From left to right: Daisy Whitehouse, Adam Millbank, Stuart Smith and Angharad Rees Williams

Would you watch a film / story on your phone? Sure, maybe, but what draws you in more: a tiny screen with muffled sound, or a large screen with rich audio in comfortable surroundings? When it comes to telling stories that stick, TV still wins. 

Recently, our very own Stuart Smith joined industry leaders Adam Milbank (Co-founder, JonesMillbank x Nine Tree Studios), Angharad Rees Williams (Business Manager, ITV) and Daisy Whitehouse (MD, Down at the Social) for a roundtable discussion tackling a question that refuses to go away: why does TV still matter? 

In an age of skippable ads, second screens and endless content choices, the conversation cut through the noise to explore why TV continues to play a central role in building brands. Below, we break down the key moments and insights from the discussion.

What Makes TV Advertising So Emotionally Effective?

The first question focused referenced a talk Adam attended with Mark Ritson about TV’s role in building emotional, ‘fluency-rich’ brand assets. The conversation highlighted that emotion is where TV delivers its greatest impact. Longevity is built through storytelling, and TV remains the platform for it. As Stuart put it, “people buy people, and people buy stories.” TV brings those stories to life at scale, combining sight, sound, and narrative in a way that captures attention. That emotional connection builds familiarity, trust, and memory over time, turning campaigns into memorable brand assets rather than temporary moments.Research has continuously shown that emotive advertising campaigns are by far the most effective. We know from Thinkbox’s ‘Abnormal Behaviour’ study in 2022 that TV is proven to evoke more emotion than any other media type, with 47% of respondents agreeing TV advertising makes them feel emotional. And this isn’t just as simple as John Lewis’ Christmas advert tugging on the heartstrings every year, it can be subtle branding messaging that build deep behavioural connections, i.e. ‘It has to be Heinz’. It works. If I open the cupboard at home and see a supermarket own brand Ketchup, a dollop of that next to my chicken nuggets is inherently less attractive than Heinz ketchup. 

Is TV Advertising Out of Reach for Smaller Brands?

The next key topic that comes up is the ‘huge’ cost associated with getting onto TV. If we follow the footsteps of larger companies, how can we compete with their large budgets? It is often assumed that TV advertising is only accessible to bigger brands because they have more money to spend, but that’s not necessarily true. Smaller brands can advertise on TV too; there are plenty of affordable and accessible ways.Harad explains this beautifully at the roundtable, that the industry is making it easier to get on air so that everyone can have a chance to be on TV. A key example of this is ITV’s collaboration with the Alliance of Media Independents (of which Mostly Media are a founding member) and the Backing Business deal they’ve produced to member agencies only. The deal essentially allows new/lapsed TV advertisers to double the value of their ITV campaign. Put simply, £50k down from the client, £50k matched by ITV = £100k TV campaign. For independent agencies like Mostly Media, partnerships like this give our clients a genuine foot in the door, making TV a realistic and powerful option rather than an unreachable ambition.

Why Is Consistency the Real Driver of TV Effectiveness? 

So how long do you need to be on TV to see an impact? The short answer, longer than most marketers think. TV can absolutely deliver quick wins, drive sales and put your brand front of mind in the short term, but its real power comes with consistency. As Daisy Whitehouse points out “you can’t build that emotional connection in 6 months”, marketers often get bored and chase immediate results, trusting their dopamine dashboards (Stuart Smith tm pending) in a race to the bottom. The problem? When short-term performance dips, there’s nothing solid underneath to fall back on. The brands that endure are the ones that commit to TV as a long-term investment, using it as a safety net to build awareness, trust and loyalty over time. Think We Buy Any Car, John Lewis and more recently someone like Yorkshire Tea. Ultimately, it comes down to where you want your brand to go. TV gives you the flexibility to run tactical bursts that drive sales today, or to tell emotional stories that build a brand for tomorrow and the smartest strategies do both. 

Have Young People Really Switched Off From TV?

As Stuart says, “when I started in this career, it was still very hard to reach a 24-year-old, because they were in the pub”. It’s often said that younger audiences have “switched off” from TV, but the reality is far more nuanced. Ofcom’s latest Media Nations data shows that while under25s are watching significantly less live broadcast TV (just 20 minutes a day on average) overall video consumption at home is actually rising, with the TV set still firmly at the centre of viewing. In fact, 84% of all video watched at home in the UK now happens on the TV screen, with younger viewers increasingly using it to watch YouTube, BVOD services like ITVX and iPlayer, and streaming platforms alongside traditional channels. From personal experience, here at Mostly we’ve seen several YouTube campaigns over the last year deliver upwards of 80% of their impressions on the big screen naturally. Big cultural moments still cut through too. Dramas like Mr Bates vs The Post Office proved that when content truly resonates, it can reach younger viewers at scale, spark national conversation and drive realworld impact. So, while viewing habits have evolved, the idea that young people have abandoned TV altogether is wide of the mark, they’ve just upgraded how they use it.  

Final Thoughts 

At Mostly Media, TV isn’t something we’ve discovered recently, it’s something we’ve been planning and buying effectively since the 90s. We’ve seen the channel evolve, fragment and grow, and we understand what consistently works. We regularly put CTV and streaming proposals in front of clients, and understandably they get excited about the prospect of appearing alongside shows like Clarkson’s Farm, Fallout or Stranger Things. What we’re always clear about, though, is the reality: those shows will make up a relatively small percentage of total impressions, alongside platforms like Rakuten, Roku, Tubi and a growing ecosystem of FAST channels (including my personal favourite, Robot Wars 24/7). As more digital-first agencies enter the space promising easy CTV wins without a grounding in traditional TV planning and buying, experience matters more than ever. If you’re considering TV, CTV or anything in between and want to work with people who genuinely understand the full picture, drop us a note, give us a call or fill out the form below. We’d be more than happy to talk. 

Link to the full roundtable recording, is featured on our YT channel which you can watch here. 

Credit: James Budden, AV Account Director