Pause Ads and QR Codes on CTV: From Passive Viewing to Active Curiosity

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Connected TV advertising is beginning to move beyond the traditional commercial break.

In this article, we focus on two developments described in the IAB Tech Lab “CTV Ad Portfolio” that was released in October 2025 and that we believe are particularly important for advertisers: Pause Ads, which appear when viewers pause their content, and QR codes, which connect the television screen to a mobile experience.

Together, they address two long-standing limitations of television: finding the right moment to capture attention and giving viewers an immediate way to act.

But simply placing a black-and-white QR code in the corner of an advertisement does not necessarily make it engaging. The appearance of the code, its relationship with the creative and the experience it unlocks can all influence whether someone notices it, understands it and decides to scan.

This is where StoryCodes^® introduce a fundamentally different creative approach.

Pause Ads create a moment without interrupting it

A Pause Ad appears when a viewer actively pauses streaming content. Rather than interrupting a programme, the advertising experience enters a break initiated by the viewer.

The IAB Tech Lab defines a Pause Ad as an experience initiated when the viewer uses the remote control to pause the content being watched. Its final guidelines allow static or animated creative, presented as a full-screen or partial-screen execution, with QR codes or remote-control interactions as optional components.

“Data has shown that 80% of viewers regularly pause streaming content, and 65% of those pauses last longer than one minute. That makes the Pause Ad particularly interesting for brands. The viewer has created a moment in which the screen can remain visible for longer than a conventional commercial frame. There is time to notice the brand, understand the message and respond.”

Frederik Rademakers, Founder of StoryCodes^®

Of course, pausing does not guarantee that someone remains in front of the television. But when the viewer is still present, a Pause Ad provides a valuable window in which the creative does not have to compete with moving programme content or a rapidly ending commercial.

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QR codes give the television screen a call to action

Television is excellent at building awareness, but responding to a television advertisement has traditionally required extra effort.

Viewers had to remember a brand or website, search for it later or manually enter a URL. A QR code removes several of those steps: the viewer scans the screen and continues the journey on a phone that is already designed for browsing, booking, registering or purchasing.

Technically, QR codes are not a separate CTV advertising format in the IAB portfolio. They are an interactive layer that can be added to Pause Ads, conventional video ads, overlays and other executions.

The IAB’s CTV guidelines explain that a QR code can either be embedded directly into the supplied creative or generated dynamically by the sell-side platform. Dynamic implementations can add campaign and placement information to the destination URL, making scans attributable to particular ads or contexts.

Yet the ability to scan does not automatically create the desire to scan.

Why conventional QR codes are easy to overlook

A classic black-and-white QR code is highly recognisable. That recognisability is useful, but it can also reduce the code to a purely functional object.

Viewers have seen similar squares on menus, tickets, instruction manuals, payment terminals and packaging. Unless the promised benefit is immediately relevant, the code may be mentally categorised as a utility and ignored before the viewer considers interacting with it.

That is not a claim that conventional QR codes activate one particular “ignore” area of the brain. Human attention is more complex than that. It is a creative hypothesis based on how familiar functional elements compete for limited attention — and one that advertisers should test in real campaigns.

StoryCodes^® change this relationship by making the scannable structure part of the advertisement’s visual concept. Instead of interrupting the creative with a separate technical square, the image itself becomes scannable.

The first response can therefore be visual rather than functional:

Is that really a QR code? Can I scan that image? What will happen if I do?

That small moment of uncertainty creates curiosity — and curiosity gives the call to action an opportunity to be noticed.

What advertising research tells us about visual attention

Humans do not distribute attention equally across every element in an advertisement.

An eye-tracking study of 1,363 advertisements involving more than 3,600 consumers found that pictorial elements were particularly effective at capturing attention, independently of their size. Brand elements were effective at transferring that attention to other parts of the advertisement. The researchers concluded that images, text and branding each play distinct roles in directing visual attention.

Research into aesthetic perception also shows that visual stimuli judged to be beautiful are processed differently from those judged neutral or unattractive. An fMRI study found differences in orbitofrontal activity — a region associated with evaluation — when participants viewed paintings they considered beautiful or ugly. This was research into art rather than advertising, so it does not prove a specific neurological effect for StoryCodes^®. It does, however, support the broader point that visual appeal is not merely decoration; it can influence how a stimulus is evaluated. Read the study on PubMed.

The most directly relevant evidence comes from research into QR advertising itself.

A study published in the Journal of Business Research found that curiosity, visual complexity and perceived fit between the code, advertisement and brand jointly influence intention to scan. Curious consumers were attracted to more visually complex ads. Less-curious consumers could feel overwhelmed, but a strong perceived fit between the QR execution and the brand helped overcome that effect and increased scan intention. Read the study summary.

That finding is central to the StoryCodes^® approach.

The objective is not to make the code complicated. It is to make it feel visually relevant: the interactive element belongs to the campaign rather than appearing to have been added after the creative was finished.

From visual curiosity to measurable action

A well-designed StoryCode can support a five-stage journey:

1. Capture attention. The scannable visual works as part of the advertising image.
2. Create curiosity. The unexpected combination of imagery and QR functionality gives the viewer a reason to look again.
3. Explain the value. A concise call to action makes it clear that the image can be scanned and tells the viewer what the scan will unlock.
4. Make the scan reliable. The StoryCode must work at television viewing distance and across different phones, screens and lighting conditions.
5. Continue the experience. The mobile destination should fulfil the promise made by the advertisement and provide a clear next action.

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Technical scannability and human scan rate are different

Technical scannability asks whether a camera can decode the StoryCode reliably.

Scan rate asks whether a person chooses to do so.

Both matter. A visually attractive code that cannot be scanned from a sofa has failed technically. A perfectly readable code that nobody notices or wants to scan has failed creatively.

That is why StoryCodes on CTV should be tested for distance, screen size, contrast, display brightness and multiple mobile devices. The StoryCode should also remain visible long enough for the viewer to recognise the invitation, reach for a phone and scan.

The IAB’s CTV creative recommendations similarly advise advertisers to make codes large enough to scan from the couch, keep them visible for the necessary duration and use a concise call to action explaining what will happen after the scan.

Design the invitation — not only the code

Pause Ads solve the question of timing. QR technology solves the connection between the television and the phone.

StoryCodes^® address the creative challenge between them.

By turning the scannable element into a brand-relevant visual, StoryCodes^® can give viewers a reason to notice, become curious and act. Instead of treating the QR code as a technical attachment, advertisers can make the invitation to interact part of the campaign idea itself.

The result is not simply a more attractive QR code. It is a new way to transform CTV advertising from something viewers watch into something they can explore.