Watch: How Digital-First Brands Win on TV

Anyone heard that TV's dead? 

Then why are digital-first brands flocking to the channel?  

The channel that once felt expensive and unmeasurable is now driving serious growth for companies that crack the code. At CommerceNext's 2025 Growth Show in New York, Marketing Architects CEO Angela Voss and Trust & Will CEO Cody Barbo revealed strategies that separate TV success stories from expensive failures. 

 

Never rely on a single measurement model. 

TV is notoriously hard to measure. Our survey found marketers rank linear TV as the most difficult marketing channel to measure. CTV comes in third. 

But difficult doesn't mean impossible. 

The brands winning with TV think about it as a full-funnel channel that drives both short-term sales impact and long-term brand demand generation. The IPA's "Long and the Short of It" proves the importance of delivering immediate response while building lasting brand equity. 

Smart TV advertisers triangulate performance through micro attribution, spot-based analysis, media mix modeling, geo market holdouts, and more. Because “all models are wrong, but some are useful.”  

 

Say goodbye to traditional creative formulas. 

Nearly half of US TV ads evoke neutrality. They leave viewers feeling... nothing.  

That's a massive missed opportunity. Creative's effect is two and a half times greater than marketers estimate. Nielsen attributes 37% of sales lift to creative alone. 

Effective TV creative has two jobs:  

1. Drive immediate sales. 

2. Create memorable brand experiences through emotion.  

The most successful spots evoke happiness, nostalgia, or surprise while generating immediate response. 

So tell human stories. Use relatable characters and conflict, just like a movie compressed into 30 seconds. Trust & Will demonstrates this with their "Make It Count" campaign. 

 

Combine linear and CTV for better results. 

The lines between linear and streaming TV are blurring. 74% of households watch both linear and streaming television, while only 13% watch linear exclusively and 11% watch streaming only. 

Viewers don't care how content is delivered. They're seeking entertainment across platforms. Yet too many brands still silo their linear and CTV strategies, missing clear advantages of a unified approach. 

73% of marketers already using television agree that linear and CTV work better together. Consistent creative across both platforms strengthens brand recognition and ensures cohesive messaging regardless of how viewers consume content. 

The strategic benefits are clear. Linear TV offers lower CPMs for broad reach, while CTV provides precise retargeting capabilities. Use linear to generate website visits, then deploy CTV to retarget visitors who aren't ready to purchase immediately. And consistent creative across both platforms strengthens brand recognition and ensures cohesive messaging no matter how people consume content. 

 

TV’s future is brighter than you think. 

Despite rumors of TV's death, 78% of marketers believe the channel's effectiveness will hold steady or grow in coming years. And as fewer brands invest in television, the channel becomes more efficient for those smart enough to stay. 

For digital-first brands ready to scale beyond performance marketing constraints, TV offers unmatched opportunities for growth. The brands winning aren't the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones approaching TV with the right measurement frameworks, creative strategies, and channel integration.