Why Social-First Skills Undermine TV Advertising
Feed logic has reshaped creative skills. TV spots are paying the price
Here, in the afterglow of the Super Bowl TV commercial Ad Meter obsession, let us remind ourselves that the majority of communications being made for marketing today are social posts…by far. Social-first thinking has reshaped modern creativity, but those best practices don’t translate directly to TV commercials.
We hear all the time what works for “ads” doesn’t work for social, and that’s true. But the opposite is also true, and far less acknowledged. What works for social doesn’t work for TV. Social media has mastered its own grammar, but you can’t treat TV like social with a bigger screen. There is a skills gap in the creation of TV commercials: people fluent in platforms, but undertrained in the language of film, pacing, and narrative compression. And as social becomes the dominant creative training ground, TV commercials are increasingly built with the wrong instincts.
Data from Kantar’s Media Reactions and Link ad-testing research shows that capturing consumer attention and building distinctiveness, the very pillars of effective TV advertising, are under strain in today’s media landscape. Kantar cites problems like generic social-style visuals, Influencer language, “content-y” tone instead of authored brand voice. TV ads are starting to look like everything else. And when distinctiveness collapses, memorability and persuasion go with it.
This isn’t a debate about TV’s relevance. It’s a skills mismatch, applying social-first skills to a medium that rewards different ones.
Social works because it’s disposable. TV works because it isn’t. A social post makes a splash, then moves on to the next one, and the next one. A TV commercial gets repeat plays. It must have a point of view that can survive repetition. So, by its very nature it aims for longer-lasting resonance.
Social rewards you for low production value. A TV spot values production value. Social experts will tell you, “It can’t look slick or polished, that makes it inauthentic.” A commercial is not trying to be authentic. It is a deliberate act of persuasion, clear in its intent and unapologetic about selling. Here is my best pitch, produced as well as I can, and not with gloss for its own sake, but with deliberate choices in writing, pacing, performance and finish. Did I convince you to buy my brand?
Social regularly benefits from what’s trending. TV aims to start a trend. One of the core practices of social: use what’s trending. That makes sense. Millions of people are already there engaged. Put your spin on what everyone else is doing and steal the eyeballs. A TV commercial attempts to achieve the exact opposite. To have an original point of view that hasn’t already been validated by the crowd. A TV spot remains a brand’s best chance to put forth their own unadulterated message and tone. We all know how hard that is. It takes time, and we all take our best swing.
Social media shines with execution. TV hinges on the power of an idea. Social employs all the latest Ai and editing techniques, influencers and topical event tie-ins. These are powerful executional elements. Great TV looks to have a fundamentally interesting idea, a different way to look at something. Not a format or trick, but a point of view that holds up after the tenth viewing. Without it, you start at an immediate deficit. Your commercial can only be as good as the execution. And it will certainly have a shorter shelf life.
Multiple studies from Nielsen and others show how brands optimize TV creative using digital KPIs. This leads to front-loaded, rushed, over-branded, under-written spots. Those tactics may work in a feed. They actively damage memorability and persuasion in TV environments. Even within the creative community, Cannes Lions jurors, often accused of rewarding novelty over substance themselves, have acknowledged the thinning of the TV craft, with many “film” winners now barely designed to television at all.
If a TV spot doesn’t work on social, what makes us think a social post will work on TV? Television still demands ideas, pacing, and craft. We need people trained to deliver them, and the discipline to respect what the medium actually asks of us. The next time you're evaluating a storyboard, ask yourself this: would this idea survive its tenth viewing? If the answer is no, you're not making a commercial. You're making a social post with a bigger budget.
