TV isn’t just for big brands
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Introduction
TV tends to get written off pretty quickly, as too expensive, too broad, and mainly for the big players.
But when you look at how brands actually grow, that narrative doesn’t really hold up.
In this presentation, we look at TV through the lens of mental availability and explore whether smaller brands are missing out by not leaning into it. You’ll see how challenger brands have used TV to break through growth ceilings, what’s behind the usual concerns around cost and risk, and what actually makes it work.
To keep it practical, treat this as a simple playbook for getting started, showing how to de-risk your first TV campaign and make sure it actually pays off.
What many marketers think about TV…
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Introduction
TV is suited to big brands.
It’s too costly for smaller players.
It only reaches older people.
It’s impossible to measure or too risky.
Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
The conventional wisdom says big brands.
The evidence says otherwise.
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
3 core reasons TV is particularly suited to small brands:
1
Attention
TV commands longer viewing time, which small brands need – because they can’t be recognized in a split second.
2
Scalability
TV helps break through the growth plateau that digital only strategies hit.
3
Trust
TV is perceived as the most trustworthy advertising channel, which matters more for brands people haven’t heard of yet.
More attention = more sales.
And TV still wins on attention.
© Advertising Council Australia 2023
Longer �attention
Higher �brand lifts
Bigger
sales lifts
Lower attention
platforms
Higher attention
platforms
+65%
4.6
8.1
35%
52%
1.5
2.5
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
Higher-attention platforms deliver 8.1s vs. 4.6s of active attention.
More attention drives stronger brand effects:
52% vs. 35%.
Therefore, campaigns can deliver +65% stronger business results.
But digital channels typically achieve only 1-2” of attention
130,000 ad views, 1150 brands
85% < 2.5 seconds
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
Most impressions generate less than 2.5 seconds of active attention, which is not enough to form memory.
With 85% of ads below this line, small brands can’t be recognized instantly, which is a major problem.
Source: Amplified IntelligencE
Group A
Group B
Type the brand
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
But within 2 seconds, only famous brands can get noticed
The same ad was shown for 2 seconds across five industries. The only difference was the logo in the corner ➡️ Gorenje (less familiar) versus Bosch (well known).
The well-known brand was recognized, but the smaller one was not. This is the core attention problem: digital channels give you roughly two seconds of attention, and that’s only enough if people already know you.
Source: Behavio experiment – 5 industries, big and small brands, same image, 2s exposure
Brand Recall
Brand Size
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
Small brands stand just little chance
Brand size is closely linked to recall after just 2 seconds of exposure.
Larger brands are remembered, while smaller brands cluster near the bottom.
In short-attention environments like social media, small brands are nearly invisible because they need channels that give viewers more time.
Source: Behavio experiment – 5 industries, big and small brands, same image, 2s exposure
We took 20 brands
TV gives brands the time they need to build mental connections
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
Source: TVision (TV); Lumen (other media)
Attention isn’t equal across channels.
Small brands need time to land and be remembered – TV and premium video provide attention digital simply can’t.
Young brands often
experience a growth plateau
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
Young brands often hit a growth ceiling.
At first, sales rise fast as search and social capture early adopters. But over time, growth slows and plateaus – even as spend keeps increasing.
Source: Tom Roach & Dr. Grace Kite, aligned with Binet & Field’s work on activation limits.
Shifting spend to media better suited to brand-building can reignite growth
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
But when brands shift part of their budget from pure activation to brand building, the sales curve resumes its upward trajectory.
It shows that a ~50/50 split delivers the strongest long-term growth. TV plays a key role, combining high attention with broad reach.
Source: Binet & Field
Source: Data2Decisions/Thinkbox (2019)
TV is the best channel for overcoming the growth plateau
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
Campaign spend in £M
This graph shows what happens when small brands add TV to their media mix. As spend increases, TV continues to drive sales uplift, while other channels plateau.
Digital channels quickly hit a ceiling, increasing frequency but not reach. TV, on the other hand, expands reach to entirely new audiences.
% of people who trust ads on it
35%
6%
16%
4%
9%
12%
6%
19%
11%
6%
4%
TV
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Is TV suited to the needs of big… or small brands?
Social Media
Radio
YouTube
Cinema
Magazines
Outdoor
Newspapers
Search
Direct Mail
Websites
Small brands need trust. TV has it.
(It’s regulated and eliminates scams.)
Trust in advertising varies by channel. For a small brand that nobody has heard of, appearing on TV signals legitimacy. It’s a regulated channel with no scams – which matters more than ever as consumers grow wary of fraudulent ads on social platforms.
Source: Abnormal Behaviour (2022), Ipsos / Thinkbox.
Four real case studies – that demonstrate what happens when small brands make the leap to TV.
Small brands�that grew with TV
Overcoming a plateau: �therapy brand goes to TV
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Small brands that grew with TV
revenue
After a successful start, Hedepy’s new business revenue was stalled for more than a year.
At the time, they were around €3 million total revenue. Their social campaigns had stopped delivering growth.
This is a textbook example of the performance plateau: digital activation channels had reached their ceiling.
Source: Behavio database of pre-tests and post-tests
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Small brands that grew with TV
This is how Hedepy de-risked their investment step by step
First, they tested a storyboard with Behavio — and it scored average.
Then, they iterated on the creative, and the final video pre-test scored high.
Last but not least, they launched off-season in Q3, when media costs are lower.
Off-season launch
Q3 prices
Video pre-test
High score
Storyboard test
Average
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Small brands that grew with TV
Awareness nearly doubled.
New-business revenue grew by 50%, with positive ROI in just 6 months. A pre-tested TV bet that paid off — breaking through the plateau social couldn’t.
Awareness
Sales uplift
Positive ROI
within
6 months
+50%
13% → 25%
+92%
New-business revenue
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Small brands that grew with TV
Word-of-mouth growing bank sees “insane” growth with TV
Awareness
35% → 48%
+37%
Sales uplift
+67%
150k → 250k� monthly sign-ups
Awareness rose from 35% to 48%, while monthly signups jumped to 250,000 (+67%).
It’s rare for sales to outpace awareness – but it happens when strong latent demand exists. In this case, TV amplified frustration with traditional banks.
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Small brands that grew with TV
Fitness brand entering�a new European market
Q1 prices
Take what works
Local pre-test
Off-season launch
High score
They adapted a proven TV concept.
Localized it with an influencer, pre-tested it.
Launched in Q1 to save costs.
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Small brands that grew with TV
Fitness brand entering�a new European market
Awareness
From #5 to #3
The results were dramatic: awareness more than doubled.
Sales figures are still coming in – the campaign is still running.
The brand moved from #5 to #3 in 3 months – a rare leap in brand tracking.
+121%
Q1
Q2
Sales uplift
TBD
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Small brands that grew with TV
Mid brand in UK launching �a first TV campaign
Consideration
Sales uplift
Reach
Early results showed +22% lift in consideration�(18% → 22%).
Consideration is a stronger predictor of actual sales.
And here, it grew on just 23% reach.
18% → 22%
22%
TBD
23%
Still running
These are the two most common objections to TV for small brands. Let’s look at the evidence.
Too costly, �too old?
Creative agency fees continue to fall
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Too costly, too old?
Creative agency fees have been declining for decades, and the trend is continuing.
This chart tracks the drop in what agencies charge to develop advertising.
For small brands, this means access to creative talent is more affordable than ever. The barrier to producing TV-quality creative has been falling steadily.
Production costs will decline further as AI is used more
22%
2024
30%
2025
39%
2026
(built from scratch or enhanced)
% of digital video ads being built using gen AI
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Too costly, too old?
AI is rapidly lowering production costs. The share of digital video ads using generative AI is rising from 22% (2024) to 30% (2025) and 39% (2026).
For small brands, that’s a big opportunity and TV-quality video is becoming much cheaper.
Source: IAB / VideoWeek
AI-made TV ads are achieving success worldwide
Amaysim – Australia
Coca Cola – US
Invia – Czechia
Behavio has tested many AI-generated TV ads worldwide, and some are topping emotional reaction benchmarks. Most consumers don’t notice or care if an ad was made with AI – they care about
the idea, which means small brands no longer need big budgets to create effective TV spots.
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Too costly, too old?
Source: Behavio database of pre-tests and post-tests
You can save a lot with shorter ads in cheaper periods
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Too costly, too old?
Source: Data2Decisions/Thinkbox, May 2019
Shorter ads (10–20s) deliver the best ROI for small brands – they’re cheaper and force message discipline.
Q1, Q3, and December offer better value, with lower media costs for similar sales uplift.
TV looks expensive per exposure,
until you price attention
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Too costly, too old?
TV isn’t as expensive as it looks.
When you measure cost per second of attention, the gap narrows as low-attention channels like social and display become the most expensive.
Source: Karen Nelson-Field (Amplified Intelligence), Lumen Research, Thinkbox, and Ebiquity reports on attention and media pricing (2020–2024), combined and approximated.
TV still has broad reach, thanks to�live / topical programming and CTV
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Too costly, too old?
TV still reaches young audiences. Linear TV hits 55% of 16–34s weekly in the UK, and with CTV that rises to 95%.
The idea that “only old people watch TV” doesn’t hold up – especially when you include streaming and live content.
Source: BARB TV reach data; Ofcom Media Nations reports; Thinkbox and Nielsen CTV/linear viewing benchmarks (UK, 2022–2024), combined and approximated.
How to de-risk �TV spends
Small brands avoid TV because it feels like a one-shot risk, unlike digital where you can test and adjust.
TV feels like a one-shot bet.�Pre-testing eliminates the two�main risks before spending a penny
1
Creative failure
White space (Message)
Target a large enough unmet consumer need not strongly connected to competitors.
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How to de-risk TV spends
2
Strategic failure
Targeting a saturated or small need.
Weak branding, unclear message, low emotion.
De-risking creative: Super strong�branding is key for small brands
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How to de-risk TV spends
Metric score
Salience lift
Branding
Emotion
Need
Big brands
Source: Behavio database of pre-tests and post-tests
Metric score
Awareness lift
Branding
Emotion
Need
Small brands
De-risking creative: Super strong�branding is key for small brands
Metric score
Awareness lift
Branding
Emotion
Need
Small brands
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How to de-risk TV spends
Source: Behavio database of pre-tests and post-tests
This chart shows what drives awareness lift for small brands.
For small brands, branding has the steepest curve, because it’s by far the strongest driver of awareness lift. Need comes second, emotion third. If people can’t quickly tell whose ad it is, the rest doesn’t matter.
Side-by-side, the formula flips. For big brands, emotion drives salience – because they’re already known.
Gym Beam ad: What super strong branding looks like?
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How to de-risk TV spends
Despite the aggressive branding only 41% of viewers could recall the brand 🤯
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How to de-risk TV spends
But that’s actually a strong result – most small-brand ads perform worse. It shows how diffucult it is for an unfamiliar brand to register, and why subtle branding simply doesn’t work.
Despite the aggressive branding only 41% of viewers could recall the brand 🤯
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How to de-risk TV spends
GymBeam’s TV ad uses three branding techniques at once → a corner logo, a prominent full logo in-frame, and repeated audio mentions. Together, they reinforce the brand continuously.
Corner logo
Logo
Audio
Micazu used standard branding, resulting in only 15% brand recall
Corner logo
Logo
Audio
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How to de-risk TV spends
The creative worked, but with the brand only at the beginning and end, it got lost.�Without pre-testing, this issue would only surface after the media budget was spent,�which is exactly the kind of costly mistake pre-testing prevents.
Always de-risk TV creative with pre-testing. It’s worth it.
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How to de-risk TV spends
Full pre-test
AI pre-test
500 real respondents
delivery 3-5 days
costs ~€2,500
AI model
delivery in 15 minutes
costs ~€250
Pre-testing is fast and affordable – far cheaper than the media spend it protects. It can catch branding failures and weak messaging before they become costly mistakes.
De-risking strategy: Is there a high growth potential in your message?
“Houses perfect �for holidays”
Low growth potential
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How to de-risk TV spends
Micazu:
Saturated
Large need
The second major risk is strategic failure. Micazu targeted a broad but saturated need – “houses perfect for holidays” – already dominated by Booking.com and Airbnb.
For a small brand, entering such a space is risky, because their spend can end up reinforcing bigger competitors instead of their own brand.
De-risking strategy: Is there a high growth potential in your message?
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How to de-risk TV spends
This mapping shows why Micazu had limited growth potential.
The “holiday houses” need is already dominated by strong players like Booking.com and Airbnb, leaving little room for a small brand to break through.
Source: Behavio Research (NL Nat-Rep)
De-risking strategy: Is there a high growth potential in your message?
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How to de-risk TV spends
GymBeam:
“Vitamins & supplements for every sport”
High growth potential
White space
Large need
GymBeam takes a different approach.
“Supplements for every sport” targets a broad consumer need with genuine white space – no dominant competitor had claimed it.
When you find this combination, TV can deliver outsized results because you’re not fighting established mental associations.
Always de-risk strategy.�It’s worth it.
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How to de-risk TV spends
Market mapping
1,500 real people 5-10 days
~€6,000
A market mapping study (surveying around 1,500 real consumers over 5–10 days) costs roughly €6,000. In the context of a TV media budget, that’s almost negligible.
Yet before you commit to a message, it gives you a clear, evidence-based view of where the real growth opportunity lies.
Most importantly, it answers the critical question: is there a large, unclaimed need that your brand can credibly own?
We took 20 brands
Brands should avoid targeting needs dominated by rivals
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How to de-risk TV spends
Consumer needs connect to brands in the brain. A young brand has only a few weak links (logo, name, slogan), while established rivals have built dense networks connecting many assets to multiple needs.
In this case, Need 3 (highlighted) is the only unclaimed space. If the young brand targets Need 1 or 5 – already owned by competitors – its ads may actually trigger recall of those rivals instead.
That’s misattribution in action.
We took 20 brands
Brands should establish a mental foundation… and build from there
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How to de-risk TV spends
New brand starts with basic brand assets (logo, symbol, jingle), connected to�a single need (A).
As the brand grows, connections get stronger.�It starts expand into another need (B), adding an usage ritual.
An established brand is connecting all its assets to multiple needs (A, B, C, D) reinforced by rituals and characters.
TV playbook �for small brands
Here’s the practical summary:�six steps any growing brand can follow.
Perception
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TV playbook for small brands
TV is suited to big brands
Too costly
Only reaches older people
Impossible to measure/too risky
Small brands need TV to scale
Production/media costs down
Live/topical TV remains universal
Pre-testing provides de-risking
Reality
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TV playbook for small brands
TV playbook for small brands
Use shorter TV ads (10 – 20s).
1
Deliver a single, clear message into white space
2
Develop super strong branding – including audio
3
4
5
6
Prioritize strong ideas over high production value
Pre-test it!
Buy during cheaper media periods (Q1, Q3)
Pre-order Dan’s new book!
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The Marketing Inspiration Book
The Marketing Inspiration Book, features 100 famous and lesser-known case studies of real marketing excellence, each accompanied by an original illustration.
Available for pre-order on Amazon.
The thinking in this webinar and report builds on the great work from:�
Acknowledgements
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Acknowledgements
The most actionable marketing research
Marketing, illustrated
Available for keynotes, consultancy, training and illustration.