Imagine a world without television...  No opportunity to snuggle up in front of your favourite programme; nothing to chat about over the water cooler; the press devoid of celebrity gossip...

For most of us, television is intertwined into the very fabric of our lives – and TV advertising is all the more powerful for it. For a start, TV stimulates the parts of the brain that other media simply don’t reach as effectively – namely the emotions and the long term-memory.  That’s why we can remember ads we loved from decades ago and why TV ads can make us fall in love with brands (just think of Honda, M&S or Guinness for example). Although we tend to think of ourselves as rational beings, developments in our understanding of the human brain have taught us that advertising works most successfully when it shifts or reinforces how we feel about brands. 

The fact that TV is veritable feast of moving images and sound maximizes the opportunity for advertisers to engage their audience.  And as our recent engagement study shows, an engaged viewer is more likely to have a positive emotional association with the brand and is more likely to consider purchasing it in the future.  Work by the IPA also revealed that emotional campaigns were more effective than those that had a rational focus. 

TV’s ability to create an emotional connection between brand and viewer can free up other media to do what they do best, be it creating a more personal dialogue or proffering a greater depth of information.  The ability of TV to create deep, long-held emotional brand associations is one of its most unique benefits.

TV is also one of the few media that we regularly consume together.  According to our engagement study, over two thirds of viewing is conducted with other people present so shared viewing is very much the norm.  Watching television with other people provides an ideal opportunity to talk about TV advertising and ‘pass on’ the ads we love in the same time and space as the advertising itself (perhaps one of the original forms of viral marketing). 

But these brand conversations are no longer limited to real-time or physical space. Technology has liberated TV advertising. From drumming gorillas to clay bunnies, TV ads can be watched or downloaded at the click of a mouse, mailed across continents and blogged about online. This sharing of TV advertising, both on and offline, makes TV advertising all the more powerful as it deepens its impact and strengthens the emotional connection we have with brands.

The word of mouth element also contributes to one of TV’s most widely acknowledged and highly unique strengths – making brands famous.  TV’s ability to hit large volumes of people in a short space of time has always been a key USP, but it can also serve to make brands seem bigger than they really are, instilling a sense of authority and stature.

TV has many properties that put it at the heart of advertising effectiveness but ultimately, its ability to engage and stir the emotions make it truly unique.