From Hardware To Home Screen: How VIZIO’s Platform Strategy Is Powering The Future Of CTV

In six years, VIZIO has transformed from a TV manufacturer into a dynamic media platform—growing an ad business from a five-person team into a major player in connected TV.

At Cannes Lions, Travis Hockersmith, Group VP of Platform+ at VIZIO, sat down with Marketecture Media Co-Founder Jeremy Bloom to discuss VIZIO’s evolution, the rise of programmatic, and how Walmart’s acquisition is opening new doors for advertisers and CPG brands alike. From SmartCast innovation to home screen dominance, Hockersmith shares what it takes to lead through growth and build a culture that lasts.

Jeremy Bloom: Travis, you've been at Vizio for a little over six years. When you joined, Vizio was largely a hardware company. Today it’s very much a software and platform business. Can you walk us through your role and that transformation?

Travis Hockersmith: About six years ago, a small group of us came to Vizio to start the ads business. At the time, Vizio was primarily a TV manufacturer—a house brand that made money by selling hardware. But our founder, William Wang, had the foresight to realize there was a better business in monetizing attention—making money every time someone turns on their TV. That meant advertising would become a big part of our future.

Vizio already had its Inscape data business, so we built the ads business on top of that. We brought streaming content onto the platform, made it attractive to advertisers, and started growing from there. When we started, the ads team was about five or six people—we did everything from ad ops to client services and sales.

Jeremy Bloom: What drove that early growth and how did you scale from there?

Travis Hockersmith: It really started with our investment in SmartCast, the operating system that pulls viewer attention into the streaming environment. That allowed us to create an experience that didn’t rely on a cable box. As major apps like Netflix gained traction, more people spent time in that environment. Today, viewers spend far more time in SmartCast than in linear TV. We've essentially replaced what linear TV used to be—viewers can find anything to watch, anytime, without switching devices.

Jeremy Bloom: Programmatic has really grown over the past few years. What did that look like at Vizio in the early days versus now?

Travis Hockersmith: From the beginning, we listened to buyers. A lot of CTV platforms were trying to build walled gardens, and buyers didn’t like that. We’ve always believed in making it easy for buyers to transact however they want—IO or programmatic.

Six years ago, most of our business was IO-based, but there was already programmatic demand. Fast forward to today: programmatic is where all the growth is. We’ve built teams to support buyers doing private deals, and we’ve worked hard to have strong relationships with all the SSPs and DSPs. Our goal has always been to make it as easy as possible to transact on our platform.

Jeremy Bloom: What data signals does Vizio make available to buyers?

Travis Hockersmith: We’re 100% transparent. In the bid stream, we pass the expected data—like app name, genre, rating. From day one, we’ve avoided any kind of “black box” feel to our platform. That’s been important to buyers.

Jeremy Bloom: Let’s talk about the Walmart acquisition. What does it mean for Vizio—and specifically for your team?

Travis Hockersmith: It’s been everything we hoped for. Walmart is letting us continue operating the business as we have, while also bringing additional resources. Our top priority now is making our inventory and platform as attractive as possible to Walmart Connect’s buying base.

What surprised us during due diligence was how little overlap there was between our existing advertisers—mostly auto, insurance, travel—and Walmart Connect’s client base, which focuses on products sold in-store. So the challenge became: how do we make Vizio attractive to that set of buyers?

Jeremy Bloom: And how are you doing that?

Travis Hockersmith: Through integration. We now have a beta offering in market where buyers can purchase Vizio inventory alongside Walmart Connect targeting and measurement. The results from early campaigns have been really encouraging.

We’re also bringing that capability to our home screen, which has become a fast-growing part of the platform. Historically, we sold that space to endemic advertisers—like streaming services. Now the opportunity is in making it work for general market and Walmart Connect advertisers, including CPG brands looking for broad reach.

Jeremy Bloom: The home screen seems like a powerful real estate play—everyone sees it when they turn on their TV.

Travis Hockersmith: Exactly. In a fragmented CTV world, where it’s hard to aggregate reach like you could in linear, the home screen lets you reach the entire Vizio audience instantly. That’s huge, especially for advertisers who need broad reach.

Jeremy Bloom: Shifting gears to leadership—what’s been your approach as the team has grown?

Travis Hockersmith: We had the unique opportunity to build our team from scratch. Leaders like Mike O'Donnell, Adam Bergman, and I focused on creating the right culture from day one. We needed people who could move fast, who already trusted each other, and who had worked together before. That made a big difference.

My personal leadership style is to bring in great people, give them the tools they need, and then let them do their job. When you do that, people stay engaged and produce great work. We’ve been very fortunate.

Jeremy Bloom: From hardware to software, and now part of a top-ten global company—you’ve built something impressive.

Travis Hockersmith: Thanks. It’s been an incredible journey, and we’re just getting started.