Why digital-first brands need TV in the mix

When TV and digital work together, performance becomes persuasion.

TV and digital are not rivals

Too often, TV is seen as a rival to digital media: slow, expensive, and hard to measure. That view misses what TV actually does. It is not here to compete with your performance channels. It is here to make them work harder.

When TV is active, we consistently see uplifts across digital channels:

• Search volumes rise as more people start looking for you by name.

• Click-through rates increase, so your paid ads get more engagement for the same spend.

• Conversion efficiency improves because users arrive already familiar and trusting.

In econometric models, TV acts as a multiplier. It creates mental availability and trust that digital channels then harvest. Paid social and search convert demand. TV creates it.

Why TV Still Builds Trust in a Digital World

In a world of infinite scroll, most digital ads flicker past unnoticed, scrolled, skipped, or dismissed. TV earns a different kind of attention: sustained, emotionally engaging, and trusted.

Thinkbox research has shown that TV remains the most trusted form of advertising in the UK, far ahead of social or online display. This is not just an abstract concept. When brands add TV to their mix, trust grows in measurable ways.

Case in point: Airbnb and Made.com:

When Airbnb first began UK broadcast activity, its “Belong Anywhere” creative built fame and familiarity that digital alone could not achieve. Brand tracking in the UK showed a double-digit lift in trust and consideration, followed by record booking growth in subsequent quarters.

Similarly, Made.com, a digital-first furniture brand, introduced linear TV to reach new audiences beyond social and search. Within six months, brand awareness rose by 33 per cent and brand trust by 20 per cent, according to YouGov tracking published by Thinkbox. These shifts coincided with significant increases in organic search and direct traffic, which ultimately supported long-term revenue growth.

These examples show that TV does not just make people aware of a brand; it makes them believe in it. Trust reduces perceived risk, shortens the path to purchase, and creates loyal customers. It is the missing layer of emotional credibility that digital formats often struggle to deliver.

Short-Term Impact Is Only Part of the Story

We run deterministic measurement across linear, video-on-demand, and connected TV. This means we match verified household exposure to site visits and conversions using privacy-compliant IP and device-level data. Over a seven-day lookback window, we can see the immediate uplift in digital activity following a broadcast.

The evidence is clear: TV exposure drives short-term response. Web visits rise within hours of a spot airing, and engagement metrics across paid search and social climb in parallel.

However, it is vital to understand that this immediate response is not the primary reason to invest. The short-term impact is a useful validation of attention and message resonance, but TV’s true role is to build the future audience that digital channels will convert later.

Comparing TV’s CPA to Paid Social’s is not meaningful. Paid Social reaches people who are already shopping. TV reaches those who are not yet in market. They are performing different tasks.

How to Measure What TV Really Delivers

TV has always been harder to track than click-driven media. But difficult does not mean impossible. Smart brands now combine:

• Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) for long-term sales impact

• Incrementality testing for causal validation

• Deterministic exposure tracking for short-term uplift

• “How did you hear about us?” surveys for human insight

This triangulated approach paints a fuller picture. It reminds us that no single metric can capture the full impact of mass media.

In other words, stop looking for one truth. Build a composite one.

Why linear TV still matters

Yes, streaming is booming. Yes, connected TV is growing fast. But linear TV still delivers reach that digital cannot match, especially for scale and shared cultural experience.

Linear is where collective attention still exists. For many categories such as finance, retail, travel, and food delivery, the simple fact of being seen alongside trusted programming builds legitimacy.

Digital-first brands like Deliveroo, Klarna, and Peloton all turned to linear TV as they matured. In each case, the decision was about credibility as much as conversion. A brand seen on TV feels established, reliable, and safe. That perception translates directly into commercial performance.

Even the most digital companies, from Amazon to Revolut, continue to use linear TV because it is the fastest way to create scale and public trust. As Les Binet has observed, you cannot harvest what you have not sown.

Finding the Right Balance Between Brand and Activation

Long-term brand building through TV, video, and partnerships, and short-term activation through search, social, and CRM, are not opposing forces. They are complementary.

The IPA’s research shows that brands achieving roughly 60 per cent brand building and 40 per cent activation grow profitably over time. Skew too far toward activation, and you trade efficiency for fragility.

TV provides the emotional, memory-building foundation that allows your digital media to stay efficient for longer. It is the oxygen that keeps the lower funnel burning.

What Digital-First Teams Can Do Next

If you are scaling a digital-first brand, here is a simple framework to rebalance your mix:

• Use TV to build reach and trust. Aim for consistent bursts rather than one-off flights.

• Monitor search and direct traffic as proxies for latent demand.

• Use deterministic exposure tracking and incrementality testing to validate true lift.

• Stop comparing CPAs across channels. Align measurement to each channel’s role.

• Treat TV as an investment in conversion efficiency, not a cost centre.

In short, TV is the long-term driver that makes your short-term machine run better.

Conclusion: Where Growth Really Comes From

In the rush to make everything measurable, we have confused what is visible with what is valuable.

TV does not just sell products. It builds brands that sell products for years to come.

For digital-first marketers, the challenge now is not adopting the newest platform. It is rediscovering the oldest truth:

Growth comes from both the long and the short, and TV remains the bridge between them.