or post-bid controls. The problem is that video doesn't behave cleanly. Two videos in the same IAB category can feel completely different to a viewer emotionally, culturally, and strategically. Plus, many algorithms fail to use signals like on-page content, in-video audio, and the full content in conjunction to provide a true IAB categorization and brand safety judgement.
Our research found that 88.8% of video content on the open web is misclassified. That means brands are often making decisions based on incomplete or misleading signals.
Why has contextual targeting traditionally been seen as an auxiliary strategy or a safety tool rather than a performance driver?
For years, contextual targeting has been treated as a safety check, something you do to avoid risk, or as an auxiliary strategy.
But as video has become the dominant medium across CTV, streaming, and digital, as well as privacy laws and loss of third-party data becoming a barrier, context has become something much more powerful: a signal.
That's where Qortex comes in.
How does Qortex rethink contextual targeting for video?
Qortex uses signals across the video, including audio, emotional context, and on-page data to understand video more deeply, capturing what's actually happening in the content, how it feels, and what it signals about the viewer's mindset, so media strategies can move from "Can we buy this?" to ""Should we buy this?"
What Qortex pre-bid segments are available now via Peer39's Contextual Data Marketplace®?
Through Peer39, Qortex segments can now be activated directly in DSPs including The Trade Desk, Basis, Nexxen, Xandr, and DeepIntent. Buyers and planners can them to live video campaigns and use them alongside existing targeting. These segments fall into three core buckets:
1. Cultural Moments
Major cultural moments drive attention, emotion, and intent, but buying the event itself often comes with cost and scale limitations.
Qortex Cultural Moments segments are designed to capture the surrounding content ecosystem: the videos people watch before, during, and after major moments that shape culture. Think of the conversations, analysis, anticipation, and follow-on behavior that surround tentpole events throughout Q1.
This approach allows brands to:
Align with cultural relevance at scale
2. Intent-Based Segments, Inferred from Content
What people watch says a lot about what they care about and often what they're planning to do next.
Qortex intent-based segments use video content to infer real-world interests and intent, such as automotive research, beauty and cosmetics, retail consideration, or lifestyle transitions like becoming a new parent. Someone watching car reviews, buying guides, or comparison content is signaling something very different than someone who simply fits a demographic profile.
This isn't about replacing contextual targeting, it's about making it more predictive by recognizing that content consumption often reveals intent earlier and more accurately than traditional audience assumptions.
3. Suitability Segments (Built for Every Video Campaign)
This is the segment category brands consistently underestimate and the one planners tend to be most surprised by.
Because Qortex understands video content at a deeper level, our suitability segments help advertisers avoid:
Content containing violence
Suitability isn't just about protection. It's about performance. When brands appear in environments that truly align with their message and tone, campaigns perform better, driving higher engagement and stronger ROI while reducing the need for heavy post-bid blocking.
In practice, advertisers using Qortex-powered suitability and contextual segments have seen up to 3x engagement and 2x ROI compared to more generic approaches.
For anyone interested in learning more about Qortex's segments, you can explore and activate them directly in-platform or reach out to help@qortex.ai.