You're in a New York conference room. Executives pitch creative concepts straight from their "gut" over a polished mahogany table. Someone suggests a focus group, but they're quickly dismissed. It's a scene straight from Mad Men, and surprisingly, it's not far from how many brands still develop TV commercials today.
For decades, TV creative development followed the same comfortable formulas. And for decades, this approach produced some pretty memorable work.
But it's not enough anymore.
Today's viewing experience bears little resemblance to that of even a decade ago. Nielsen reports that 88% of TV viewers now watch with a second device in hand. And with 32,200 linear channels and 89 streaming video sources available in the US, viewers are skilled at tuning out anything that doesn't immediately grab their attention.
According to Peter Field and the IPA, there's been a concerning decline in the effectiveness of creatively awarded campaigns over the last decade. And the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute reports that only 12% of agency clients feel confident convincing their CFO to invest in high-quality creative.
For TV advertising, creative drives 37% of sales lift. So it's worth getting right.
Our new report examines four essential rules for creating TV commercials that drive both brand and business results.
- Always start with strategy. Success begins with audience research and clear strategic vision. Who is your audience beyond demographics? What are their perceptions of your brand? What specific action do you want them to take? Only with deep customer understanding can you cut through the noise.
- Pretesting is a must. Marketers only accurately predict the winner of an A/B test 52% of the time. Yes, it’s a coin toss. With synthetic audiences, AI can now evaluate dozens of creative concepts in hours rather than weeks, at a fraction of the cost of traditional research or in-market testing.
- Craft creative for the modern consumer. With 47% of TV advertisements producing feelings of neutrality, emotion is an untapped lever for effectiveness. Tell stories that resonate, optimize audio (since 60% of commercials are heard rather than seen), and use distinctive brand assets consistently across all creative.
- AI is already transforming TV creative. "Shootless creative" combines traditional development with AI-enhanced techniques. Rather than replacing creative teams, AI empowers them to test concepts that weren't previously feasible and produce high-quality content faster and more efficiently.
How do I get the report?
- Download the full report here.
- Or listen to an AI overview produced by NotebookLM.