Microsoft’s LinkedIn social business platform has joined forces with NBCUniversal to enter the connected TV advertising market. At its B2Believe customer event in New York, LinkedIn unveiled three new offerings — LinkedIn CTV Ads, LinkedIn Premiere with NBCUniversal, and Live Event Ads. Advertisers can get their creative in front of the LinkedIn audience against streaming content on connected TVs with LinkedIn CTV, target U.S. decision makers across NBCUniversal’s premium CTV content with LinkedIn Premiere and promote corporate live events before, during, and after with Live Event Ads. Kantar and iSpot are offering measurement insights.

“LinkedIn has been running in-stream video ads on its site and said the expansion into CTV will help business advertisers get their message in front of the 1 billion LinkedIn members, many of whom are business-to-business decision-makers,” Broadcasting & Cable writes.

LinkedIn CTV is accessible to advertisers through the LinkedIn Campaign Manager, with the ads streaming across platforms including Roku and Samsung Ads. DoubleVerify has been tapped to measure brand safety.

“We’re excited to launch LinkedIn CTV, a new solution that helps B2B marketers continue to effectively reach their target audience in the comfort of their own homes,” LinkedIn VP Sanjay Dubey said in a LinkedIn post.

In a blog post, LinkedIn explains its foray into CTV was informed by the fact that “nearly 90 percent of U.S. households embraced connected TV in 2023” and among them “90 percent believe that it helped to reach B2B buyers.”

The ad expansion comes as LinkedIn “looks to help marketers capitalize on the rise of video consumption, both on and off platform,” notes Social Media Today, which provides screenshots of the Campaign Manager interface.

The NBCUniversal deal lets advertisers “target high viewership NBCUniversal shows via its streaming offerings,” writes Social Media Today. While “not as wide ranging as a traditional TV campaign, it will provide more avenues to reach audiences with LinkedIn video ads.”

A 34 percent increase in business professionals tuning in globally to view live events on the platform has resulted in a test of LinkedIn Live Event Ads, the company said, calling it “another way to increase event registrations, build brand awareness, and drive measurable results from investments in events.”